The Mollie Kathleen Mine in Cripple Creek, Colorado is an old hard rock gold mine that has been open for tours for many decades. Gold ore isn’t pulled out of the ground here anymore but you can go on a pretty good tour.
Old steam engine sitting in the yard.
Hoisting cable.
Old lathe that was belt-powered.
Big old winch motors.
One of the old processing facilities on the mine site.
The winch room. Yes, he was hitting on something with a hammer.
The backup generator.
Ready to go down into the mine.
Loading people onto the cars.
Down in the touristic part of the mine shaft.
The tour was at the 1000 foot level of the mine.
A muck loading rig.
Demonstration of the muck loading rig.
Random ore cart.
Drill mounted to a pole.
Mockup of a blasting pattern.
A one person drill.
Miners chased a vein uward here.
Minerals precipitating in the tunnel wall.
Vertical drill in action.
Lots of pretty minerals in the tunnel roof.
Some info on mine donkeys and also a demonstration of the tool puller.
Riding on the tram-air-locomotive.
All aboard the tram-air-locomotive!
The tram-air-locomotive heads back to the starting point on its own.
The old machine shop in the mine.
A deep vein that the miners followed down.
An old mining tip in action.
An old muck scooper.
This crosscut heads down to another mine.
An old rest area for miners.
Signal bells for the lift.
Heading up in the car all sandwiched in.
The top car being unloaded.