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The Argo Gold Mine and Mill is a former gold mining and milling property in
The Argo Mill is open all year for tours, weather permitting. Visitors are provided with a brief history movie, an ore sample and mining equipment demonstration, a tour of the now-reopened tunnel entrance, and a descending tour of the mill structure and extant equipment including gravity separators, amalgamation trays, and froth flotation cells. An indoor museum on the bottom level includes many mining artifacts. An outdoor museum, partly visible from the street, includes larger period equipment used in various stages of extraction, separation, and smelting. A
Historic Argo Tours
{{National Register of Historic Places Gold mining in Colorado Mining museums in Colorado Museums in Clear Creek County, Colorado Underground mines in the United States Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Buildings and structures in Clear Creek County, Colorado 1912 establishments in Colorado 1943 disestablishments in Colorado Defunct companies based in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Clear Creek County, Colorado
Idaho Springs, Colorado
The City of Idaho Springs is the Statutory City that is the most populous municipality in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Idaho Springs is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 ...
, featuring an intact gold mill built at the entrance of the Argo Tunnel
In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sou ...
. The tunnel was built between 1893 and 1910 to drain the gold mines in Virginia Canyon, Gilpin Gulch, Russell Gulch, Quartz Hill, Nevadaville, and Central City
In urban planning, a core city, principal city metropolitan core, or central city, is the largest or most important city or cities of a metropolitan area. A core city is surrounded by smaller satellite cities, towns, and suburbs. A central city i ...
and allow easier ore removal. The success of the tunnel as an access route meant that a large volume of ore began exiting at the Idaho Springs entrance and a large mill was built to process it. At the time it was one of the largest such tunnels and milling operations in the world, directly recovering nearly $100 million in gold (11.2 million ounces) valued in 2023 at $10.1 trillion "Historic Gold Prices 1833 pres.pdf", accessed 2023-02-25, https://nma.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/historic_gold_prices_1833_pres.pdf; and "Gold Prices- 100 Year Historical Chart", accessed 2023-02-25, https://www.macrotrends.net/1333/historical-gold-prices-100-year-chart. They also sent another $200 million of high-value ores to smelters in Denver.
The property was closed in January 1943 after a major hydraulic accident in the tunnel, and never reopened after a federal moratorium was placed on gold mining during World War II. In 1976 it was purchased by a local investment group led by James N. Maxwell, who wanted to preserve an example of the Colorado gold rush mines. It was renovated and reopened as a tourist attraction and mining museum, and presently continues to offer daily tours. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in January 1978.
Present day
The Argo Mill is open all year for tours, weather permitting. Visitors are provided with a brief history movie, an ore sample and mining equipment demonstration, a tour of the now-reopened tunnel entrance, and a descending tour of the mill structure and extant equipment including gravity separators, amalgamation trays, and froth flotation cells. An indoor museum on the bottom level includes many mining artifacts. An outdoor museum, partly visible from the street, includes larger period equipment used in various stages of extraction, separation, and smelting. A gold panning
Gold panning, or simply ''panning'', is a form of placer mining and traditional mining that extracts gold from a placer deposit using a pan. The process is one of the simplest ways to extract gold, and is popular with geology enthusiasts especi ...
experience is provided to tour visitors. The outdoor museum and gold panning can also be experienced as a stand-alone attraction.
See also
*National Register of Historic Places listings in Clear Creek County, Colorado
__NOTOC__
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clear Creek County, Colorado.
This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Clear Creek Coun ...
References
External links
Historic Argo Tours
{{National Register of Historic Places Gold mining in Colorado Mining museums in Colorado Museums in Clear Creek County, Colorado Underground mines in the United States Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado Buildings and structures in Clear Creek County, Colorado 1912 establishments in Colorado 1943 disestablishments in Colorado Defunct companies based in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Clear Creek County, Colorado