Long suffering Ghost town trouble continues
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com
Right from the start, the spirits in the San Juan County ghost town of Eureka have seemed to want folks living in the place to suffer from time to time.
"Eureka is suffering more rapid erasure than the results of mere decay," wrote historian Lambert Florin in his 1970s book "Ghost Towns of the West."
"Its store buildings are torn down, the lumber to be put into more active service in Silverton. There is no main street in Eureka, which once boasted 'the finest saloons anywhere,' This pride in alcohol emploriums had been continuous since 1896, when, of the several buildings comprising Eureka, the saloon was the finest.
Recently, even in the years following Florin's advise, things don't seem to be improving.
January 21, 2022
The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Interior (DOI), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the State of Colorado announced a settlement with Sunnyside Gold Corporation and its Canadian parent company Kinross Gold Corporation resolving federal and state liability related to the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site, which includes the Gold King Mine and many other abandoned mines near Silverton, Colorado.
If entered by the court, this agreement provides for the continued cleanup of mining-related contamination within the Upper Animas Watershed and will protect public health and the environment by improving water quality, stabilizing mine source areas, and minimizing unplanned releases.
Under the agreement, Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation will together pay $45 million to the United States and State of Colorado, and the United States will dismiss its claims against Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation. The United States will also contribute $45 million to the continuing cleanup at the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site and Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation will dismiss its claims against the United States.
“Today’s settlement holds these companies accountable for their past mining operations at the site,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This settlement demonstrates the Justice Department’s and cleanup agencies’ continuing efforts, together with our state partners, to ensure that Superfund sites are investigated and remediated.”
“This settlement addresses the cleanup responsibility of the private mining companies and the federal government and ensures that site cleanup work will continue,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Working with our state and federal government partners, the cleanup will protect the environment and the health of the people who live, work, and enjoy recreational activities in the area.”
“This settlement will allow EPA to continue our important cleanup work at the site to protect human health and the environment,” said Director Betsy Smidinger of EPA Region 8’s Superfund and Emergency Management Division. “We look forward to working with our state and local partners to use these funds which will be utilized to improve the environment for the people who work, live, and recreate in the area.”
“The Gold King spill is a vivid reminder of the dangers associated with the thousands of abandoned and unclaimed hard rock mines across the United States, particularly in the West,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau. “Mining companies should be held accountable for these sites that put communities and tribal lands at risk of disastrous pollution. I’m proud that the Department of the Interior was able to play a part in this important settlement.”
“We are committed to protecting where Coloradan’s live, work and play,” said Director Tracie White of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Hazardous Material and Waste Management Division. “This settlement will allow continued cleanup of this Superfund site, in coordination with our federal and local partners, to ensure the protection of human health and the environment for generations to come,”
EPA leads cleanup activities at the Bonita Peak Mining District
Superfund site, and DOI and USDA retain authority on publicly managed
land. Recent interim cleanup work at the site, including efforts to
stabilize mine waste and reduce contaminant releases to surface waters
from source areas, have improved environmental conditions and will
inform the development of future cleanup remedies for the entire site
under an adaptive management framework. EPA has already spent over $75
million on cleanup work at the site and expects to continue significant
work at the site in the coming years.
Contractors working on an EPA mine waste drainage remediation project at the Gold King Mine, now owned by the federal government and lying more than a mile from SGC’s Sunnyside mine, breached the plug in the lowest-level tunnel, resulting in pressurized acidic water contaminated with heavy metals to burst out of the tunnel.
The waste flooded into Cement Creek, high above the mountain town of Silverton. The bright yellow-orange wastewater flowed into the Animas River and caused panicked reactions by communities downstream as far away as New Mexico and Utah. It also caused communities to shut down drinking water plants and irrigation diversions.
EPA scientists said the contamination was mostly iron and that other metals in the water posed no human health hazard.
Earlier, in 1991
In 1991, after more than 140 years of mining activity, the Sunnyside mine, the last major mining operation in Silverton, Colo., closed down. In its heyday Silverton produced two million ounces of gold, 51 million ounces of silver and hundreds of millions of pounds of copper, zinc and lead from the enormous collapsed San Juan volcanic caldera.
August 5, 2015
On August 5, 2015, contractors working on a mine-waste drainage remediation project for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) breached the plug in a tunnel at the entrance to the seventh level of the Gold King mine on Cement creek, above Silverton, Colo.
The pressure of an estimated three million gallons of water laden
with metals including mostly iron, but also lead, aluminum, zinc, and
cadmium blew out the plug installed in 2003 and poured down Cement creek
into the Animas river, creating a plume of yellow-orange water that
panicked residents as far away as New Mexico and Utah, but which was quickly diluted and according to EPA chemists was never toxic to humans. View an animation of the Gold King Mine plume.
1911
In 1911, William Terry enlarged and refitted the Eureka Mill with a zinc ore separator, which increased its operations. Joseph managed a workforce of 90 employees producing 180 tons of ore per day, double the usual average per worker.
1917
In 1917, the U.S. Smelting, Mining, and Refining Company (USSRMC) made a generous offer to the Terrys for the Sunnyside Mine. Forming the Sunnyside Mining & Milling Company, the Sunnyside, Washington, and Gold Prince groups were consolidated. The company made plans for yet another mill at Eureka capable of treating 500 tons per day and of finishing driving the Terry Tunnel from the mill site to undercut the vein system at great depth.
But, no sooner had they bought these mines when the company was plagued by problems, including the Sunnyside surface plant burning down, forcing the mine’s temporary closing, the influenza epidemic of 1918, avalanches, and power blackouts. However, the Sunnyside Mill was completed at Eureka, the surface plant was rebuilt, and the mine complex housed 220 workers.
During these busy construction days, Eureka was busy, as workers filled the available housing and provided business for local merchants. With the Sunnyside Mill finished in 1918, the town’s permanent population grew to about 250 people. The town boasted several boarding houses, a barbershop, J.F. Warnock’s Mercantile, McJunkin Station that sold feed and fuel, the Eureka Hotel and restaurant, A.L. Lashbaugh Livery, a doctor named William Carter, C.F. Worden’s billiard hall, as well as several mining companies and assayers.
1920
A national recession hit, in the early 1920s and industrial metals’ price dropped to the point that operations at the Sunnyside Mine were suspended once again. In 1922, the mine reopened, 216 men were working, and 500 tons of ore were processed per day. The company then began to focus on developing its adjoining claims, and by the next year, its workforce reached 360 men.
Sunnyside Mill, Eureka (San Juan County) Colorado; shows mining ore processing buildings on a hillside, in 1929.
1930
The Great Depression caused the Sunnyside to suspend work in 1930, and it remained closed until 1937. That year, the Sunnyside Mining & Milling Company was Colorado’s largest gold producer. The accessible ore reserves were almost gone, and in 1939, the company laid off the workforce and closed the mine.
1939
The Silverton-Eureka segment of the Silverton Northern Railroad also stopped operations in 1939. In the final years of its operation, the railroad operated a unique railcar and a favorite of the miners. The little railbus “The Casey Jones” was built in the shops at the Sunnyside Mill. It can be seen today at the San Juan Historical Society’s museum in Silverton.
1941
The Sunnyside Mill continued to operate until 1941. The railroad removed its tracks in 1942, and the post office closed the same year. The mill facilities were sold for scrap in 1948. By this time, the town was abandoned and comprised of empty buildings.
Automobile modified to be a rail car at the Sunnyside mine, Eureka (San Juan County), Colorado. William L. Fick photo.
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