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}} Smuggler Mine is located on the slopes of Smuggler Mountain, on the north edge of Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is the oldest operating silver mine in the Aspen mining district, and one of the few still operating from Aspen's early boom years. In 1987 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The largest silver nugget ever mined, weighing over a ton (900 kg), came from Smuggler. At its peak the mine was responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world's total silver output. Its extensive tunnel system reaches more than a thousand feet (300 m) below the entrance, extending under the city of Aspen, although most of the lower tunnels are presently flooded. Smuggler was one of the few mines in the Aspen area to reopen after the 1893 repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. It continued producing ore until 1918, and was reopened in the 1970s. In 1984 it was designated a Superfund site after tests found high levels of lead and cadmium in the soil. It took the Environmental Protection Agency 12 years to clean up the site. While it is estimated that nearly a million pounds (400,000 kg) of recoverable ore remain in the mine, it is used as much for tours today as mining. In 2012 it and two nearby lots were put up for sale.〔 ==Buildings and grounds== The mine's surface facilities are located in a area enclosed by a chainlink fence off Smuggler Mountain Road (Pitkin County Route 21), on the northeast fringe of Aspen just outside city limits. It is at the base of Smuggler Mountain, at an elevation of above sea level. The slopes of the mountain, to the north and east, are intermittently wooded with scrubby evergreen trees, eventually becoming part of White River National Forest, with the shafts of other mines, now defunct, amongst the trees. Silverlode Drive runs along the southwest, below the mine, leading to an area of large modern houses on the mine's northwest. Directly to the west, with some open space between them and Silverlode, are two rows of attached condominium-style units on Free Silver Court and Nicholas Lane. On the southwest, across Park Circle, are seven tennis courts, buffering a densely developed residential area on their west. The mine property consists of a lower area at the foot of a large tailings pile, with a large circular unpaved road along which many vehicles and truck trailers are parked. A two-lane road curves around to the north to climb to a small complex of buildings uphill near a smaller tailings pile. Both piles are considered to be contributing resources to the mine's historic character. At the base of the larger pile is a small corrugated metal building with a gabled roof and a smaller gabled wooden shed. A watchman's trailer is in the woods near the property's northwest corner. At the top is another corrugated metal building with a trailer attached to it and a wooden shed with a gabled roof. They are non-contributing, as is a modern reconstruction of an original wooden ore chute. Next to it is section of track with seven ore cars, two from the Smuggler and five from other mines of the Silver Boom era; they are contributing.〔 The entrance to the original Smuggler Shaft is fenced off just to the north of the base of the larger pile. The Clark Tunnel is near the upper tailings pile. Both are contributing, as are the sandstone blocks that remain from the foundation of the original gallows frame and house near the Clark. The two tunnels lead to 38 underground levels, half of which are flooded.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Smuggler Mine」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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