By Linda Jones
After more than 40 years the “Sentinel on the Hill,” the red mine shaft-house high above Main Street in Central City, is again open for tours.
“I always know I’m home when I see it,” said a longtime resident of Central City.
The mine’s prominent red shaft-house wasn’t always standing tall. In the late 1980s the weather-beaten and leaning landmark finally collapsed after a heavy snowfall. At the time, the Central City Opera owned the mine. Effie Jenks, a strong supporter of the opera in the mid-20th century, donated the mine to that organization after WWII with the stipulation it never again be used for commercial production.
A rail car frame sits alongside the Coeur d’Alene Mine, which can be seen during the tour – now through Sept. 6.
In 1949, the CCO dedicated the building as a mining museum and operated tours between 1949 and the late 1960s. During the next decades the shaft house deteriorated dramatically and in November 1986, a combination of snow and wind proved fatal to the dilapidated structure. Soon after, the CCO deeded the property to its present owners, the Gilpin County Historical Society.
Gambling taxes funded the honored restoration of the structure. A $100,000 grant, funded jointly by the City of Central and the State Historical Fund, funded the complete restoration of the beloved landmark, with her distinctive red paint and white lettering. When the shaft-house was restored in 1994 it was awarded a plaque as “Restoration of the Year” by the Colorado Historical Society.
Although the mine was not the first or the richest mine in the famed gold district, she has remained one of the most visible symbols of the bonanza created here in the 10th richest mining district in America. Between 1859, when John Gregory discovered gold near Black Hawk, through the 1930s, Gilpin County produced 4.5 million ounces of gold, exceeding $5,449,500,000 in current gold prices.
The Central City Register reported in 1875, “Since mining was started in Gilpin County in 1859, covering a period of 16 years, the lode locations in the county total 22,000, as shown on the books of the clerk and recorder.”
This is an astronomical number of mines for such a small county; Gilpin only covers 149 square miles, approximately 12 miles by 12 miles.
Most of the visible reminders of this rich mining heritage are gone. The mammoth mills and smelters that lined North Clear Creek in Black Hawk have been felled by weather, the drives for scrap metal in WWII or vandals. The shaft houses of thousands of mines are likewise gone, victims of fire, vandalism or scrap drives. Yet the noble sentinel on Academy Hill has remained through all the booms and busts.
The Coeur d’Alene Mine features many old tools/equipment used during its mining days in Central City.
The Coeur d’Alene’s patent number, #30029, was issued to a woman, Catharine Cameron, in 1884. A clipping from March 1885, reported the shaft house was already being enlarged and the shaft re-timbered, preparatory to sinking it an additional 300 feet. The mine was worked periodically from its beginning into the 1940s. Tunnels from the main shaft were dug at depths of 200, 400, 450, 550, 600 and 700 feet.
A body of ore was worked on the 600-foot level that was “10 feet wide,” according to reports at the time. According to a U.S. Geological Services report, “the disseminated ore reportedly averaged 2 ounces of gold per ton,” a very respectable figure. Silver, copper and lead were also taken from the mine. According to a U.S. Bureau of Mines report, dated April 15, 1915, nine men were employed at the mine and the highest hourly pay was $3.50 per eight-hour day. The same report describes the mine succinctly.
“The engine room, working shaft, smith’s shop and furnace room are all under one roof….The average amount of explosives kept in storage is 1,000 pounds. The magazine dugout has iron doors and is 100 feet south of the shaft house. The shaft contains two compartments, used for a ladder-way and a bucket-way, respectively. Each compartment is 4 feet by 4 feet,” according to the report.
Peter McFarlane manufactured the gear hoist, used to raise and lower ore and men, in his foundry on Eureka Street. A maximum ore load was 1,000 pounds, and no more than three men were permitted to ride in the bucket at one time. The underground tramming (loading ore in the cars) was all by hand and the tracks were 18-inch gauge. The Bureau of Mines provided precise measurements of all the underground work: 900 feet in shafts, 1,200 feet in drifts (tunnels), 60 feet in crosscuts and 200 feet in upraises. Carbide lamps and candles were used for lighting underground.
Terrible accident in 1940
Through many decades of mining the Coeur d’Alene had never been the site of a fatal accident until 1940, when an explosion killed the elected leader of the city below. Charles Richards had first been elected mayor in 1936 and was serving his second term when he was killed; his position at the time was superintendent of the mine.
It was a freak accident, even for a mine. Richards was trimming blasting caps while sitting on the workbench, with a box of blasting caps yet to trim on the floor in front of him. Another miner began sharpening a shovel on a grindstone nearby. A spark fell into the box of caps. The resulting blast blew countless holes in the superintendent’s face and throat; he lived only a few days.
Tours May 29 – Sept. 6
Visitors will be able to tour this shaft-house, including the hoist platform and boilers for heating water to create steam to operate equipment. Tours will be given on Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., now through Sept. 6. To reach the Coeur d’Alene, drive up the Central City Parkway south from Central City to the Nevadaville Road; follow it to the second right, marked by a sign “To Memorial.” The paving ends and a dirt road leads to the mine a few hundred feet ahead.
