A VISIT TO THE WESTERN MUSEUM OF MINING AND INDUSTRY

The wild west was known for a ruthless lifestyle. Ever since the 1849 gold strike in Sutter's Mill, California, many men came to the west to search for their pot of gold. Miners were a hearty breed. When miners made claims on land in an area, soon pioneers would build towns to provide the necessary essentials for life in the west. This included general stores for food and other necessities, restaurants, saloons, bath houses, and churches. When the mining ran dry, the towns would soon become ghost towns.  

We traveled to Colorado Springs to learn about the history of mining in the west. The closest gold strike to Colorado Springs was in Cripple Creek, Colorado, just southwest of Colorado Springs.

After taking a guided tour of the museum, it was time for us to explore on our own. Paul is panning for gold the old fashioned way. Unfortunately, no gold found today. This was a very slow process and required a lot of patience.

A more advanced method of searching for gold was to use a rocker. A prospector would rock this device from side-to-side as the water flowed down the trough. Any gold would be found in the crevices between the staggered boards on the ramp.

Our guide explained sub-surface mining in detail while we viewed many artifacts on exhibit. The mining was done for all types of hard minerals which were later separated after being brought to the surface. Gold, silver, nickel, zinc, iron, copper, and lead were some of the minerals sought after. This rendering of a mine shows the mine shaft on the right with the mining being done from the lowest level in the mine working upwards. 

Water would seep into the mine shaft from the sides of the rock. The shaft on the left was used to draw the water up to the surface from the mine below.  

Ore carts such as this one were used to haul the ore from down in the mine. A miner would be expected to push 16 carts of ore, each cart weighing a ton, to the elevator shaft during a workday. Was this one of the first uses of pay by piecework? Later mules were used to haul the carts, increase in efficiency, as a mule could pull 3 carts at a time. 

The ore was put into buckets and hoisted to the surface by the machine on the left. The same buckets, like this one from the Morning Glory mine, were also used to lower the miners into the mine shaft each day for their 12 to 16 hour shift. The miners would have to take everything they needed with them when they were lowered into the mine. This included their lunch and any supplies needed such as mallets, blasting caps, and a rationed 3 candles for light. Remember, there was no electricity down in the mines.

A brass tag system was used to account for each miner during the day. The miner would take his numbered brass tag off the rack before going down the shaft and put it in his pocket.  At the end of his shift, he would hang the tag back on the rack when he returned. If a tag was missing after a shift, a search party would be formed to find the missing miner.

The tour concluded with our guide demonstrating various steam engines used in both mining and other industries with a connection made to the industrial revolution between about 1760 and the early 1800's. We were impressed that machines of this magnitude were around in the late 1700's. There were machines of all sizes using various wheels, pulley systems with belts, and even self oiling machines towards the early 1800's.

The minerals found in mines are used in our every day life. Did you know over 46,000 pounds of new minerals are needed every year for every person in the United States to make the things we use every day? For example, nearly 12,000 pounds of stone are used to make roads, buildings, bridges, and nearly 9,000 pounds of sand & gravel are used to make concrete, asphalt, roads, bricks and cement blocks.  This is PER PERSON.   

Specifically, most of the materials used to build your house come from a mine. So does your car, the roads you drive on, the fuel you put in your car, your computer, iPod, TV's and everything else that uses electricity.

When we entered the parking lot we saw this sign.

Burros were often a symbol of mining since mule power was first used by miners. After our tour, we were able to meet Nugget and Chism. We are uncertain which burro is posing with Paul for the photo.

 

We learned a lot about mining history as it advance through the last few hundred years and enjoyed viewing all the artifacts that helped explain the mining process and how it grew in the US.