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Harvesting Historical Riches Old Hundred Boardinghouse and Tramway Terminal
Despite a profitable start, the Old Hundred failed to deliver on its
promise. When revenues dwindled by 1900, the Niegolds sold out. The
buyers, doing business as the Old Hundred Mining Company, developed
the claims further by adding the boardinghouse, tramway terminal,
a stamp mill capable of processing 200 tons of ore per day, and other
improvements. Disappointing returns on these investments, alleged
mismanagement, and rising operating costs forced the Old Hundred Company
to cease operations in 1908.
Today, the boardinghouse has been stabilized and securely fixed to the mountainside. The project's partners hope to complete work on the tramway terminal soon. Thanks to the efforts of the San Juan County Historical Society, the DMG, the State Historical Fund, and several contractors, both buildings continue to contribute to our understanding of the resourcefulness and inventiveness required to mine the rugged San Juans. BY BEN FOGELBERG, Editor, Colorado History
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In
1904-when weather permitted-construction crews led mule teams burdened
with building materials six-and-a-half miles up a trail of repeating
switchbacks to Galena Mountain's 13,278-foot summit. Overlooking the
mineral-rich San Juan Mining District near Howardsville, workers hand-winched
the materials down a wooden chute two hundred feet to the Old Hundred
Mine's Level 7 adit. There, two thousand feet above the valley floor
on the mountain's pitched eastern face, they carved two slim ledges
on which they built the mine's boardinghouse and tramway terminal.
The boardinghouse accommodated twenty-four miners during their off-hours,
while the tramway transported ore from the mine's mouth, located directly
behind the terminal, to a mill in the valley below. A slim boardwalk
connected the two structures. Every time the miners stepped outside
either building, they risked tumbling down the 40-degree slope.
Only
the promise of great wealth could entice men to consider and carry
out such a bold and dangerous enterprise. Staked by the Niegold brothers
in 1874, the Old Hundred Mine was within the boundaries of the San
Juan Mining District's Alpine Triangle in southwestern Colorado. The
district was created following the expulsion of the Ute Indians from
the territory in 1873. The Alpine Triangle-the area between Silverton,
Lake City, and Ouray-produced millions of dollars' worth of gold,
silver, lead, copper, and zinc between 1874 and 1991. 
Recognizing
the danger to the buildings themselves and to the San Juan region's
mining heritage, the San Juan County Historical Society teamed up
with the Colorado Division of Minerals and Geology (DMG), the State
Historical Fund, and the Bureau of Land Management in 1999 to stabilize
and preserve the boardinghouse and to begin stabilization work on
the tramway terminal. The project's ingenuity equaled that of the
initial construction project. Lacking mule trains, preservationists
airlifted materials to the site via helicopter. The DMG, which safeguards
old mine entrances through its Colorado Inactive Mine Reclamation
Program, regularly uses helicopters to hoist adit-closure materials
to inaccessible mines. Already committed to closing the Old Hundred's
Level 7 entrance, the DMG could donate helicopter time to the preservation
project at little added cost. The airlifts proved successful, despite
downdrafts and bad weather that threatened to dash the chopper into
the cliffs.