Molly Kathleen Gold Mine--Cripple Creek Colorado

It takes about eight hours to get to Mancos Colorado from Erie Colorado so we decided to make some stops along the way. Our first stop was at the Molly Kathleen Gold Mine in Cripple Creek Colorado. You descend 1,000 feet (100 stories) into the Gold Mine through what is called a skip man elevator. It is basically a tiny elevator they use to get everything and everyone in and out of the mine. This particular Gold mine is still in use today along with the tours to the public they offer. It was pretty interesting to see what they had to do in the days of Gold mining past, and present. Needless to say it was a very dangerous job.

Below is a miniature model of what the Gold mine would look like if you sliced it open. On top is where the hoist house is and where you get into the mine from the skip elevator. You can see how far down you go to get to the mine and then all the different veins that they have mined. Crazy!

Before descending into the mine we took a look around at all the equipment. The boys are standing on a steam engine used to power a saw mill.

They found this old truck on the property and immediately thought of Grandpa Honeycutt. Here is your next project dad!

We were all required to wear hard hats before we descended into the mine. I don't know if Sadie thought this was okay or not be she managed.

The blaster guy demonstrated one of the air power drillers they used and still use in the Gold mining process.....one word LOUD!

It was very educational and fun to learn about the Gold Mine. One thing that I like about the Molly Kathleen Mine in particular is that Molly was the first woman to claim this land as her Gold Mine. It was unheard of for a woman to be able to do that in this time period. Long story short, she found the gold and went in to make her official claim where the guy told her she couldn't because she was a woman. She proceeded to take out her pistol and basically told him if he wanted to leave the office that day he better put her name on that claim. Men, seriously. The rest is history. Gotta love it!