At just over 10,000?, the Mammoth claim is a rare find in the high country of central Colorado. Comprising of at least 3 good adits and a few prospects, the Mammoth lives up to its name. There are thousands of tons of tailings strewn down the valley, but they are so old that they can hardly be seen from the road. It’s not well known, but the history of the Wet Mountain district goes back to 1867 when gold was found in placers in the form of large nuggets, some as large as 28 ounces. These operations quickly moved up the hills to chase the source. The Silver Cliff was located just north of this property in 1874 and showed assay reports of 8400 ounces of silver to the ton. That’s no typo, thats 8400 ounces per ton. This mine was a large, but mostly undocumented site. Historic documents indicate that operations in this area went down to roughly 400 feet to where veins of nearly pure gold and silver formed in fissures and fractures in siliceous host rocks. This was a gold mine, as evidenced by the tailings. There is extensive pyrite, iron and quartz to be found along with some flake gold in small veins in the quartz. The area is high mountain, and will see good amounts of snow though the winter. The mines on this claim are easy to identify, but according to USGS reports have been closed since 1921. This is an amazing opportunity to get in on a set of mines that have been generally off the radar for almost 100 years. The mines can be dug out by hand with no Notice of Operation required. The gold and ores can be taken off the tailings piles and crushed and processed by hand. It’s a beautiful area with high peaks, expansive views and of course, rich old mines.