Photo Description
The steel headframe was disassembled from the site of the Cresson Mine, now the Cresson Surface Mine, between Victor and Cripple Creek. It was refurbished, reassembled and erected in 1995 as a donation to the City of Victor and to District miners - past, present, and Future.
The Cresson headframe stood over the Cresson Mine shaft for over 73 years prior to its move to this location. The headframe had been moved once before, in 1923, from the Golden Cycle Mine located just west of Goldfield, to the Cresson Mine, replacing a wooden headframe.
The steel headframe allowed the Cresson Mine owners to sink a shaft ultimately to the depth of about 2800 feet below the surface. The capacity of the headframe became important as the additional hoisting cable increased the weight to be hoisted and faster rates of hoisting were desired. The headframe had two sheave wheels at the top. Over these ran the hoist cables, one to the ore hoisting skip and the other to a counterweight. The cage was used to hoist miners and supplies into the mine and gold ore out of the mine. This headframe stands about 100 feet high and weighs about 35 tons.
The Cresson underground mine produced $51,000,000 worth of gold at a time when gold was fixed at $20.67 to $35 per troy ounce. The Cresson Mine was the site of the 1914 discovery of a room-sized "vug" - something akin to a very large geode. At 1,200 feet below the surface this vug produced 60,000 ounces of gold. The mine was idle since 1960 except for a small operation in the early 1980's.
In 1994 surface mining was initiated in low-grade ore deposits to once again produce gold, this time at a scale that set records for Colorado. You can learn more about mining at the Victor Lowell Thomas Museum and see the overview of the Cresson Surface Mine at the American Eagles Scenic Overlook.
From a sign at the site
