Camp Bird Mine

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Camp Bird Mill, 1940
Camp Bird Mill, 1940

The Camp Bird Mine is a famous and highly-productive old gold mine located between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado. It was discovered by Thomas F. Walsh in 1896, and is (or was) owned by the Federal Resources Corp. The mine produced about 1.5 million Troy ounces of gold, and 4 million Troy ounces of silver, from 1896 to 1990 [1]. Walsh sold the property for $US 5.2 million in 1902. Walsh's daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean, later purchased the Hope Diamond. Walsh died in 1909.

Camp Bird is named after the "Camp Birds", probably Rocky Mountain jays [2], that ate many a miner's lunch [3]. Telluride native David Lavender related his experiences working at the Camp Bird Mine in the 1930s in his classic memoir One Man's West.

C.W. McCall sang "Way out in Colorado, in the Camp Bird Mine, down deep in the darkness, on level nine..." [4]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Camp Bird Mine, Ouray, Sneffels District (Mount Sneffels District), Ouray Co., Colorado, USA
  2. ^ Nesting of the Rocky Mountain Jay W. C. Bradbury: The Condor, Vol. 20, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1918), pp. 197-208 doi:10.2307/1362801
  3. ^ Camp Bird - Colorado Ghost Town
  4. ^ Camp Bird Mine

[edit] Sources and external links


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