The now ghost town of Crystal, Colorado was founded in 1880 and is located 0.2 mile beyond the mill. About 400 people lived in the town by 1886 with seven working silver mines. Crystal had two newspapers, two hotels, saloons, billiard parlor, barber shop, and men's-only Crystal Club.

The 'Old Mill at Crystal' was actually not a mill at all, but a power generating station. The mill powered a mechanical air compressor for use in ore processing. Crystal Mill had a horizontal water wheel, which turned a vertical shaft that ran up through the housing now held together by cables. It turned an air compressor that was used to operate the air drills for at least two of the local mines on the hill above the mill.

There is a 4 wheel drive trail that you can take to this mill thats about 10 miles round trip. We decided to hike the road instead. It ended up being a really really long day because it was a steady downpour of rain the entire way there and back. In addition the part of road was flooded by the river and we had a nice quoter of mile wade up to the knees.

Though it was worth it! And everything crowned a wonderful dinner back in Marble! The ribs were delicious!

Tags: Architecture Black and white Landscape and travel

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