Gilman, Colorado
Encyclopedia
Gilman is an abandoned
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in southeastern Eagle County
Eagle County, Colorado
Eagle County is the thirteenth most populous of the 64 counties of the State of Colorado in the United States. The county is named for the Eagle River. The county population was 41,659 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is the Town of Eagle...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The U.S. Post Office
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
at Minturn
Minturn, Colorado
Minturn is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,068 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Minturn is located at ....
(ZIP Code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
81645) now serves Gilman postal addresses.
Founded in 1886 during the Colorado Silver Boom
Colorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...
, the town later became a center of lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
and zinc
Zinc
Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
mining in Colorado, centered around the now-flooded Eagle Mine. It was abandoned in 1984 by order of the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/sites/co/eaglmine.html because of toxic pollutants, including contamination of the ground water, as well as unprofitability of the mines. It is currently a ghost town
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
on private property and is strictly off limits to the public. At the time of the abandonment, the mining operations were owned by Viacom International
Viacom International
Viacom International, Inc. is a current subsidiary of Viacom .It is the holding company for copyrights associated with Viacom's corporate website and its cable networks, specifically MTV Networks, and is the division which licenses the product rights for their various properties...
. As of 2007, The Ginn Company has plans to build a private ski resort with private home sites across Battle Mountain --- including development at the Gilman townsite. On February 27, 2008 the Minturn Town Council
Minturn, Colorado
Minturn is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,068 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Minturn is located at ....
unanimously approved annexation and development plans for 4300 acres (17.4 km²) of Ginn Resorts’ 1,700-unit
Battle Mountain residential ski and golf resort; Ginn's Battle Mountain development includes much of the old Gilman townsite. On May 20, 2008 the town of Minturn approved the annexation in a public referendum with 87% of the vote.
Description
The town sits at an elevation of 8950 ft (2,700 m) on a dramatic 600-foot (180 m) cliff above the Eagle RiverEagle River (Colorado)
The Eagle River is a tributary of the Colorado River, approximately long, in west central Colorado in the United States.It rises in southeastern Eagle County, at the continental divide, and flows northwest past Gilman, Minturn, Avon...
on the flank of Battle Mountain. It is located southeast of Minturn
Minturn, Colorado
Minturn is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,068 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Minturn is located at ....
and north of Tennessee Pass
Tennessee Pass (Colorado)
Tennessee Pass elevation is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States.The pass traverses the continental divide north of Leadville in a gap between the northern end of the Sawatch Range to the west and the northern end of the Mosquito Range to the east...
along U.S. Highway 24. The remnants of the townsite are visible in many places along the curves of the highway. More recent housing situated on the steep flank of the mountain itself near the former mines
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
.
Sulfide
A sulfide is an anion of sulfur in its lowest oxidation state of 2-. Sulfide is also a slightly archaic term for thioethers, a common type of organosulfur compound that are well known for their bad odors.- Properties :...
replacement deposits of three types: 1) thin-bedded deposits in the Sawatch Quartzite
Quartzite
Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to gray, though quartzites often occur in various shades of pink...
, (2) highly elongated ore bodies in the Leadville Limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
(here completely dolomitized), and (3) vertical pipes or chimneys cutting across the various formations. The ore minerals in order of decreasing abundance are sphalerite
Sphalerite
Sphalerite is a mineral that is the chief ore of zinc. It consists largely of zinc sulfide in crystalline form but almost always contains variable iron. When iron content is high it is an opaque black variety, marmatite. It is usually found in association with galena, pyrite, and other sulfides...
, chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2. It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.On exposure to air, chalcopyrite...
, and galena
Galena
Galena is the natural mineral form of lead sulfide. It is the most important lead ore mineral.Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It crystallizes in the cubic crystal system often showing octahedral forms...
. The non-ore minerals pyrite
Pyrite
The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, is an iron sulfide with the formula FeS2. This mineral's metallic luster and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold because of its resemblance to gold...
and siderite
Siderite
Siderite is a mineral composed of iron carbonate FeCO3. It takes its name from the Greek word σίδηρος sideros, “iron”. It is a valuable iron mineral, since it is 48% iron and contains no sulfur or phosphorus...
are also abundant in the ore bodies.
History
Several mining operations had sprouted along Battle Mountain by 1879, the first year of the Colorado Silver BoomColorado Silver Boom
The Colorado Silver Boom was a dramatic expansionist period of silver mining activity in the U.S. state of Colorado in the late 19th century. The boom started in 1879 with the discovery of silver at Leadville...
