Audio Excerpt

Toto, we’re not in Idaho anymore.. But we are in Idaho Springs! Sooo why call it Idaho you're surely wondering? Well, the name derives from the Radium Hot Springs.  Legend has it that a Native American tribe travelled all 540 miles here every year from Idaho to bathe in the magical healing waters of the hot springs! The town started to take shape in 1859, during the Colorado Gold Rush when prospector George A. Jackson discovered placer gold! Idaho Springs  was the home of the first substantial gold discovery in Colorado! Sooo you’re surely wondering what placer mining is? It’s a good thing I can read your mind right.. Always knowing what you’re wondering.. It’s a gift really! 

 

 So placer mining means searching for materials, usually gold, in stream beds using surface excavating or tunneling equipment.  The Gold yields quickly dried up however and soon Hard Rock mining took it’s place. Along with tourists, hard rock mining is now the mainstay of the town. Surely you're wondering…. When I’m going to stop saying that..  Hehe maybe someday, but not today... surely your wondering what hard rock mining is? Well, it’s essentially the terrifyingly dark, claustrophobic, I’m going to get lost underground forever (sound scared, panicked) type.. And guess what … you can go do that… right now!!  There’s a former gold mine and mill with an interpretive center and mine tours.. I just… can’t remember the name! Maybe you’ve seen a sign or something? What do you think it is? Is it,

 

A) Idaho Springs Gold Mine & Mill, B) Phoenix Gold Mine & Mill or, C) Argo Gold Mine & Mill?

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If you chose C, Argo, congrats!