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.All Trips / Alaska / North America
A Visit to the Historic Gold-mining town of Hope, Alaska
The village of Hope lies at the northern end of the Kenai Peninsula, on the south shore of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. You can reach this community by driving the 17-mile (27 km) Hope Highway, a branch off the Seward Highway, so it’s a place you need to make an effort to visit. But the drive is nice and you’ll find a pleasant town at the end of the trip.
The first gold rush in Alaska happened right here in Hope — a few years before the Klondike and Nome goldrushes. News of the gold find in Hope reached Seattle and in 1895 some 3,000 stampeders arrived to make their fortune, many of them rowing part of the way …
“Pic of the Week”, May 10, 2019: Miners’ Union Hall, Canmore
The first Europeans to live and work in the Rocky Mountains were hunters and miners. Canada’s Rocky mountains are rich in minerals and the Canmore region — just south of Banff — has especially good coal deposits.
The Canmore Miners’ Union Hall has been part of this community for more than a century and the building is one of the oldest in the town. Completed in 1913, it was built to serve as the union office for local coal miners. The building was one of the first in town to have electric lights. The miners union helped improve working conditions, safety and miners’ wages.
Coal mining has ceased in Alberta and the mining jobs have also disappeared, so there is no need for a …
May 9, 2019
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.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America
Walking Main Street in Gold Hill, Colorado
There are many mining towns in the Colorado Rockies, one of the most interesting being Gold Hill. This town is located in the mountains northwest of Boulder at an elevation of 8,300 feet (2530 m). A scenic drive, most of it on gravel roads, leads you through the transition of the great plains to the foothills, with the grand peaks of the Rockies visible at some distance to the west.
Gold was discovered by a group of prospectors in a small stream near the town site in January 1859. This stream was named Gold Run and in March of that year, the first mining district in the Nebraska Territory was created (Colorado had not yet been granted statehood). The site and …
Tagged gold, Gold Hill, Main Street, mining
“Pic of the Week”, June 15, 2018: An Interesting Shed, Gold Hill, Colorado
My eye was drawn to this old shed situated in someone’s back yard in the historic mining town of Gold Hill. The town is not far from Boulder, is charming and visiting it is much like stepping into the past.
I have to admit, I would love to own a shed like this, wheels, bed frame, antlers, ads and all!
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance)
Jun 14, 2018
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.All Trips / Central USA / Montana / North America
Signs of Butte
Often in my travels I wish I could see a destination as it was years before I’ve gotten there — that I had access to H.G. Wells’ Time Machine so I could select exactly when to drop into a city or town. In the case of Butte, Montana, I would set that Time Machine for circa 1900. What a grand city I’d find when I arrived! One of the largest, most developed new cities of the American West, with beautiful lavish hotels, elegant restaurants, theaters and other attractions, Butte was the place to be! Funded by the wealth harvested from the mines of the “Richest Hill on Earth”, Butte was booming.
Jump forward a century and what you find is quite different. Most …
.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America
National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is the highest altitude town to be occupied year round in the United States, situated at 3094 m (10,592 ft) above sea level. The area was a booming silver mining town in the late 19th century and while the mining era is all but over, relics of it are still plentiful around Leadville.
The National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum (NMHFM) offers an interesting look at the geology and mining of the region, and its Hall of Fame portion recognizes the men and women who were important mining pioneers. A relatively new institution, the nonprofit NMHFM was founded in 1977 and the building it occupies renovated in 1987. Initially it was to be on the grounds of the Colorado …
.All Trips / Central USA / Montana / North America
Butte, Montana’s Hole in the Ground: A visit to the Berkeley Pit
When most people think of Montana, images of mountains or “Big Sky country” or wildlife spring to mind. Usually you don’t think of a massive hole in the ground, but a destination of interest is the Berkeley Pit, a now closed open-pit copper mine in the historic town of Butte.
By the end of the 19th century, mines around Butte had yielded a lot of gold, silver and copper, earning the town the nickname, “richest hill on earth”. As electricity demand across America increased and more wiring was needed, the growing demand for copper made Butte a boom-town in the early 20th century. Copper mining in Butte historically had required a complex network of underground drains and pumps to lower the …
Tagged Berkeley pit, Butte, mine, mining
.All Trips / Central USA / Colorado / North America
Silver Plume, Colorado
I love going on leisurely road trips — the kind where you’ve several spare hours to pull over somewhere and explore. If a place seems interesting, I like to check it out.
So it was this past summer while we were visiting Colorado. We were heading east to Boulder, with a planned stop for lunch in Georgetown, and were cruising on I-70. We starting to look for the Georgetown exit when immediately ahead was an exit for “Silver Plume”. Great name, got to explore it!
Silver Plume is located in Clear Creek County and is a former silver mining town. It’s just 46 miles (74 km) from Denver, but worlds apart from that huge busy city. The town is situated along gushing Clear Creek …
Tagged Georgetown, mining, Silver Plume
