Weekly Register-Call/ Gilpin County News

End of Spring Celebration

The Hidee Gold Mine held its 5th Annual End-Of-Spring Celebration on Saturday, June 19th, with mine tours, gold-panning, refreshments, surrey rides—featuring Clydesdales Heather and Presley—and musical entertainment offered for free throughout the late afternoon. The Legendary Ladies, dressed in appropriate period costumes, were also on hand to provide historical information to visitors. It was a glorious Gilpin day in the mountains and a large crowd of local folks and tourists took advantage of the day to enjoy the celebration. Ed Lewandowski, the president of the Hidee Gold Mining Company, personally greeted and welcomed everyone to the event.

Located off of the Central City Parkway in Lower Russell Gulch, the Hidee is still an operating gold mine on a small scale, rich in gold ore and silver pyrite. The Hidee Gold Mining Co. includes the Hidee, Fay, Dale, and Marks mining claims. The Hidee was started in 1896 and began as a shaft tunneling 300 feet straight into the ground. Adits, a mining term for horizontal passageways, were added for access to different mineral deposits. Intersecting the Hidee is the Pittsburgh Mine crosscut, which was mined until a wall of mica schist was reached. The Hidee has never suffered a major cave-in and is regularly inspected by the state to ensure its operational safety.

At the mine entrance is an ore cart which contains gold ore weighing approximately one ton. This amount of ore will yield about two ounces of gold after processing. It doesn’t pay to mine gold, even with current prices of gold at $900 an ounce, with what it costs to process the ore, including sending it elsewhere for smelting.

The half-hour tours offered during the celebration were abbreviated ones in that the regular one and one-half hour tours offer more detailed information on the local history of mining, geology, and mining methods.

All mining tourists were issued hard hats for safety reasons and slickers as the usual ambient temperature in the mine is about 45 degrees (F). The tour began with a straightforward walk into a fairly level tunnel for about 700 feet with a slightly slippery clay floor. The Hidee is considered a dry mine as there is no flowing water in it. Tourists were advised to watch the low ceiling to keep from hitting their heads. Timber frames were visible in several areas of the tunnel to provide support to the walls composed of mica schist. A power generator provides electricity to power lights in the tunnel and keeps fresh air circulating throughout the tunnel when large groups of tourists visit. Several shafts throughout the mine also function as air vents.

At the intersection of the Fay and the Hidee claims, there is an area of standing room along with wooden stairs descending to the end of the tunnel. This is where visitors are offered a single jackhammer and chisel, and after donning safety glasses, are encouraged to chisel off an ore sample from the Fay’s five foot vertical gold vein in the rock. Visitors were also provided with small plastic bags to carry their ore samples home.

The Tommy Knockers—legendary ghosts or spirits living in a mine–were quiet and caused no mischief in the Hidee Mine during the celebration. Without a doubt, the little guys approve of new visitors learning the ways of the old regarding the rich mining history of the area. Please contact the Hidee Gold Mining Company at 303-980-2861 or 720-548-0343 to schedule a tour or visit the website, www.hideegoldmine.com, for more information. Plan on visiting the Hidee next summer in June when the 6th Annual End-Of-Spring Celebration will be held—it’s an exceptional event not to be missed!