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Silver Plume ColoradoVisit historic Silver Plume a former mining town
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The historic Town of Silver Plume
A Statutory Town located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Silver Plume is a former silver mining camp along Clear Creek in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The federally designated Georgetown-Silver Plume National Historic District comprises Silver Plume, the neighboring Town of Georgetown, and the Georgetown Loop Historic Mining & Railroad Park between the two towns.
The town population was 203 at U.S. Census 2000.The Silver Plume Post Office has the ZIP Code 80476. Silver Plume is located at 39°41′45″N, 105°43′34″W (39.695919, -105.726066) The town has a total area of 0.2 square miles (0.6 km²), all of it land.
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Gold was the original metal sought in the Silver Plume area
By about 1864 some bright soul recognized that the grayish rock everyone had been kicking around and cursing was in fact silver ore, and the boom era for Silver Plume began.
The principle buyer of the silver was the United States government. America’s money at the time was based on a “bimetal” standard of gold and silver. However, in the midst of the economic “Panic of 1893” the nation switched to the gold standard, and Congress revoked the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. The price of silver tumbled, and Silver Plume’s boom era ended. | |
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| Silver mining declined after 1893 Replaced briefly by lead mining to support the WWI war effort (galena is lead sulfide, recall), Silver Plume itself became moribund except for tourism inspired by the Argentine Central Railroad and by the first passenger tramway in the nation. The Sunrise Peak Aerial Tramway began operation in 1907 with twenty-six gondola cars that carried sightseers 2000 feet up Pendleton Mountain.
The old school house pictured to the left is currently the home of the Goerge Rowe Museum. It is open during the summer for tours 10 to 4 daily.
The town’s further recovery depended on commercial skiing after WWII (largely thanks to veterans of the 10th Mountain Division). From the 1960’s to the present the recovery has depended on the migration into the mountains of folks from urban and rural flatlands in Colorado and elsewhere around the nation. |
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View north in Silver Plume, ColoradoThe central business district and mines on Republican Mountain; mines include Diamond Tunnel, Pelican, Dives, Baxter, Dunkirk, Payrock, Hopewell, Egan Tunnel, and Vulcan. Clear Creek is visible in the near foreground. Buildings in town include two, flat topped stone structures, used as grocery stores and saloons, and St. Patrick's Catholic Church.
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Census Data
As of the census of 2000, there were 203 people, 93 households, and 47 families residing in the town. The population density was 820.2 people per square mile (313.5/km²). There were 134 housing units at an average density of 541.4/sq mi (207.0/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 94.09% White, 3.45% from other races, and 2.46% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.36% of the population.
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Census DataThere were 93 households out of which 24.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.3% were married couples living together, 2.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.4% were non-families. 39.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 3.02.
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Census DataIn the town the population was spread out with 22.2% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 33.5% from 25 to 44, 30.0% from 45 to 64, and 2.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 128.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 129.0 males.
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LEBANON AND EVERETT MINE TUNNELS
Adjacent to I-70, northeast of Silver Plume
National Register 10/7/1971, 5CC.7
The Lebanon Tunnel was driven into Republican Mountain by the Lebanon Mining company in 1870. An exact year of construction for the Everett Tunnel is unknown, but the mine was in operation through the mid- 1880s. In recent years, portions of the tunnels have been reopened as an interpretive exhibit in conjunction with the Colorado Historical Society’s reconstruction of the Georgetown Loop Railroad.
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SILVER PLUME DEPOT
825 Railroad Ave.
National Register 5/6/1971, 5CC.4
The 1884 Silver Plume Depot served as the western terminus of the Colorado Central Railroad route from Denver to the Clear Creek mining region. Located at the upper end of the famous Georgetown Loop, the depot first served miners and their families, and then the increasing number of tourists attracted by the engineering and scenic qualities of the loop passage. The successor Colorado & Southern Railway abandoned the loop and the depot in 1939, but both once again operate as part of the Colorado Historical Society’s Georgetown Loop Historic Mining & Railroad Park® interpretive complex. The property is associated with the Railroads in Colorado, 1858-1948 Multiple Property Submission. | |
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