The Kathleen Mollie Gold Mine Tour in Cripple Creek, Colorado
Strap on your hard hat, cram into a metal-grated elevator (with too many people), drop a full 1,000 feet below ground and you are inside the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine!
This is the real deal. Not to put down the very popular Argo Mill Mine Tour in Idaho Springs, Colorado, but if you want to get a honest-to-God feeling for real mining, this is the tour to take!
On this tour, you walk through the hard rock mine tunnels along the moist mine cart rails, watch a rock drill noisily bore into rock, and see a scoop machine lift up and dump the slag into a mine cart. You will notice a few beautiful crystalized formations on the mine walls and feel the 50-degree temperature inside the mine. And, after all this experience, you will come to realize first-hand the danger, hard work and noisy conditions those poor miners endured!
The tour ends with a free small sample of ore.
