Mary Murphy Mine – Not Your Average Engineer

The old Mary Murphy Mine has an extensive and well-preserved tramway system for hauling ore from the upper diggings down to the site of the former ore processing mill. The towers still stand in the forest as you head up the access road to the lower portion of the mine.

A Honeybadger and a few land cruisers heading up the hill.

Up at the lower part of the Mary Murphy Mine. There are many buildings that are surprisingly intact.

The old middle terminal on the ore tramway.

Looking into one of the buildings near the road. Sooner or later this will collapse.

At one time, this probably was offices for the mine.

Time to check out the ore tramway terminal! Ore would come down from the upper diggings to this terminal, dump out into a chute, and then be loaded into other tram cars that would take it down the mountain to the mill.

Travis and I went inside to check out the old workings. It’s basically an old school ski lift setup.

The business end of the drive system. This would have been powered by a steam piston and big leather drive belts.

The cable gets clamped by these teeth to pull it around the wheel.

Looking up toward the ore dump for the upper tramway.

Travis scoping stuff out. The building appears in remarkably good shape in this part although the floor is getting unstable. In another few years, this building will probably also collapse.

This is a small creek running alongside the tramway terminal. The rocks outside of the creek aren’t that color. There is some nasty stuff coming out of the old tunnels of the Mary Murphy Mine. I most certainly wouldn’t drink this water.

The creek in question.

The back side of the old tramway terminal isn’t holding up so well. It will probably collapse in a few more years.

The roof already caved in many years ago.

Heading back down toward St. Elmo. The big structure on the left is one of the tramway pylons.

Down the road further, we spotted this neat old railroad bridge.

At one point you could drive a car across it but now the road bypasses the bridge below.

As part of the annual Rising Sun 4×4 Club Ghost Town Run, we went out to the St. Elmo-Pitkin area just south of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness to do some outstanding 4x4ing. From our base camp up the creek from Pitkin, we headed up and over Hancock Pass toward St. Elmo. On our way up the old Alpine Tunnel rail grade we passed one of several old water towers.

One of the big loops on the railroad at the spot that the road to Hancock Pass turns off. The road to the Alpine Tunnel is closed now due to rock fall and a washout. Hopefully soon the Forest Service or a volunteer group will repair and reopen that road.

Heading up the old road.

Beautiful views.

At a tight switchback.

Almost to the top!

Looking back down the pass.

Up on top of Hancock Pass, we could look to the south toward Tomichi Pass (which we did the next day) and see the shelf road that is starting to fall off the side of the mountain.

We saw an adorable little pika in the rocks at the top of Hancock Pass.

There’s that crazy shelf road that has 30-35 degree off-camber slopes. In a few more years, it will be impassable.

The Honey Badger up on Hancock Pass.

A few Land Cruisers at the pass.

Beautiful area!

Heading down toward St. Elmo.

This stretch was particularly beautiful with lush wildflowers.

Lots of color on this north-facing slope.

The old tram terminal from the Mary Murphy Mine is getting more precarious by the year. Someday it will end up in the road or maybe it will end up on the other side of the road.

No joke that this thing is unstable!