Re: The Silverton RR

I got some of Red Mountain townsite and the National Belle Mine + a few of Ironton from last year. We almost made it to the Yankee Girl but the road was too wet for our SUV.

National Belle Mine headframe (there used to be a shaft house here)




Red Mountain Town from the top of the National Belle tailings, there wasn't much left but the jail and a few dips in the ground where there used to be houses. The ground here was insanely swampy and I'm surprised they moved the town to this location considering they said the old site was too wet. The station and wye used to be where the stream is on the left.



This is the remains of the old stamp mill at the bottom of the tailings pile



looking up the grade to Ironton looking North, the water would permanently stain your shoes or clothes if it touched it



This was near the end of the wye. The last remaining buildings in Red Mountain Town




The full National Belle site from Red Mountain Town, I wish I could have seen her at the height of production a century ago



a foundation, I honestly have no clue how they built a town here as there was a foot of water and mud all along the site of the original main street.



up the hill to the Southeast a bit out of town there was a weird little prospect that was almost a perfect rectangle about 5 feet deep of some of the coldest water I've ever touched in the summer in Colorado. I have no clue how the water just perfectly filled up like this



Back in town, for some reason in the San Juans there are safes just sitting around in the old townsites. I would guess they are from old banks or assay offices but there was nothing else left of the buildings. These were sitting in Ironton, Animas Forks and Red Mountain.



There was another one in worse shape




And my final photo for now as this post has become too big. on the bluff where the National Belle Mine was are a ton of adits. but the most notable was this insanely dangerous open air stope that led very far down



I will share my Ironton photos in another post as there are so many to share and not enough space to be reasonable. I really wish I could be back in the San Juans exploring this area but unfortunately the 1,500 mile drive is a bit much for a short notice trip.