A tall red mill building painted Argo Gold Mine and Mill on a rocky hillside.

Red corrugated-iron mill buildings stepping up a hillside under a sign reading Argo Gold Mine and Mill.

A small arched opening closed by a rust-red door in a rock face, the words Argo Tunnel 1893 painted above.

A low dark steel truss bridge over a fast mountain creek, wooded hills behind.

A small square red brick building with tall arched double doors painted in red and white stripes.

After Dark, Idaho Springs, Colorado

Idaho Springs After Dark: The Miners Who Were Banished

Name: Idaho Springs After Dark: The Miners Who Were Banished
SKU: 176

$18.95 per tour

A march into the dark, four men lost in a flooded tunnel, a fire bell with no fire, a dynamite blast and a miner called Philip Fire, a meeting at the Opera House, and one law for influential citizens

Categories: After Dark, Idaho Springs, Colorado

Phones: 2 included, extra phones $2.95 each
Length: About 75 minutes
Distance: About 1.9 km (1.2 mi)
Stops: 8
Effort: Easy
Starts at: East end of Idaho Springs
Ends at: Idaho Springs Library (Carnegie Library)
Language: English

Content advisory: the walk tells of deaths in a mine flood and a dynamite explosion, armed men, a mob, threats of lynching, forced expulsion from town and ethnic slurs quoted from period sources, without graphic detail.

This is a self-guided smartphone experience. No human guide will meet you.

Start when you want, pause whenever you like, explore side streets, and go at your own pace.

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Description

A self-guided audio walk for the evening through downtown Idaho Springs, Colorado, on the true dark history of a mining town. It starts at the east end of town, where on a summer night in 1903 a crowd turned fourteen union miners out into the dark, passes the Argo Mill, where four miners drowned when blasting broke into hidden water in the tunnel in January 1943, and then walks west up Miner Street through the story of how that night came about. On July 28, 1903, during a miners’ strike for the eight-hour day, kegs of powder or dynamite wrecked a building at the Sun and Moon mine and a union miner named Philip Fire was found dying on the hillside. The next evening the fire bell called the town to the Opera House, where a mine manager and bank president moved to take the union men out of the jail, a deputy district attorney warned that no one had presented any evidence, and the motion carried with a shout. Fourteen men were marched east along the main street and told never to come back. You will hear what the records say about who planned it, who was tried and acquitted, and why the hundred and twenty-nine citizens charged over that night never faced a jury. No ghost stories are told, because none was found in the records; the miners’ legends are labeled as legends. Everything is told from public sidewalks and streets; nothing is narrated on private ground or inside the mill, and no tickets are sold or bundled.

The stops

The Edge of Town: Into the Darkness
The Argo Mill: Four Men Underground
The Miner Street Bridge: The Night of the Fire Bell
City Hall: The Strike and the Night of July 28
The First National Bank: The Morning After
The Hanchett Building: The Men in the Jail
The Opera House Site: A Meeting and a Motion
The Library Corner: One Law for Whom?

Finding the start

Start on the north sidewalk of Colorado Boulevard near 27th Avenue, at the east end of town where the paved Greenway path meets the boulevard, facing east along the road (motels and parking nearby; the Argo Mill is about 600 meters west).

Terrain and access

About 1.9 kilometers, step-free and nearly level on sidewalks and a paved path beside Colorado Boulevard, then Miner Street. Crosswalks on Miner Street and at 14th, 15th and 16th Avenues; the boulevard itself is not crossed. Lighting after dark has not been checked; carry a light and stay on lit sidewalks. No admissions. The walk ends in the middle of downtown, near street parking.

Tickets

Nothing on the route needs a ticket, and nothing is narrated on private ground.

Keep going

What you get

An email from [email protected] with a link and an access code.
Use it on your phone or tablet in an up-to-date web browser, no app store needed. There is no account to set up before you start.
Download it on Wi-Fi before you go. After that it works offline: audio, text, map and pictures.
Your booking includes 2 phones, so two of you can follow along, each on your own. Extra phones are $2.95 each, or a group can share one phone on its speaker.
Play, pause and replay every part, skip back and ahead, or change the playback speed. Keep the screen on or tap play at each stop.

How it was made

Every fact in the narration is checked against a cited source, and legends are told as legends. The narration is written from that research. How our tours are made.