Arrastra Gulch

Arrastra Gulch. . , Arrastra Gulch - Where It All Began , Of all the gulches in the San Juan Mining District, few spanned a full century of activity and none had the diversity of mining companies as Arrastra Gulch. It began in 1870 with the discovery of gold and the formation of the Little Giant Mining Company and ended with the completion of work by the Sunnyside Mining Company in the 1980s., Mining companies pioneered new technology in Arrastra Gulch, setting new standards for the mining industry. It was here that some of the most complex aerial tram systems ever engineered were built - most in an era when industrial motorized machinery as we know it today did not exist - taxing men and pack animals to the limit., The Little Giant was the first organized mining company to enter the San Juan Mountains, blazing its way into a wilderness that had no trails, let alone roads. With the discovery of gold, a Spanish-style arrastra was constructed to pulverize the quartz and free the metal, giving the gulch its name. In 1873, these pioneers brought a steam boiler and other mill machinery into the gulch for better gold recovery, building the needed roads as they came. This small but industrious group of men installed the first aerial tram system in the region, if not the state. The mine lasted only few years, yet opened the country to thousands of men to follow., A group of claims on Hazelton Mountain that started out as individual companies later merged into the Aspen Mining Company. This company was highly successful and its richest ores bypassed concentrating mills and went directly to the smelter. In later years, it milled its ore at the Silver Lake Mill, transporting it via an aerial tram from the lower Amy Tunnel., At the same time, the Silver Lake, Iowa, and Royal Tiger Mining Companies were organized in Arrastra Basin. The Silver Lake and Iowa firms controlled over a hundred claims making them the largest mining conglomerates in the area. They were the first major mining companies to successfully mine and treat large quantities of what was then considered "low grade" ore. They used innovative ideas, tested new machinery, and led the way in technology., In 1913, the Wilfley-Mears Mill and its flume system were built to treat tailings from the old Silver Lake Mill in the basin and the Iowa Mill in the gulch. The system was designed to test and improve centrifugal-force pumps and new mill machinery. It, too, proved to be a profitable enterprise and functioned for nearly a decade., The last major undertaking in Arrastra Gulch was the Shenandoah Dives Mining Company, organized in the 1920s. It consolidated claims and mined south into Dives Basin, east of Silver Lake. This company used advanced flotation technology in its Mayflower Mill (directly behind you) and built the only aerial tram in the region with metal towers (directly overhead.) These are the only surviving structures of those once located here. Tours of the mill are provided during the summer months by the San Juan County Historical Society., The Shenandoah-Dives Company bucked adversity and worked through the Great Depression, finally closing in 1953 due to low metal prices. Standard Metals Corporation acquired the property in 1959, operated the tram for a few years, then adapted the mill to process ore from its mines until it closed in 1991-ending a period of 121 years of mineral activity in this historic gulch., The Iowa-Tiger , 1A Iowa-Tiger Mining Co. rail siding, connected with the Iowa Mill by a 6,000 foot long aerial tram erected in 1900. , 1B Iowa Mill was built in 1895 as an ore processing mill and terminal for a tram from the mine. , 1C Iowa Mine. Its No. 1 Tram was erected in 1895. It ran from the Iowa Mine in Arrastra Basin to the mill and was 9,400 feet long. From the base of Round Mountain to the mill, this tram had a vertical drop of more than 2,200 feet in one mile. Both this and the Silver Lake Tram were considered engineering marvels. , 1D Royal Tiger Mine. Its tram was built with the merger of the Royal Tiger Mining Co. and the Iowa Mining Co. during the 1890s as a 1,200-foot tram to carry ore over Silver Lake to connect with the existing Iowa tram system., The Mayflower Complex , 2A Mayflower Mill (directly behind you) was built by the Shenandoah - Dives Co. in 1929. The tram line up Arrastra Gulch to the Mayflower Mine was 10,100 feet long and the only tram in San Juan County built with steel towers. The