Weekend Adventure at the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine Tour

June 2017 -

The Colorado snow is beginning to melt and the off-road trails are beginning to appear.  We had reports from the various organizations are some of the lower trails were open but warned it might be wet and muddy.  So we headed out to see for ourselves.
 

First on our list was to visit the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine for the breakfast and tour.  We've heard so many good reviews on the both the breakfast and tour that it was on list to do and we did not make time last year for it.  So both of us are hungry for food, mining history and off-roading we headed to Ouray from Montrose.
 

We drove US 550 to the turnoff for County Road 14.  Of course the mountains are beautiful and we experienced an awesome view of Ouray while driving up to the mine.

Bachelor-Syracuse Mine History

During the main silver rush in Ouray (1876 to 1893) most of the silver mines were located up Box Canyon, up Canyon Creek in Yankee Boy and Imogene Basins, and around Ironton and Gastun to the south of Ouray. One other area was north of Ouray around what became known as Gold Hill. There was enough gold at the site to survive the Silver Panic of 1893. The Bachelor mine was claimed in the early 1890s by three bachelors, C.A. Armstrong, Frank Sanders, and George R. Hurlburt. Seeing as how none of them were attached, they settled on the name Bachelor Mine. It was a high producer and eventually bought out other claims in the area. The main shaft drilled downward from the top of the hill and eventually reached over 2000 feet into the mountain. As the shaft got deeper, ground water began to flood the mine and it became increasingly expensive to haul every ore bucket up out of the mine through the shafts to the top of the hill. A drainage adit was drilled from the east, which allowed the mine to go even deeper. In the 1920s, another adit was needed to come in from the west into the bottom of the mountain to drain deeper water and allow the ore to be removed more easily. It was hoped that the adit would pay for itself by encountering new ore bodies along the way, and it was named the Syracuse Tunnel since the money to build it was raised mostly in Syracuse, New York.

Oops - we didn't get any photos of our breakfast but it was delicious.  I picked the Tiny Breakfast with 1 egg, bacon, potatoes & toast and Jack ordered the Big Breakfast which was 2 of everything I had plus biscuits & gravy.  We would recommend getting there early before the tour and fill your stomach with good food.

Let the tour begin -

 

 

Today, the mine tour begins at the mine opening. We walk in about 1500 feet after suiting up with hard hats and I also elected to wear the yellow rain slicker. When the tram was running, the tour went in 3500 feet, but this deeper tour is no longer allowed for safety reasons. As we walk inside along the tram rails that use to carry visitors into the mine the temperature gets a little cooler and damper with water dripping from the ceiling in places and a steady stream of water flowing out of the mine in a ditch to the right of the tracks.

While in the mine our guide told us about the history of the mine, showed us how the pneumatic drills were used to hammer out a series of holes in the face following a pattern of concentric circles. He even turned the lights off and lit candles so we could experience the actual lighting conditions used in the mine.

 

Tunnel moisture forms strange mineral formations on walls of tunnel.

 

So if you are in the area we recommend the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine Tour.  The next post will continue with our off-road adventure on this day through Red Mountain trail, Silverton, CO and Engineer Pass trail.

Until next time - Enjoy your adventure!