The tailings boom is the first and last thing you see when approaching the mountaintop shipwreck.
history under ground
gravel
With its fresh paint, Lake Superior Elevator “I” almost looks contemporary, but it far outdates its neighbors, It replaced a wooden elevator by the same name in 1919.
This photo illustrates how vertical the complex is.
Through a section of the tailings boom where mountain winds tore open the sheet metal around the conveyor, I poked my head out.
Don’t you love the shape of the house on the right?
…a better view of the huge tailings boom stretching outside of the tailings pond.
Our bikes outside of the SFAAP power plant.
The bottom of the tailings boom is rotten. In days when the dredge, floated, gangways connected it to shore, it seemed. You can see the size of the pontoons under the boat here.
A screened water wheel, presumably for rotating the dredge once it lowered its “foot” to pivot in place.
Like a railgun pointed at the Rockies… the boom would direct tailings–junk rock–outside of the dredge pond.
The gold mine is now a gravel pit.