The Denver Mines

Reprinted from "Crown Jewels of the Wire", February 1989, page 13

About a month ago, a friend came to visit and talk "Denvers" (Denver glass insulators)...and brought some photos from a recent field trip. He had been doing some exploring around an old mining operation and stumbled onto a small power substation that had been abandoned almost 30 years ago. "We've since learned that the site was built in 1928...with the mines dating back into the 1800's).

The power lines leading from the power plant were strung on sets of Hemingray-62's.....

and also Pyrex 233's.......

The real surprise was a pair of porcelain signs which were laying near the site. They had the familiar looking skull and crossbones that we remembered seeing on the cover of Crown Jewels of the Wire. He gave us one of these signs for a souvenir and invited our family to head back for a more thorough look. Needless to say, we couldn't wait... 

By the time the trip got organized, we had taken on a few more explorers. A long time collector and his uncle joined my wife, two sons, our daughter and I for a trek with our guide. From the description we got of the approach to the mines I was beginning to wonder if we should be doing daily calisthenics to prepare for the hike... I breathed a little sigh of relief when I found out that 78-year old "Uncle John" was going along. Little did I know that he was a semi-native Coloradoan who loves to hike in the mountains!

The anticipation made it easy to pull ourselves out of the sack bright and early. Actually it wasn't too bright as we left well before sunrise and drove almost four hours to get there...but the ride was well worth it. We were at almost ten thousand feet elevation and the aspen were turning a bright gold and yellow. The mines were built into the side of a steep canyon with a small river winding its way out of site in both directions. We broke up into two groups. Our guide took my boys... the brave members of the family... and made the approach from the top while the rest of us drove a couple of miles down the road to an old railroad line that led to the mines from the bottom of the canyon. 

The top route led down what was left of a set of rails that dropped down to the substation at about a 45 degree angle. At several points the rails just disappeared over the edge in front of them. The descent was steep and each step very carefully planned. Some of the wooden ties for the rail were still in place and made for good footing, but much of the time was spent sliding down the rocky hillside. Along the way were power poles that were used to feed the motors that pulled the cars up the steep incline. As expected, it turned out to be the quickest way to go and they were at the site long before the "track gang."

The trip down from the top

The walk along the tracks, however, was quite a treat. In the mile and a half walk, we passed 7 or 8 old mines that were built into the mountainside above the tracks. Each mine had a tramway that led down to a wooden structure next to the tracks. The raw ore was brought down via the tramway and dumped into waiting ore cars for transport to the mill where the ore would be processed to remove as much of the waste as possible before shipping it to the smelters. Some of the wooden structures, that were built to keep diggings from the mines from sliding down on the tracks, seemed to be straining from years of hard work holding back tons of rock. As we walked along my mind was filled with wonder. Wondering at how they managed to build those structures on the side of the steep slopes...and wondering if they would pick today to finally give way and shower us with boulders!

Loading platforms along the tracks

About halfway to the power station, we saw the first sign of an old phone line. The line had been strung along steel pipes that were anchored in solid rock on the hillside. The poles were about eight feel tall and 2 inches in diameter and spaced about 100 feet apart. Only one pole still had a crossarm with eight empty pins. From pieces of glass we found around the poles, it appears that there were green Star beehives and 1907 spiral grooves (CD 147) used on the line. Some of the mines had lines running up to them, but we had to save the climb up the side of the mountain for another trip. I waited to take a photo of the poles until we came back...and ran out of film!

By the time we got to the substation, the mountain climber and the boys were already there and holding some of the Hemingray cables that they had found. A couple of the cables were embossed with the misspelling "HEMINGAY" and were a nice dark blue color. (We call it "Hemingray-blue"). I wanted to look around the hillside, but the "hill gang" kept trying to coax me into one of the buildings next to the power plant. When I finally stopped gawking at the layout, I wandered up the walkway to the building. About halfway, I stopped short of a neatly arranged set of porcelain skulls and lightning bolts staring at my feet. The guys had found them next to the spot where the first two were and laid them out on the walkway. They thought it would be a great practical joke to let us discover them for a second time! Fortunately, I didn't step on their little skull welcome mats.....!

A Pyrex 233 flanked by two electric warning signs.

We spent the next couple of hours exploring the old power plant and some of the abandoned buildings....trying to picture what it must have been like when it was in full operation. Inside the power plant we could hear the river rushing beneath us. The original turbines and other heavy equipment were still there and poised for action. It seemed that if you found the right switch you could crank them up and listen to the whine as they powered up the mines again... In one of the buildings we found discarded pages from old logs that verify that the power plant was built in 1928 and abandoned sometime in the early 70's. We even found some of the original requisitions for the Hemingray insulators (didn't find any for Hemingays...) Outside were neat little rows of Pyrex insulators forming a resting place for a maze of heavy cables and connectors. You could see wires running up the mountainside in all directions where they powered the once booming operation. 

Well it was getting late, the clouds had been thickening all day and we still had a pretty long trek back, so we reluctantly started down the tracks. Every mine that we passed seemed to be begging for someone to come up and explore...but that will have to wait for another day. By the time our tired crew got back to the cars it was beginning to rain and continued all the way back down from the mountains. It was perfect weather.. ..for dreaming about our high-country adventure.