Mountain States Historical

Bassick Mine and Querida Townsite

In 2003, the Division of Minerals and Geology contracted with Mountain States Historical to record and assess the significance of the Bassick Mine.  Located in the Hardscrabble Mining District near Westcliffe, the Bassick Mine was one of Colorado’s richest, deepest, and most advanced operations for its time.  Between 1877 and 1885, and again from around 1901 to 1906, the mine was so productive that it served as an anchor for the adjacent town of Querida.  The site currently offers an abundance of archaeological features that represent the surface facilities, including foundations for one of the largest hoists used in the state.

In 1879, the Bassick Mining Company built a mill to treat the mine’s fabulous gold ore and, as was common practice, flumed the tailings into the adjacent drainage.  The Bureau of Land Management and Division of Minerals and Geology targeted the tailings dump for environmental cleanup, which initiated the Section 106 compliance process for the site.  Because function, time, and place tied together all aspects of the Bassick operation into a single site, Mountain States Historical recorded the entity and recommended it eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

The Bureau of Land Management concurred, and because the tailings cleanup guaranteed an impact to the site, Mountain States Historical and the Bureau of Land Management came to an agreement on creative and innovative mitigation.  Specifically, Mountain States Historical felt that the mine site already yielded all the data it could and that the required mitigation was an opportunity for meaningful work elsewhere, since the area bounded with important resources.  One proposal was that the adjacent townsite of Querida be recorded and evaluated since it was directly related to the mine, and the other proposal was the production of an archaeological context for the entire Hardscrabble district.

Based on experience with the Hardscrabble district’s mining history, Mountain States Historical was chosen to complete the mitigation work.  Mountain States Historical recorded Querida and came to a number of important conclusions regarding life and demography of mining camps during the 1880s and 1900s.  The context became a particularly meaningful contribution because virtually nothing has been published on the Rosita and Silver Cliff area, despite its significant role in Colorado ’s history.  The context is currently a book manuscript in production.

Inventory of Principal Mine and Mill Sites, Silverton Mining District

During the late 1990s, the Bureau of Land Management initiated a progressive and sweeping inventory of all the principal mine, mill, and settlement sites in the Animas River drainage, radiating outward from the occupied town of Silverton.  The Bureau of Land Management understood that the drainage would eventually be subject to environmental cleanup projects, which would threaten some mine and mill sites, and that many other sites worthy of preservation existed.  The agency divided the drainage into study units and awarded one that included Silver Lake Basin, Cunningham Gulch, and Arrastra Gulch to Mountain States Historical.

The Bureau of Land Management required that 43 sites be recorded and evaluated for significance, and in the process, Mountain States Historical volunteered additional work at no charge to include several more sites due to their importance.  Several benefits came of the massive inventory project, presented as a formal report.  First, the significant sites on Federal land have received protection, and second, the Bureau of Land Management is currently assessing the potential to stabilize historic structures on several properties.  Third, some of the best and most intact sites in the area lie on private land, and the inventory project established their significance and the need to preserve them.  Fourth, any invasive projects initiated by the Federal government will need to account for impacts to the important sites, and last, the project provided key archaeological data for a book to be published on the area’s history.

    
Mountain States Historical
3750 Darley Ave, Boulder, CO 80305
Tel: 303-499-4334
Internet: info@mountainstateshistorical.com

Send mail to erictwitty@mountainstateshistorical.com with questions or comments about this web site.