Day 14, continued. Visit to the Molly Kathleen Gold Mine.

After our ride up Pikes Peak we headed off to the small town of Cripple Creek, part of the world's largest gold camp. Apparently this area sits on huge veins of very high quality gold which was extensively mined in the early 1900's. As the price of gold dropped the mines gradually stopped producing. But there are still huge reserves left in the ground which will be mined again once the price goes up!

Looking down to Cripple Creek

 We went on a tour of the Mollie Kathleen mine. Mollie Kathleen was hiking in the hills above the town, sat down to rest and saw that a small rock continued gold! Sure enough there was a huge vein of gold right there and she was the first, and only, woman to stake a claim in these hills.

 Hard hats required and rules to be obeyed!

 They squeezed 6 adults and 2 small children in the tiny miners cage and we plummeted to 1,000 feet below ground. here we were given a fascinating tour of the old mine shafts, including demonstrations of the various drills that were used over the years. We even got a short ride on a rail car through the tunnels.

 The blacksmith's shop where he had the tools to make repairs to the equipment.

We both really enjoyed the tour. Amazing to think that we spent the morning climbing up to 14,110 feet and the afternoon at 1,000 feet below ground - what a day!!