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Posted by: swizz Apr 20 2012, 06:59 PM

I took my ex-girlfriend here today for her birthday and had a FUN day.
The tour was only $15 and they let you pan their stream for the rest of the day included.
I hope to do Argo Mine next. Here are some pics from the Phoenix.







Some old "widow-makers"


I tried to escape through another shaft with this wheelbarrow full of goodness but this is as far as I got, I need a map of this mine......

Posted by: swizz Apr 20 2012, 07:00 PM

Ye olde shaker table


This is a very rich vein


Here is a closer look


... I reckon I should'a quit picking at it


I went here next and feel way better now (Woody, you should go here, they would fix up those busted ribs of yours real good-like)


The owner took a shine to us and put me to work on one of his modern mining machines

Posted by: ASTROBLEME Apr 20 2012, 11:01 PM

swizz,

Great pics! Those close-up views of the vein are so sweet. I'll bet you could still "smell the money" down in there. Those ores tend to have a strong odor...but I love it!

Thanks for sharing with all of us.

ASTROBLEME

Posted by: Mrs.CP Apr 21 2012, 09:26 PM

You took some great pictures Swizz! It's a great tour and they are very friendly folks. They usually have a bunch of chipmunks that hang out at the exit of the mine also. Glad you got a chance to meet Al!

Posted by: swizz Apr 22 2012, 06:29 AM

LOL.... yes!
Funny and ironic because the week before I was trying to get good Chippy pics. Then I go here and they are dancing around me and stopping to pose like they wanted to be on the cover of Vogue Magazine. The Chippys at the Phoenix were pretty large too.... methinks they are well fed.

Posted by: swizz Apr 22 2012, 06:48 AM

Definitely a fascinating and entertaining man. For whatever reason... he pulled Jane and me aside and introduced himself after we exited the shaft and started talking to us while the rest of the tour was learning to pan at the tourist trough. The tour guide came over to rescue us from Al and rejoin the group but I waved him off, "we already know how to pan", and we really had a good chat with him after that. Absolutely fascinating family history at the Phoenix and he showed us a lot of old pictures. He talked our ears off and when we told him where we lived - he told a good story of our nearby town of Tabernash involving his Mother way back in the day. Honestly, I would have paid double if I'd have known we were gonna get to chat with Al like that.

Posted by: Mrs.CP Apr 22 2012, 08:57 AM

I love the fat chipmunks there! They even have a dish of goodies on the counter to feed them. They sometimes just jump up there and help themselves. Great to hear that you and Jane enjoyed the tour!

Posted by: swizz Apr 22 2012, 01:14 PM

They are the fattest Chipmunks EVER!

Posted by: amorton Apr 22 2012, 11:27 PM

did that headlamp work out for you?

Posted by: swizz Apr 23 2012, 06:24 AM

For sure!

Posted by: Coalbunny May 7 2012, 12:27 AM

I like the looks of the complex sulphides I see in pics 7 & 8. Mmmm!
No pics of you and yours together? Tsk tsk.

Posted by: swizz May 7 2012, 06:26 AM

damn you paparazzi !!

Posted by: dbx Feb 25 2014, 01:09 PM

( I know older post, but ... ) One of my first reports ran on LR2000 was on Al - between him and family, they have 300+ claims.

Posted by: swizz Feb 25 2014, 02:49 PM

Man, now you got me wanting to go on another mine tour! I really want to do the Molly Kathleen.

Posted by: Crusty Feb 25 2014, 10:04 PM

I haven't been but want to; seems like a pretty cool joint!

Posted by: russau Feb 26 2014, 06:24 AM

i went on that tour back during the RMMR days. the owner came to the rally and passed out some gold plated "nuggets" and a personal invite for us to take the tour. i went and "almost got caught" picking at.....................................well lets just say i enjoyed the tour!

Posted by: Crusty Feb 26 2014, 11:35 AM

My wife went on a tour of the Cresson MIne in Victor through school and said it is a pretty impressive operation. They went to the pit and were very touchy about folks picking up anything off the ground!

Sad thing is, they are strictly in it for the gold/profit, so they blast through all kinds of old claims, destroying any historic artifacts that may be present. Would be pretty awesome to explore the tunnels and stuff they come across to see what might be left in there.

Posted by: fenixsmom Feb 26 2014, 04:23 PM

Hey, if anyone does go on the Argo Mine tour hit me up! I've always wanted to go, but no one to go with!

Posted by: dbx Feb 26 2014, 10:06 PM

Just a quick note on that - the 'mine' is pretty much closed off.
The tour is mostly the mill, and the old museum stuff, and then
some barrels to pan in outside. The story about when it flooded
and shot ore cars out into the valley is kind of interesting.

Posted by: fenixsmom Feb 26 2014, 10:21 PM

Weak!!! Never mind. I don't want to work barrels. Thanks for the info!

Posted by: Mrs.CP Feb 28 2014, 08:56 AM

I went on the Argo tour during the 04' rally we had there, I thought it was very interesting. Very cool equipment!! The barrels are cut in half long ways and placed on a stand for everyone to pan from. Not many can say they dredged there can they Russ (not allowed)......but we were ones that were allowed.

Posted by: dbx Feb 28 2014, 11:35 AM

They explained how they ran electric trains - under the mountain, thru the main shaft - to Central City, to go to the Opera. It's worth seeing - one time.

