During last week’s hike in Cumberland Basin, near Castle Peak here in Colorado, we ran across a nearly intact steam boiler with associated steam engine, air compressor, and airtank.
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| Detail from the steam engine. Brass bearings look nearly new, as they must have appeared around a century ago when this installation was in use. The threaded hole at the top of the bearing was probably a grease fitting that’s totally rusted away, leaving the brass hole with perfect threads. Click image to enlarge. |
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| We spotted this stuff when a pile of mine tailings caught our attention across the valley from our hiking route. Colorado has thousands of old mines, but most associated machinery is rusted away, ruined by fire, or carted off to museums and such. It’s rare to find a real steam engine, boiler, pressure tank and pressure regulator just sitting there in the middle of the alpine. Along with that, two other vertical style boilers are on the ground nearby (out of photo). That’s a compressed air tank at right foreground, steam engine and compressor in right background, and boiler to left. Click image to enlarge. |
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| The installation in situ. This appeared to be a fairly large operation that mined the same silver vein tunneled by well known Montezuma Mine one valley to the north. One thing I truly enjoy about seeing these areas is how the land has healed. With so much anti-industrial sentiment these days, it is good to take the long view and know that we can actually use resources for things like mountain bikes and ski lifts, and the land can recover. The Aspen area is a good example of this. The place was a literal wasteland in the 1800s, and is now considered to be one of the most beautiful places in the country. Pretty good for just a hundred years or so… Click image to enlarge. |
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| Boiler from the smoke stack end. Larger fire was built at the other end, with heat and smoke passing through tubes in water jacket to this end then up though a large chimney opening. The chimney opening is the collar closest to end, the cylinder that looks like a chimney is actually where the steam was collected. Click image to enlarge. |
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| Detail of boiler, chimney end. This model was apparently called the Economic, made by Erie City Iron Works and patented in 1885. The machinery was transported by mule hauled wagon, either over Pearl Pass from Aspen or up from the Gunnison Valley — either trip being at least 30 miles from a railhead. One can only imagine what it was like running enough animals to haul something like this — probably made Noah’s ark look like child’s play. Click image to enlarge. |
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| Boiler firebox end. Think of all those movies with a guy shoveling coal into a train boiler, this is where they worked. The firebox is still lined with fire brick held by removable steel rods that slide in and out from above. Click image to enlarge. |
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| Now for the eye candy. In position to the side of the boiler (Louie is checking out the boiler firebox), this is the intact steam engine with attached air compressor. Steam engine with flywheels on right end of unit, compressor on left. Numerous brass fittings were still intact. The compressor obviously worked with one large piston, as did the steam engine. |
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| Lettering on top of steam engine indicates it was designed for use as mine drilling machinery. In this case, “drilling” means sinking small diameter bores that were perhaps 3 inches wide, tamping in some dynamite, then triggering a blast to fracture the rock which was then “mucked” out by hand and rolled out of the mine in ore carts on steel track. |
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| End view of steam engine. The thin upper rod probably controlled the valve, while the piston had a much stronger attachment to spin the flywheels, which in turn moved the compressor piston. |
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| The compressor filled this airtank, which is topped by what’s obviously a massive gate valve. The handle is bent from avalanches that fall from a huge avalanche slope above the installation. One has to wonder if it was avalanches that closed down this operation, as it looks very vulnerable. Attesting to that, we noticed a rock berm built on the slope above the cabin foundations that was not doubt intended as defense against rockfall and snowslides, but looked rather ineffective to the experienced eye. |
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| The rock berm we figured was built as avalanche and rockfall defense. One can only imagine being in a cabin on the downside of this, with a 2,000 vertical foot avalanche slope above. In another hundred years this rock pile and the mine tailings apron are probably all that will be left of the Cumberland Basin silver mine. |
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
