Talk:Gilman, Colorado

While travelling along Highway 24 traversing Battle Mountain we stopped briefly on a sharp turn overlooking the creek and railbed below. While taking some pictures of a rock formation my travel companion and myself were both chilled to the bone by sinister laughter that sounded like children playing, yet much louder and more harsh than anything we had ever heard. Continuing on our travels up the mountainside we came upon the abandoned mining town of Gilma, with an eerie "ghost town" appearance, we could not help but wonder what kind of history the town holds in regards to such an incident and if there is any connection possible to our experience.

ambuguy@hotmail.com

Error in Population
This article notes a maximum population of "8970" reached in the 1950's or 1960's. This is an error. In fact, 8970 is the ELEVATION of Gilman. My father (Tom Garnett, Jr. of Boulder, CO) grew up in Gilman in the 30's and 40's. It's unlikely that there were ever more than 300 or 400 residents unless it was in the lat 1800's before it became a company town. I modified the article accordingly on July 15, 2007.

We were fortunate to visit the site on a tour recently. It's quite a small town in terms of homes. But, fascinating to see what they left behind. When it closed, it looks like they just picked up and left everything.

My grandfather was chief engineer for building the underground mill at the site. I've seen it written that the underground mill was 8 stories high. It was built underground because there was no room for a mill at the canyon floor since the walls are so steep.

Certainly, I haven't heard stories to connect with ambuguy's experience. And, we've heard a lot of stories about the town.

Regards,

Doug Garnett

Mine Closure and EPA Issues
According to my relatives who grew up in Gilman and worked around the mine nearly through it's closure in the 1980's, the mine/town closure as a superfund site was not because of mining operations. Rather, the new owner of the mine is reported to have left the power bill unpaid causing the power company to turn off power. When that happened, the pumps quit working and the mine filled with water - leaching arsenic and other poisons from the rock and bringing them to the surface at the town site.

This article refers to the water leaching, but doesn't attribute the Gilman closure to that contamination. http://www.5280.com/magazine/2011/06/last-resort?page=0,1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.22.114.229 (talk) 04:42, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

The tailings ponds are/were also a cleanup site and are such because of mine operations.

...Doug Garnett — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.22.114.229 (talk) 04:34, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

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Non-sequitor with planned development in 2007
The site is mainly identified as a toxic site with contaminated water and being closed off to the public. However, the introductory section says that there were plans in the 2000s to develop the town for ski resorts and private dwellings. How would this be possible, with the town's status as being closed to the public? This needs added explaining in the narrative in the introduction.Dogru144 (talk) 20:01, 22 July 2021 (UTC)