I am planning my next expedition. This trip will be up Phantom Canyon a short way. It is closer to home, so it is only an hour-long drive or so. I have been researching the area's history as part of my pre-prospecting operations.
In the late 1890s, there was a railroad that ran from the Goldfields near Victor, CO, south down to Florence, where the smelter (refiner) was located. They would load gold ore into the train cars and ship it down to Florence to be melted down into bars.
Like many of the canyons in the area, they have steep walls and occasionally flash floods. This means that gold from the mining district in the north end of the canyon gets washed downstream during these flash floods. That makes these canyons good places to hunt.
In reading old newspaper accounts, I came across some interesting information that I assume is not widely known.
In 1901, the Florence Refiner reported on a wreck: "Nine loaded ore cars and the engine left the track and piled upon one another in a tangle of ore, twisted iron and timber. The engineer died, and the head brakeman was seriously injured."
The railroad was able to recover from that and more bizarre incidents. Also in 1901, the local paper reported on the engineer blowing his whistle at two bighorn sheep on a slope above the train: "Scampering away, the sheep loosened a large rock that fell onto the track and derailed the engine."
Sure, they cleaned up the train car parts and old timbers, but I am fairly certain they did not pick up every piece of gold ore that fell out of those nine railcars.
Then, eleven years later, in 1912, the railroad's president was quoted following a reported 30-foot wall of water that came roaring down Phantom Canyon: "It is hardly believable. The flood took everything before it."
That was the end of the train.
"By that time, the mining was dying, so they chose not to rebuild the railroad," Bumgarner says. "But Florence merchants went in and turned it into what it is today: a tourist road."
Other stories tell about parts of the town of Adelaide getting washed out by flash floods too.
We have been in a drought for quite some time now. The rivers are running dangerously low due to minimal snowpack last winter. They have suspended fishing in the afternoons here in the city, and starting tomorrow, they will be releasing water from reservoirs further north to help replenish the water flow in the Arkansas River, which feeds the Pueblo Reservoir. The reservoir lost a lot of water from Super Scoopers and helicopters taking water to fight the wildfires.
Anyway, with the river levels lower than they have been in decades, it might be a good time to walk the banks and search for old train wreck parts and gold ore.
Even if I strike out, I have been told that it is a nice drive, so I'll be able to get some pictures.
