Basins of Silver: The Story of Silverton, Colorado’s Las Animas Mining District
Pikes Peak Gold Rush prospector Charles Baker was decades ahead of his time. Before Colorado’s far reaches had been explored, he postulated that a great mineral belt stretched through the Rocky Mountains. Baker convinced other miners that gold lay in the southwest portion of the state, and they ignited the first rush to the imposing San Juan Mountains. Prospectors quickly discovered that the San Juans were a treasure trove of not only gold, but also silver. Over time, the area hosted a rich and powerful mining industry colored by grouchy engineers, cunning investors, psychics, outspoken women, and remarkably tough individuals. To overcome severe winters rife with avalanches, hurricane-force winds, and impossible terrain, revolutionary miners used the Las Animas district as a proving ground for amazing technological innovations.
Riches to Rust: A Guide to Mining in the Old West
Have you ever explored an abandoned mine and wondered how it operated? Or what old pieces of equipment, artifacts, and ruined structures were? You will find complete explanations in Riches to Rust, written for the general public in an easy-to-read and accessible fashion. First work of its kind, the book is an interpretive guide detailing surface facilities at mines, how technology evolved over time, and what it conveys about an operation. Most important, the book outlines the archaeological remnants that visitors are likely to encounter today.
Blown to Bits in the Mine
Although dangerous if not laborious, drilling and blasting was essential in mining and quarrying. Explosives revolutionized minerals extraction, allowing industry to supply the immense volume of natural resources that made the United States an economic powerhouse. But how did miners actually carry out the processes of drilling and blasting? What were the explosives like, and how did they change the miners’ workplace? Blown to Bits in the Mine discusses the hazards that miners faced with explosives, as well as the benefits, charting the evolution of the entire blasting process from early hand-drilling and black powder to power drills and specialized explosive agents in coal, hardrock, and open-pit mines, and quarries.