Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument contains some of the best preserved plant and insect fossils in the world. The fossils were preserved when volcanoes in the nearby Thirtynine Mile Volcanic Field erupted and the landscape was covered with volcanic ash. At the time of the eruption there were large redwood trees in the area and over a period of time, through the process of permineralization, the organic matter in the trees was replaced with silica, forming petrified wood. Thus, explaining the large amount of petrified wood found in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Throughout the Monument there are large fossilized redwood tree trunks still standing that have now been banded together to stabilize the structures because historically people broke off chunks of the petrified wood to take home.
The 1878 Hornbek Homestead is part of the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and is a good example of an early Colorado ranch. Mrs. Hornbek was a pioneer woman that lived on the homestead with her four children.
If you need some Llama wool, or spinning, weaving & knitting supplies, Stage Stop Llamas is located just south of Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument and will be happy to sell you all of the supplies you need.
Traveling south on Colorado State Highway 67 is the highest bridge on a Colorado state highway. The bridge is located just west of the community of Victor.
Victor is a historic mining community that bills itself as "The World's Greatest Gold Camp."
In 1890 Gold was discovered in the Victor area and by 1897 Victor had a population of over 8,000 people (about 18,000 people counting the surrounding area) and 140 businesses. For a time, Victor was the fifth largest city in Colorado. However, the population started declining after the great fire of 1899, reaching about 450 people in 1960, which is similar to the population today.
Victor was one of the first communities in the United States to have electricity, telephones, municipal water & sewer, and fire protection services. At its peak, there were three railroad lines serving the city with over 58 train arrivals/departures per day. There were also two electric streetcar lines that linked Victor with most of the mines -- a ride on the street car cost a nickel.
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| Does anyone know how to spell "upholstering?" |
During the summer months, the Victor Lowell Thomas Museum offers guided tours of the Newmont Open Pit Gold Mine (advanced reservation required), so we booked a tour before we left home.
At one time there were over 500 underground mines in the Victor area. The mines are now closed; however, many of the mines still contain ore carts, rail lines, tools and other mining equipment. As the Newmont Open-Pit Mine absorbs these historic underground tunnels, the scrap metal encountered is removed from the ore crushers by using large electromagnets. After the ore has been crushed, it is transported to large leach fields where it remains until no additional gold can profitably be leached from the ore.
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| Aerial Photograph of Newmont Open-Pit Mine - Photographer Unknown |
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| Metal removed by the electromagnets. |
The Phantom Canyon section of the Gold Belt Tour National Scenic Byway starts in Victor and ends near Florence. The dirt road is only about 30 miles long, but it takes several hours to drive the 30 miles due to the many curves and washboard condition of the road.
Wilbur is now just a sign by a vacant field, but at one time Wilbur was the largest settlement in Phantom Canyon. Wilbur had a train depot, post office, school, and saloon.
The "Steel Bridge" was built in 1897 to replace a wooden railroad trestle that burned in 1896. It is now the only remaining bridge that was constructed by the Florence and Cripple Creek Railroad.
The dirt road to Florence passes through several tunnels that were blasted out of solid granite. Because the granite is so hard, no supporting timbers were required for tunnel supports.
Florence was originally a transportation center for the railroads, but the community grew rapidly after oil was discovered in 1862. The town claims that it was the first oil center west of the Mississippi River.
Penrose is knows as "The Model Rocket Capital of the World" because anyone that has ever built model rockets knows that Penrose is the home of Estes Industries - the primary builder of model rocket engines. After visiting Penrose, I knew that it was an "upscale" community because it has a street named "Park Place." Penrose also has the World's Largest Rocking Chair (21 feet tall, 14 feet wide, 9,100 pounds, built in 1990 from hand hewn Douglas Fir logs).
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