The Mary Murphy Mine was the principal gold mine of the Chalk Creek mining district of Chaffee County, Colorado

Chaffee County, Colorado

Chaffee County is one of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county population was 16,242 at U.S. Census 2000. The county seat is Salida.-History:...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, near St. Elmo, Colorado

St. Elmo, Colorado

St. Elmo is a ghost town in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1880, St. Elmo lies in the heart of the Sawatch Range, 20 miles southwest of Buena Vista. Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining for gold and silver became evident. The mining industry started to decline...

. The Mary Murphy Mine operated continuously from 1870 to 1925, and produced 220 thousand ounces of gold, worth $4.4 million then (or about $180,000,000 in 2008), plus considerable silver, lead, and zinc. There were two aerial tramways connecting the mine to Romley, Colorado and the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad

The Denver, South Park, and Pacific Railroad was a historic narrow gauge railway that operated in Colorado in the western United States in the late 19th century. The railroad opened up the first rail routes to a large section of the central Colorado mining district in the decades of the mineral boom...

.
In 1984 the Historic American Engineering Record recorded the structures then standing in the area.

Drainage from the old mine into Chalk Creek

Chalk Creek

Chalk Creek is a river flowing east from the Collegiate Peaks mountain range in Chaffee County, Colorado. Mount Antero borders the southern side of the river, while Mount Princeton borders the northern side. The headwaters of the river are located at the Continental Divide...

, a tributary of the Upper Arkansas River

Arkansas River

The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. The Arkansas generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's initial basin starts in the Western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas...

, would sometimes cause fish kill

Fish kill

The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off and as fish mortality, is a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalised mortality of aquatic life...

s at the state-run fish hatchery

Fish hatchery

A fish hatchery is a "place for artificial breeding, hatching and rearing through the early life stages of animals, finfish and shellfish in particular". Hatcheries produce larval and juvenile fish primarily to support the aquaculture industry where they are transferred to on-growing systems...

 downstream, such as the kill of 800,000 fingerling trout in 1986. The Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology consolidated all of the surface wastes and capped them in a “high-and-dry” spot on the mill site. This reduced the dissolved metals levels enough to keep the fish kills from recurring. Since then, the site has been used as test-bed for new ways to treat harmful drainage from abandoned mines in the Colorado Rockies .

The Mary Murphy Mine is a popular destination for four-wheelers and ghost-town enthusiasts.

External links

• Mary Murphy Mine photo gallery
• Mary Murphy Mine visitor info
• Mary Murphy Mine photos and documentation at Historic American Engineering Record