Group praises McInnis

Group praises McInnis, others for saving Red Mountain district

February 2, 2002

By Charles Ashby
Durango Herald Capitol Correspondent

DENVER — The Red Mountain Mining District in Ouray County was declared saved Friday after being placed on a list of endangered places in Colorado three years ago by a statewide organization that monitors such things.

At its annual conference here, Colorado Preservation Inc. honored those involved in saving the 10,000-acre high-alpine wilderness area, including U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colorado) and Ken Francis, executive director of Fort Lewis College's Office of Community Services.

Francis was part of a Red Mountain Task Force that helped save the site.

The entire group was honored for their work by the group, a statewide nonprofit historic-preservation organization founded in 1984.

The mining district, which was placed on the group's list in 1998, is only one of four in the Four Corners area included on its endangered list.

Overall, it is one of 37 on the group's list, seven of which were added Friday.

The mining district also is one of four of those endangered sites to have been declared saved. Two on the list are forever lost.

According to the group's official list, the remaining Southwest Colorado sites still on the list include:

• The Durango Power House in La Plata County was built in 1893 by the Durango Light Co. Already listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the structure is threatened with demolition unless a local preservation group can gain enough support to convert it into a light and power museum. It was placed on the endangered list last year.

• The Alta Lakes in San Miguel County, where Gold King Mine is located. The historic mining town still retains many structures built between the 1890s and the 1930s.

It was added to the list in 2000, in part, because of its location, which is near Telluride. The group said that means that the ghost town is prime development property for ski resorts and summer homes.

• Lewis Mill in San Miguel County in 1998. Located in the mountains above Telluride at an elevation of more than 12,000 feet, the mill still has some of its original equipment still in place, making it one of the state's fewest metal processing mills left intact.

It is now about to collapse after decades of harsh winters and vandalism.

Also at the group’s conference, Linda Towle, chief of research and resource management at Mesa Verde National Park, and LouAnn Jacobsen, manager of the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, spoke on how their two historic places have learned how to balance public visitation with historic preservation, saying the two are not mutually exclusive.