The Argo Mill and Tunnel have a curious future!

If there is a non-railroad, non-natural, iconic structure along the Clear Creek line it has to be the Argo Mill.  The looming Idaho Springs structures with its name blazoned across them have stood as a defining feature for over a century, 125 years to be exact.

Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

I recall being able to tour inside of the mill many years ago, but not the Argo Tunnel itself.  That changed in May of 2017.  For the first time in 75 years the tunnel was again open for visitors.  Shotcrete Technologies founder Mary Jane Loevlie, along with several other investors, purchased the Argo Gold Mine and Mill in 2016 with the intention of making it an "economic engine" for Idaho Springs.

But it doesn't stop there.  There are ambitious...very ambitious plans in store for the Argo Mill.  The Denver Post states, "Their plan is audacious. A 160-room luxury hotel and convention center discretely built into Rose Gulch and flanked by a dozen cabins abutting 400 acres of trailed open space. Don’t think wood-and-stone mountain lodge. Think steampunk, a mix of Victorian and industrial designs heavy on the glass, steel and concrete.

"There’s a funicular or tram to ferry tourists to tunnel tours and the hotel. A pedestrian-friendly village, accessed by a bridge over Clear Creek, will step up the hill, with a park, retail and a destination-type restaurant. Single-family homes will anchor the east side. A terraced collection of smaller, 750-square-foot houses, to the west, above the mill, could help shelter local workers."

Those are some serious ambitions!  If it works, hopefully, all that tourism will continue to boost the Georgtown Loop's ridership.  Maybe it will even give Idaho Springs and the C&S Railway Society a possible location for getting no. 60 up and running!  Just dreaming...


Sources:
Argo Mill and Tunnel website.

"How Idaho Springs plans to turn the Argo Mine Superfund site into a tourist attraction" by Jason Blevins.  The Denver Post. 16 May 2017.