Posted by: russau Mar 1 2014, 06:21 AM

During that RMMR rally i had brought my Proline 2 inch dredge so i could do some dredgeing at the rally BUT i hurt my back and couldnt dredge or do much of anything except sit and be "the guy in the DEF tent" for the entire rally. but the guy that i came up with got to my dredge and got some small gold that was loaded with mercury. that was a GREAT rally and the party you guys threw latter after the rally at Vics was even better! i havent been to a better rally!

Posted by: leonard Mar 2 2014, 04:11 PM

I worked with the Phoenix mine owner. Al Mosch, in 1970. We were at Beech Aircraft near Boulder working on Apollo 14-15 and 16 Al was a quality control inspector and I was a test technician. He never mentioned gold and I wasn't interested at that time.

Leonard

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 2 2014, 04:40 PM

Wow! That's an impressive assignment! Did you work at Lockheed Martin by chance?

Posted by: RhodoRose Mar 2 2014, 10:46 PM

Hello Leonard,
Glad to meet another space engineer - I worked Space Shuttle Payload mission control in the early 90's. Since then I've been launching and flying military comsats for the AF and a few gee-whiz science experiments for Missile Defense Agency. If you're interested, I co-wrote a book about the early days of space, which was nominated for AIAA's History Book of the Year - with a little help from my late mentor, Dr. Van Allen. You can find it on amazon.com at the link below -

http://www.amazon.com/The-First-Space-Race-Satellites/dp/1585443743/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393821699&sr=8-1&keywords=the+first+space+race

Cheers!
Erika

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 2 2014, 10:52 PM

Wow, I can't believe I'm in a club full of rocket scientists and computer techs!

Posted by: RhodoRose Mar 2 2014, 10:59 PM

You can just call me a "space cadet"!

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 2 2014, 11:03 PM

I've been accused of the same, just for different reasons!

Posted by: goldchef Mar 3 2014, 05:46 PM

heres some argo pics

Posted by: goldchef Mar 3 2014, 05:50 PM

Posted by: leonard Mar 4 2014, 10:17 AM

Thats a little too new for me. Location wise yes. I worked at the Waterton plant for Martin-Murietta on the Skylab project in the early 70's. I worked in the experiment depot on the experiments that went up in the Multiple Docking Adapter, mainly the Earth resources Telescope package. After that, I went to Rocky Flats for a few years.

Leonard

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 4 2014, 01:00 PM

Ahh that's cool!!!! My father on law worked there for many years testing and welding. He was forced onto retirement about 7 years ago due to emphysema. I was wondering if you knew them.

Posted by: leonard Mar 4 2014, 04:21 PM

I left there in about 1972-1973. In 1977 I went to the Denver Fire Department for 33 years. My best job ever!.

Leonard

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 4 2014, 04:32 PM

Ahh, he worked there starting in the late 70s. Well, at least you did something you love instead!

Posted by: leonard Mar 4 2014, 04:39 PM

You are new to the forum. You might not know that I invite everyone to Douglas Creek in Wyoming, 40 miles from Laramie, for the 4th of July weekend. There's usually a group of a dozen or so from around here. We mainly dredge but we invite anyone to my claim. The same goes for most Labor Days on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista. If you want to try out dredging, thats the time to do it. http://golddredgervideo.com/prospecting/4july2010/douglascreekpart1.wmv http://golddredgervideo.com/prospecting/4july2010/douglascreekpart2.wmv Thats from 2010. For more videos take a look at http://golddredgervideo.com/menu.htm There are a lot more videos there.

Look at http://golddredgervideo.com/prospecting/rmmr.wmv Dan and Denise sponsered the Rocky Mountain Miners rally in 2004 at the Argo Mill in Idaho springs. In that video are a whole lot of mining big wigs in the small time mining group world wide. You'll see Dan and Denise both.When you see a yellow dredge, thats mine. We had a great time all getting together. Dan and denise worked their butts off to sponser the rally. If you get a chance to come to one of our campouts, you'll hear stories that you won't ever forget.
Leonard

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 4 2014, 06:02 PM

As a proud member of CP I cannot wait until the rallies and group get togethers, it's the main reason I joined!

Posted by: RhodoRose Mar 4 2014, 11:31 PM

Posted by: fenixsmom Mar 5 2014, 12:05 AM

CHEERS!!!

Posted by: dbx Mar 5 2014, 10:44 PM

Just noticed on Phoenix mine FaceBook - Al's wife passed away.
I hadn't met her, but R.I.P.

Posted by: Shane Mar 8 2014, 02:47 PM

Hi everyone!

I'm brand spanking new here and figured I'd place the inevitable first post.

While randomly browsing the forum, I noticed that this thread mentioned the Argo gold mine tour. Since I've passed by this location multiple times on the way to the mountains for snowboarding, I was thoroughly interested in visiting it. I'm glad everyone provided their input about how the mines are now off limits. Because they are, I can say that I'm not as interested in checking them out now.

With all of that being said, has anyone checked out the tours in Cripple Creek? My wife and I went gambling there in December and saw all the tours associated with the mines, which definitely struck our curiosity. Any sort of information would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: Crusty Mar 10 2014, 07:04 AM

Welcome!

I've heard the Molly Katherine is a good tour; just haven't managed to find time to stop yet (in too big a hurry to "contribute to the local economy lol)

Posted by: leonard Mar 10 2014, 04:57 PM

The Molly Kathleen tour http://www.goldminetours.com/goldminetours.com/Home.html was great about 15 years ago when I took my kids. They and I loved it.
Leonard

Posted by: Shane Mar 12 2014, 12:14 PM

Thanks for the info guys! The misses and I will have to check it out.