lower section of this line (overhead) is the only tram-mill link still in existence in the San Juan Mountains. , 2B Mayflower Mine, one of the early mines in Arrastra Gulch, became part of the Shenandoah Dives operations in the 1920s and was the upper terminal of the Mayflower Tram. , 2C Mayflower-Iowa Mill Tram was erected in the 1920s and was 3,000 feet long. It ran ore to the Iowa Mill from the Mayflower Mine for processing until the tram line to the Mayflower Mill was completed in 1929., The Wilfley-Mears Mill and Flume , 3A The Wilfley-Mears Mill and Flume was a project completed in 1914. It was designed to take mill tailings by slurry from Arrastra Lake (Silver Lake), deposited by the earliest Silver Lake Mill, to the mill on the bank of the Animas River for processing. The system also retrieved tailings from the Iowa Mill in Arrastra Gulch at a dam (3B) and carried this material to the mill, which had its own railroad siding., The Silver Lake Mining Company , 4A Silver Lake Mill No. 2 on the Animas River was built in 1900 and rebuilt in 1906 after a devastating fire. The No. 2 Tram link from this mill up to the Silver Lake Angle Station (4D) was built in 1898 and was 6,200 feet long. , 4B Amy Tunnel on Hazelton Mountain was the lowest elevation workings of the Aspen Mine, one of the earliest discoveries in the region. In 1907, a 1,800 foot aerial tram was built to carry ore from the Amy Tunnel to the Silver Lake Mill for processing. , 4C Waldheim was built by the Silver Lake Mining Co. in 1897 and was an office and residence. , 4D Silver Lake Angle Station was built in 1895 and was the terminal for the No. 1 Tram coming down from the mine, as well as the terminal for the Unity Tram. At this point, tram buckets were transferred to the No. 2 Tram and sent to the Silver Lake Mill on the Animas River. The angle station was demolished in the late 1920s to make room for the Mayflower Tram. , 4E Unity Mine was a division of the Silver Lake Mining Co. and the upper terminal for a separate 4,000 foot tram line which ran to the Silver Lake Angle Station. , 4F Silver Lake Mine and No. 1 Tram upper terminal. This section of the tram was 8,500 feet long and ran from the mine in Arrastra (Silver Lake) Basin to the Angle Station. It was completed in 1895. The first Silver Lake Mill was built at the mine on the edge of Silver Lake in 1891., The Little Giant , 5A Little Giant Mine, staked in 1870, was one of the first major mining locations in the San Juan Mountains. , 5B Little Giant Mill was the first steam-driven mill in the region. It was erected in 1873 and was connected to the mine by a 1,000 foot wire rope tramway, the first in the area. Prior to this mill the reduction of ore was accomplished by a Spanish-style arrastra, from which the gulch derived its name., The Silverton Northern Railroad , 6 Silverton Northern Railroad was built to transport concentrates from the mills to the smelter. This rail line was constructed in 1896 and served the seven mile route between Silverton and Eureka., Captions , 1. The Iowa-Tiger Mill (foreground) could process 150 tons of ore a day. Situated in the middle of the gulch, it received ore via an aerial tram from mines in the basin. The concentrates were then trammed down to the railroad siding on the Animas River. The Silver Lake angle station (left background) was designed to allow tram buckets from the Silver Lake Mine and the Unity Mine to change direction on their way to the Silver Lake Mill on the Animas River. , - Photo courtesy of San Juan County Historical Society , 2. Of all the innovations introduced to the mining industry, one of the most important was the aerial tram. This was especially true in the San Juan Mountains where winters were severe and most of the mines were situated above timberline. Trams allowed those who could afford them to work year-round, giving economic stability to the entire region. , - Photo courtesy of San Juan County Historical Society , 3. The Silver Lake Mill on the Animas River, with a 300 ton per day capacity, was the finest of its kind when built in 1900. It had its own electrical generating plant, railroad siding, and other amenities that set standards for the rest of the mining industry. , - Photo courtesy of San Juan County Historical Society . This historical marker was erected by San Juan County Historical Society, U.S. Department of the Interior - Bureau of Land Management. It is Near Silverton in San Juan County Colorado