The history of Aspen’s mining had an interesting end where the last mining was near the location where it began. Many early mines began with a shaft. That was the shortest distance to the ore.
Hunter Creek Mill near the entrance to the Cowenhoven Tunnel 1925. Aspen Historical Society photo
The hunter Creek Mill, around for around 40 years, opened and closed a number of times. Explaining its on-again off- again history provides context for explaining mining after 1900.
The mill was built in 1902 to process ores from the two-mile long Cowenhoven Tunnel that was driven to drain water from several Smuggler Mountain mines and to provide a cheaper way of getting the ore out of the mountain. Before that time much of the ore was not milled. Ore was sorted at the surface with the better ore shipped directly to the smelter and the lesser quality ore dumped on site. But the quantity of the better ore was dropping and milling processes improved to make the dump material more profitable. In addition, the Hunter Creek Mill could process ore from smaller mines (the larger ones often had their own mills), and mines with lower grade ore.
1891 Engineering and Mining Journal ad for an air compressor used in Aspen. Willoughby Collection
There was an exchange between the pounds of metal mineral extracted and exported from beneath Aspen’s mountains and the metal objects brought to Aspen to make that happen. This was the era of an explosion of foundry production especially for cast iron.
Manufacturing of thick and heavy objects began escalating simultaneous with steam power. Very quickly steam boilers were transformed into railroad engines. By the time Aspen began, foundries were producing bigger and bigger items. Hydraulic lifting enabled that, and trains could carry the products across the country.