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Published: August 19th 2021
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I just got my truck back after some expensive repairs in Gunnison, and I wanted to test out my wheels and gears. I drove East about twenty miles to the small town of Parlin, Colorado. I turned North on Gunnison County road 76. After a few miles I drove through the little town of Ohio City. I drove past the Fish Hatchery on to the larger town of Pitkin. I checked out a few old buildings and the 1900 Pitcan City Hall. There I walked up the stairs to peek inside the city hall. They had a large room that looked like it could accomodate a large bunch of people.
Pitkin was founded in 1879 and may be the first mining camp West of the Continental Divide. Pitkin (originally named Quartzville) was a gold and silver mining camp (at an elevation of about 9200 feet) probably from the quartz deposites at or near the forks of Quartz Creek Canyon. From the 1900 internet pic I found on the internet, the town population boomed around then.
Northbound in Pitkin the road turns into Gunnison N Forest road 765 a through route to Tin Cup, Colorado. With limited time I just
turned East on 767, a rough road through the middle fork of Quartz Creek canyon. There in the Gunnison National Forest there was free dispersed camping and some nice pay campgrounds.
I returned to Forest Service 765 and drove North to the junction of FS 839, the rough up the middle fork of Quartz Creek Canyon to the Old Alpine Railroad Tunnel. This rough road has dispersed camping. It was getting dark outside so I drove back to Gunnison.
My first time there in the 1980s; I drove up the middle Quartz Creek Canyon to the Old Alpine Railroad Tunnel and parked by the old Railroad Depot. (There were other tourists visiting the site then.) Looking directly into the tunnel, the outer fifty feet was still clear of the tunnel collapse. I used my 135 mm SLR and included two pics I shot then.
Later in 2004 I drove up the tunnel road and saw the water tank for the coal powered steam railroad boilers. I got to the barracades about three miles from the tunnel; but did not want to walk the six mile round trip. (Where the railroad was carved out of the cilffs, that
section collapsed never to be repaired.) That is still a walking route.
According to Wikipedia, The Alpine tunnel is at an elevation of 11,525 feet;' and dug through the mountain 1772 feet long and the first tunnel through the Contintental Divide in Colorado. At that time it was the highest railroad (narrow guage) tunnel in the world. Tunnel construction started in January 1880 and completed in July 1882. The Denver South Park & Pacific Railroad used the Alpine Tunnel for their direct route from Denver to Gunnison. The tunnel was abandoned in 1910 due to major damage. Later most of the tunnel collapsed.
In 2004 I drove North on FS 765 up the North Fork of Quartz Creek Canyon to the mining ruins higher in the canyon, South of Cumbeland Pass. I made my dispersed camp by a neat set of mining building ruins. At a nearby mine, there was water flowing from that mine that was reddish from mine contamination. (That contaminated water has been draining into Quartz Creek for over a century.) The next morning I drove up the large switchbacks to Cumberland Pass, about 12,000 feet in elevation. I spent a few hours walking around
checking out the mining ruins at the pass. I drove the dirt trails going both directions on the mountain ridge from the pass. Where the trails turned into four wheel drive I turned back to Cumberland Pass. Finally I drove down the switchbacks and forests of the West Fork of Willow Creek Canyon to the Community of Tin Cup.
Tin Cup is a quaint little community. Only the Tin Cup Store is open to the public. There is a very bad four wheel drive trail up to Tin Cup Pass over the Contintental Divide, and connecting with St. Elmo, Colorado. About ten miles NW are connections to drive West down Tayler Creek Canyon, and East to Cottonwood Pass over the Continental Divide.
Tin Cup at the elevation of 10,157 feet, was named after a 1859 prospecter who carried his panned gold back to camp in a tin cup. In 1880 the Town of Virginia City was incorporated there. In 1882 the town was renamed Tin Cup. After the mines played out in 1918 the post office closed.
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shikha sharma
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good content
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