. The town of Gilman and nearby mining operations were developed in the 1880s by John Clinton, a prospector, judge, and speculator from nearby Redclliff. In 1887, gold and silver were discovered in two vertical chimneys at the Ground Hog Mine, which continued to produced gold and silver ore until the 1920s.
In the 1880s, Clinton acquired a number of mining operations in the vicinity, including the profitable Iron Mask, noted for its numerous caverns with crystal formations. Clinton developed the area as a town and improved the mining operations with higher capitalization. The town, which Clinton developed in order to keep miners at the site, was initially named for him. He donated the land for its initial schoolhouse and built its first boarding house. The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad reached the mining camp of Belden at the base of the cliff in 1882. By 1899, it had a population of approximately 300, as well as a newspaper, called the Gilman Enterprise.
As they reached the deeper sulfide
Sulfide
A sulfide is an anion of sulfur in its lowest oxidation state of 2-. Sulfide is also a slightly archaic term for thioethers, a common type of organosulfur compound that are well known for their bad odors.- Properties :...
ores, the miners found that the ore contained so much zinc that the smelters refused to buy it. A roaster and magnetic separator were installed in 1905 to separate out the zinc minerals, turning the problem into an asset. The mining operations transitioned increasingly to zinc, although the Eagle Mine was still the leading producer of silver in the state in 1930.
The New Jersey Zinc Company
New Jersey Zinc Company
The Horsehead Corporation , formerly the New Jersey Zinc Company, is an American producer of zinc and related materials.The New Jersey Zinc Company was for many years the largest producer of zinc and zinc products in the United States. The company thrived in the period from 1897 to 1966, at which...
entered Gilman in 1912, and over a period of years bought all the principal mines and the entire townsite. Zinc was the economic mainstay until 1931, when low zinc prices forced the company to switch to mining copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
-silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
ores. Zinc production resumed in 1941, and remained the principal product of the mines until they were closed in the 1980s.
The town population was a few hundred in the 1960s. At one time, the town had an infirmary, grocery store, and bowling
Bowling
Bowling Bowling Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule Bowling (1375–1425; late Middle English bowle, variant of boule...
alley. The town experienced labor strife several time in the 1950s, partly inflamed by the out-of-state corporate ownership. By 1970, total production at the mines was 10 million tons of ore; 393,000 troy ounces (12,200 kg) of gold; 66,000,000 troy ounces (2,100,000 kg) of silver; 105,000 tons of copper; 148,000 tons of lead; and 858,000 tons of zinc.
After the closure of the mine and the abandonment of the town, a 235 acre (0.9510121 km²) area, which included 8 million tons of mine waste, were designated a Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
site by the EPA and placed on the National Priorities List in 1986. According to the EPA, the mining operations left large amounts of arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
, cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
, copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
, lead, and zinc in the soil, and led to large fish kill
Fish kill
The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off and as fish mortality, is a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalised mortality of aquatic life...
s in the Eagle River and threatened drinking water in the town of Minturn
Minturn, Colorado
Minturn is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population was 1,068 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Minturn is located at ....
downstream on the Eagle River. The clean-up plan, implemented beginning in 1988 included plugging and flooding the Eagle Mine, collecting and treating mine and ground water in a new treatment plant, as well as removing, treating and capping the mine waste products. A report by the EPA in 2000 concluded that clean-up operations had substantially reduced public health risks and improved the water quality in the Eagle River. The State of Colorado also has pursued separate parallel efforts at cleanup and has reached agreements with Viacom regarding treatment of the site.
Erroneous automated entries for the town appear in search engines for such topics as real estate agents, roommate services, and dating services http://www.postindependent.com/article/20041001/AE/110010001&SearchID=7320468235931.
Current status
The townsite is a victim of vandalization, and the town's main street is heavily tagged. There are only a few intact windows left in town, as twenty years of vandalism have left almost every glass object in the town destroyed.However, many parts of the town are almost as they were when the mine shut down. The main shaft elevators still sit ready for ore cars, permanently locked at the top level. Several cars and trucks still sit in their garages, left behind by their owners.
Because of its size, modernity and level of preservation, the town is also the subject of fancy for many explorers and photographers. However, this practice is illegal and can incur criminal charges if caught.