Underground Mining Museum

Why visit

Creede’s mines worked almost without a break from 1890 until 1985. When they closed, local miners put their skills to one more use. Starting in 1990, three of them drilled and blasted a museum out of the solid rock cliff, with county workers and volunteers clearing the rock and finishing the work. The tunnels are real, the tools are real, and many of the guides grew up in mining families.

What to see

• The tunnels: hundreds of feet of drift, as a miner would call it, cut into the cliff.
• The displays: how miners drilled, blasted, mucked out rock and timbered the workings, and how ore was assayed.
• The community center: a meeting hall underground, used by the town for events.

Tours

You can explore on a self-guided audio tour of about half an hour. In summer, live guided tours of about an hour are led by local history enthusiasts and usually need a reservation. Hours, tour times and prices change from year to year, so check with the museum before you go.

Tips

• The tunnels are cool all year, so bring a jacket even in July.
• The museum is accessible for wheelchair users.
• Drive the Bachelor Loop afterwards to see the mines you have just learned about.