WELCOME

We are returning to Colorado! There is still plenty of Colorado mining history to be explored by the Mining History Association. Gunnison, Colorado will be our host city for the 35^th Annual Conference on June 11-15, 2025. The venue for the conference will be the Western Colorado University (WCU). The technical sessions will be held in the WCU Center Theater and the Presidential Luncheon will take place in the WCU Ballroom. The Conference Reception will be held at the Pioneer Museum. The Awards Banquet will be held in the Palisades Restaurant in Gunnison.

GUNNISON COUNTRY MINING HISTORY

The importance of minerals from the Gunnison River headwaters in the late 19^th-century cannot be overemphasized.  Gold and silver brought the first prospectors into Ute lands on Colorado's Western Slope, including the 1874 party of the infamous Alfred (“Alferd”) Packer.  After being trapped in winter on a plateau near Lake San Cristobal, only Packer walked out to the nearest settlement.  Upon investigation by authorities, he ultimately became the only man ever convicted of cannibalism in Colorado history.  The location of the Hinsdale County crime is still named the Cannibal Plateau and the restaurant in the student union at the University of Colorado in Boulder was renamed by students in a landslide 1968 vote the “Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill” – “where you can have a friend for lunch!”

The region not only mined precious metals, but also provided the gray Aberdeen granite for the Colorado State Capitol and the white Yule marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  For 75 years, it was a major metallurgical-coal mining district for the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, so important to CF&I that the mine at Crested Butte was called simply "The Big Mine".  In 1952, coal mining ended in the Gunnison Valley just as a new boom began--uranium!  The ore was mined near Cochetopa Canyon and Sargents, then milled in Gunnison near the location of the current Gunnison County Airport.  Shortly after the uranium bust, a new mineral was discovered just west of Crested Butte at Mt. Emmons--molybdenum.  Opposition during the 1970s by locals in the by-then ski town of Crested Butte ended the Climax Molybdenum project before it began.  However, Climax’s successor, Freeport-McMoRan, is still operating a remediation system to treat acid mine drainage from the old Keystone silver mine on Mt. Emmons. In the 1990s, the DOE Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Program excavated the Gunnison mill tailings and buried them in a lined, low-level waste repository 7 miles southeast of town.  And, though no surface structures remain, the Big Mine Ice Arena in Crested Butte commemorates the mine at the location of its portal.

The town of Gunnison developed as the center of commerce for the many mining districts and locus of two narrow-gauge railroad lines from the 1880s to the 1950s.  In 1880, there were no railroads west of the Continental Divide in Colorado.  Only two years later, Gunnison had two railroads–the Denver & Rio Grande Western from Salida over 10,800’ Marshall Pass and the Denver, South Park & Pacific through the 11,600’ Alpine Tunnel, the world’s highest at that time.  Both 3’ narrow-gauge railroads were pushing toward the rich gold and silver districts of the San Juan Mountains, but only one would make it.  For the DSP&P, Gunnison was the end-of-the-line, while the D&RGW continued to haul passengers through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison until 1949 and coal from Crested Butte to Pueblo until 1952.

Today, the region's mining past can be seen in Lake City, Pitkin, Crested Butte, Ruby-Irwin, Gothic, Tincup, Anthracite, Quartz, Crystal, Whitepine, and Powderhorn and in railroad towns like Gunnison, Sargents, and Cimarron. And in its people, many descended from those prospectors, metal miners, and coal miners, even in the ski resort town of Crested Butte.

ACCOMODATIONS

A block of rooms will be reserved at the Comfort Inn and Wingate Inn in Gunnison.

TRANSPORTATION

BY AIR. Gunnison is located in central Colorado. The Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC) is served by Sky West Airlines, a United Airlines affiliate. There are two flights each day from Denver International Airport (DEN).  Rental cars are available at GUC.

For many from out-of-state, the Denver International Airport (DEN) provides the most convenient mode of transportation to Colorado.  Rental car provides transport for the rest of the journey to Gunnison. 

United, American, and Delta Airlines fly into Grand Junction (GJT).  Several rental car companies are available to provide transportation to Gunnison.

Another possible destination from which one can drive to Gunnison is the Colorado Springs Airport (COS).

BY AUTOMOBILE. Gunnison is located on highway U.S. 50.  To reach U.S. 50 from Denver, one has several options which pass through historic Colorado Mining Country and locations in which past MHA conferences were held.

This writer’s favorite route to Gunnison is via scenic U.S. 285 from Denver via Fairplay and Buena Vista and on to U.S. 50 just west of Salida.

By travelling a bit farther west on I70, at Copper Mountain, one can take CO 91 to Climax and Leadville and then join Route 285 at Buena Vista and on to U.S. 50 just west of Salida where you join U.S. 50.  Gilman can be reached from Leadville via U.S. 24.

From Grand Junction, U.S. 50 goes directly to Gunnison via Montrose and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.  A more scenic route from Grand Junction to Gunnison is via CO 65, the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway, and CO 92/U.S. 50 to Gunnison.  Grand Mesa is the world’s largest flat-top mountain, with huge aspen forests and dozens of mountain lakes.  It also travels through the vineyards and orchards of the Palisade and Cedaredge areas.

NOTE: Structural repairs on the two U.S. 50 Blue Mesa Reservoir bridges are now complete and the bridges are open to all traffic.

From Colorado Springs, one can take U.S. 24 to Buena Vista where it joins U.S.285 to U.S. 50 just west of Salida. Pike’s Peak, Cripple Creek and Victor are west of Colorado Springs and south of U.S. 24.  An alternate route takes one via CO 115 and joins CO 50 near Canon City and scenic Royal Gorge.

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FOR AN ENLARGED VIEW

Western Colorado University.