Our group is shrinking! Bill & Debbie like hiking the trails much more than driving them so they joined us this morning just long enough to get to a good hike. Rick left for home this morning, as did Mike and Lynn. We added John S for one day and then he will head back to Denver.
We explored Governor and Yankee Boy Basin this morning. Governor Basin took us past Atlas Mill, Virginius Mine and Revenue Tunnel which opened in the late 1800’s and was still producing up to 1948 and appears to be operating today, and ended at Mountain Top Mine where a boarding house built in 1912 is still standing, sort of. It would have housed 30-50 men. In 1922 it was the largest employer in Ouray County but went bankrupt in 1924. It was worked off and on until 1996 and it may be open again today.
There were several hundred mines in Yankee Boy Basin. The Ruby Trust Mine produced silver from the 1880’s to 1893 and then again in the 1980’s. It appeared to have some activity around it today. The Camp Bird Mine was discovered in 1896 and sold in 1902 for $5.2 million and had made $26.2 million by the time in closed in 1911. The owner treated his miners well with advance comforts such as hot running water, steam heat and electric lights. They also only had to work an 8-hour day as apposed to 12 hours for other miners. The Yankee Boy Mine is where the first gold was discovered in 1875.
We had a nice lunch along a babbling stream with views up and down the valley and towered over by a lovely tree-topped mountain. As we had a short day, several of us stopped at the Ouray Brewery for a beer and tall tales.
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