The ghost town of Ironton.

[Rogerson785]

This was taken about ten miles south of Ouray, Co., and a little south of the ghost town of Ironton. The river runs red because of the iron oxide and other minerals that were left in the waste rock or tailing of the mine Yankee Girl as well as the numerous other mines in the area. At the time I thought that this would be my most interesting day but I would be proven wrong when I spent the night in Leadville and drove the Route of the Silver Kings the following morning. More pictures to follow of my vacation.

















As you descend down HWY 550 north this is the site that greets you as you get closer to the town of Ouray.


All cleaned up for my 42nd birthday after hiking through old mining ghost towns, driving in four wheel drive and eating dust from the trail.

[Rollo]

Very strange !

[McMurdo]

Great photos Chris looking forward to the rest of them.

[GMan]

I have hiked all over that area, and simply love it. One quick question, is the last picture from the BonTon in Ouray?

[SFCRick]

very nice photos

[pdcorlis]

Boy does THAT look familiar! I live 30 miles from Idaho's Silver Valley - Wallace, Kellogg, Smelterville - the richest silver deposit on the face of the earth. Loads of old mine heads and plenty of towns and ghost towns and rusty streams...

Great photos and Happy Birthday!

[Chas]

That picture of Ouray looks like it was a toy town compared with the mountains surrounding it.

Great pictures again Chris - Thank You.

Regards

Chas

[Riverkilt]

Hey how cool is that!!??

I worked in the Idarado back in 1963 - wandered those hundreds of miles of tunnels as a sample boy and mine engineer's assistant (Rodman).

Did you happen to notice the Saltire flying from the first house at the bottom of the hill in Ouray - south end of main street, east side?

Some of the guys I worked with underground in the Idarado have thier names on the Miner's Memorial by the city pool. The statue is just what they looked like back in the day. We really did carry candles to check for bad air - had too. Some of the old timbers in the early drifts were 100 years old and their decomposition created unbreatheable air. Most of those areas were sealed off...but you never know.

Great times back then...even if we had no clue what we were doing environmentally.

You could take the tunnels all the way from Red Mountain, where your pics are from, through the mountain to above Telluride where they sent the ore down to be crushed.

An amazing mine - I would be six miles in, a half mile deep, and still 10,000 feet above sea level. It was dark and it was always wet...like being in a constant rain storm...but sure was beautiful in the stopes where you could see the ore and the crystals.

Up on the high levels where it was freezing cold there's be walls of elegant ice crystals as big as your hand, but so transparent there was no way to photograph them.

And some of those high level portals opened out onto beautiful remote alpine lakes and fields of wildflowers.

Thanks for them pics for sure.

Ron

[Ancienne Alliance]

Impressive !


Best,

Robert

[Rob]

Those are great photos, which bring back memories of when I toured the area in 1981.