Waldorf Colorado And the Santiago mine Townsite - Ghost town
Photos Courtesy of Mike Sinnwell October 2006
THIS SITE IS CLOSED FOR SOIL REMEDIATION WORK
Nothing left but tailings at Waldorf but the Santiago Mine above the old townsite is well worth a visit. The mine and mill have plenty of items to see. Waldorf started in 1868 and was an important stage stop as you went over Argentine Pass. Some claim that over 1/6th of the state of Colorado can be seen at the top of the pass. There were at least nine mines in the area that produced millions in gold and silver. Waldorf was never much of a town. Even the post office was only open for a half dozen years.
Tourists used to use the train, built by the Argentine Central RR, and all the switchbacks it had to get to the top. I have followed the old railroad grade to the top and it is spectacular. In the neighborhood of 13,000 feet. I stood a little too close to the edge and when the wind stopped blowing I almost went over the side. Lesson learned. Don't lean into the wind when standing at the top of a mountain edge.
A viewer writes - Sunday, October 03, 2010 - I just went up to the Santiago Mine. It was beautiful and very interesting to be in the remains of a very active mine back in the day. Makes me appreciate what we have today because living back then was tough. Thanks for the guest log. Bryan L. 10/3/2010
A viewer writes - Monday October 17th, 2011 - Your pictures for the Waldorf and Santiago Mine area near Georgetown include pictures ending in 20016,20017 and 20020. These are pictures of a mine worked by Roland Piltz up until the 1970's and his father before that around the turn of the century. There is a small book written by Polly Chandler called "The Men Who Lived On Hope" about Roland and the stories he told of growing up in Georgetown. Roland lived behind my Aunt and Uncle in Georgetown and when I was a young teenager he would come down in the evening and talk with the adults. I believe you can find the small booklet about him. It is very interesting and includes pictures that you can tell is the same mine as on your page. I have a copy of it and will email you the cover if you would like. I hope to get up to the mine soon myself to look around. Steve Starkel
Rocky says -- Interesting book but I wish it had more details.
A viewer writes - Saturday April 14th, 2012 -- Mike, I stumbled upon thIS pic in an old family photo album recently. These pics were taken by my Mother-in-laws Father's Step Sister, Betty Fern Seawell in 1909. Thought you would enjoy them. -- Jeff Cumming, GA
A viewer writes - Tuesday, October 16, 2012 -- Came across this site while searching for information about a place I came across while camping and hiking in the mountains above George Town CO. as a young man in 1978. After all these years I was thinking about it again and thought it must have been something and is probably on the internet by now. By searching Google maps I was able to figure out where we were and turns out it is the Santiago mine, saw the pictures and it brought back the memories of exploring around there. Thanks for the site.
A viewer writes Tuesday, July 01, 2014 -- My name is Jerry Williams. I'm 74 years old - a native Coloradan - and have been visiting the Waldorf/Argentine Pass trails for many years on my atv. Never found or knew about Santiago until I saw info and a map about it on www/funtreks.com website. My daughter, Dawn Folmer and I rode my atv up there and visited Santiago and took lots of pictures on Monday, June 30, 2014. It looked like snow still covered parts of the trail up to Argentine Pass so we didn't attempt that ride yet - maybe later this summer