The Infamous Toxic Ghost Town in Colorado | ABANDONED

In this small series I am in Colorado with Edwin and visit abandoned mine related facilities.
I visit the infamous ghost town Gilman, which closed in 1984 by the order of the Enviromental Protection Agency because of toxic pollutants. Since then it's a forbidden ghost town.

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Hi, Al. This video is about an abandoned me in Colorado USA Please show it to people who will like it. Thank you.

[kennyambrose]

I am a 71 year old man living in Cleveland Ohio. In the 1970's I was a miner at New Jersey Zinc's Gilman mine. I lived in Leadville Colorado at the time and enjoyed your video tremendously as it brought back nice memories of working there. I worked with many old timers such as Chili and Harvey and was known as "Harvey's Hippie". Just want to mention one interesting fact about mining at Gilman, even though electric caps were around at that time the old timers elected to shoot with black wick and strikers cutting the wicks at different lengths to get the different delay times needed to pull a perfect round every time. If you ever get the chance Leadville has a lot of interesting old mines such as Asarco's Black Cloud and others.

[JamesHeyer]

My dad is from Gilman, Colorado and I've heard many stories about this old mining town. His mother was the postmaster while he was growing up. A good portion of his health problems are the result of growing up in this mining town. Unfortunately, all of his sisters and brother have all passed from cancer. The amount of history in these buildings is amazing!

[jamesmalogorski]

I'm 69 now and was the last member of the mine crew at the New Jersey Zinc mine in Gillman . Worked on the 34 level mostly and lived in Leadville and commuted to the mine . Worked at the Climax Molybdenum mine until it closed in 78.then worked at Black cloud then Gillman .Then The North London Mine outside Alma then Camp Bird Outside Ouray .Relly Wish i was young again those where the best of times, worked hard and played hard.

[sherrybrence]

I was a two year old child when my father worked in the mine. My mother told us she tied us to trees when we were outside to protect us from the cliff that was our front yard.

[patton]

Those railroad tracks went to Camp Hale about 7 miles from Gilman. It was a secret high altitude training base during WWII and the original home of the 10th Mountain Division. There were over 20, 000 troops living there and it was a huge thriving base.
They pioneered modern rappelling, free climbing, snow fighting and high mountain warfare. Today there is almost no trace of it left except for railroad tracks.

[JoAnneBusch-qhrd]

I am the daughter of a former miner in Idaho and I enjoy your site. Dad was hired by a mine owner in idaho in 1943 to work in essential mining for WWII . He followed this career for ten years as a mechanic and heavy equipment operator. After WWII he worked for companies mining for gold, both by hard rock or tunnels and dredges. Growing up in the mountains was a wonderful child
hood.

[JS-wcxs]

The shiny (gold) colored rocks you were holding are pyrite. You can tell by the crystal structures. Fools gold is the more common term

[Cupcardriver]

Even though Gilman is shut down due to contamination, the surrounding area is so beautiful. Great motorcycle road up and around Gilman. Back there spring of ‘23.

[jochemb.]

That young guy died in 1978, but somebody still sems to bring fresh flowers to the memorial. That is very touching! It seems he was a young guy from La Puebla, Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States of America, his body is buried there on La Puebla Cemetery.

[MrAnderson]

Guys, I know you heard this before, but if you play in the mines out west here in the states, you need radiation meter, bad air sensor, beware of mercury, arsenic, lead, bat droppings, mouse droppings asbestos. Try not to eat with dirty hands from these places, a real dust mask/respirator is not stupid, and some pants with armor. Doom talk is over now.

Thank you so much for covering this town, yes I do remember the color of that river. Lots of nice equipment there. I recall the town, I had been there as a kid.

[broella]

I’ve lived in Colorado all my life. Growing up my family would camp near and explore many of these old mining towns. Many fond memories. I ended up making my home in Gilpin County in the heart of gold mining territory. In fact, the small town I live in once had a population of over 10, 000 because of mining. Now this town is full of casinos which is a shame, tho they say without the casinos it would have likely turned into a ghost town. Still, many of the old buildings remain and have been restored and there are the scars of gold mines everywhere peppering the mountainsides, reminding us of our once colorful past. I love living here..

[shie_nikman]

Welcome to Colorado! I've driven by Gilman many times and have always wondered what it would be like inside the buildings there and I'm excited to finally see! My boyfriend used to live in Minturn, a nearby town, and knows someone who lived there and they said it was a dump even before it was abandoned. Some of those cars you saw at the bottom could be left from old accidents, which are unfortunately a somewhat regular occurrence in that area of the highway with it being so twisty, narrow, and lacking sufficient guardrails. I know of at least one accident where a person died as they coming home from work late at night in a bad snow storm. It was suspected at the time the person became disoriented due to the snow and being tired and simply turned off the road and fell down the cliff as there were no signs they lost control of the vehicle. Hope you enjoyed your visit to our wonderful state!

[rlmiller]

I worked in a mill for a gold mine in about 1979. I laughed when I saw the book of purchase orders and it had parts for an SRL pump. I hated those damn pumps!! The packing would wear out and you'd have to change it very quickly. They carried water straight up 90 degrees for 3 stories on a 4" line and then about a mile at 45 degrees up hill.

[mayhemacres]

Glad to see yall visited my state! There are so many abandoned mines and ghost towns here. Sounds like our altitude got you a bit. Thanks for the video!

[gregdahlgren]

I had permission from the Ginn Corporation in the early 2000’s to document Gilman for couple of years. The Gilman Project was done using a 5x7 view camera and is in book form in Eagle County Library and Ginn Corporation has the limited edition framed prints from the many gallery showings I did. I have a Library of Congress number because of the historical significance of my project was to the history of Gilman. One thing you didn’t think of the mine and town has large amounts of asbestos in the air. With out proper protection you are at risk. Greg Dahlgren photographer of the Gilman Project

[johnheyer]

This mine was primarily zinc and silver I was born there and my dad was a miner my mom ran post office and my grandfather was superintendent of New Jersey zinc mine used to be eagle mine they closed it down due to water contamination we had school in town and high school in red cliff colorado miner lived in Gilman and red cliff and Minturn

[matthewb]

When you drive mountain/big area drives in the US it's always something I think about now is how many forgotten places or stories must be on those run down side roads.

[EternallyThankful-ospz]

You guys took the time to hold the camera still or pan very slowly so we could enjoy the beautiful scenery - awesome !! It seems too many filming and posting videos move the camera way too quickly for the viewers to get any enjoyment from the scenery or the old machinery / buildings left behind - thanks for being thoughtful enough to not make this common mistake - you guys did great on this one !!

[toynat]

I took a cross country trip years ago and remember stopping in and exploring this mine, your video brings back so many memories of that trip, amazing video guys!

[JAM-zbvh]

The person taping has a steady hand and did a great job recording everything thank you. Thank you for bringing this to all of us old timers God bless you all please stay safe.