In the Way
The mysteries of the inside solved, we turned our attention back outside. This was only the rear addition to a much larger building, at least what was once a much larger building. We follow the north wall forward until it ends abruptly at a jagged edge of red sandstone. Here the original part of the building once stood, but now only the rear wall remains. Peering around the jagged corner we look down the inside wall of the hoist building. Here on the inside most of the sandstone is covered by a generous supply of mortar. While not looking as nice as the outside wall, it probably served as an insulator against the elements. The back door that leads down into the compressor room has been left open, the wind succeeding in ripping it to shreds over the century.
Ahead of the wall were a pair of large mounds of snow, covering the remains of the hoist foundation. From our angle we could make out just the ends of the red-brick walls, laid out in a familiar H-shaped form. In front of us the pit of the host buildings basement was half filled with snow, making it difficult to gauge just how deep it went. We decided to skip it and look further ahead.
Surrounding the hoist building, and right up against it in places, was an old landfill that had been capped and abandoned long ago. Speckled across its surface were a series of methane vents, white candy-cane pipes forever a part of this landscape. Climbing to the mounds top we were greeted with a sweeping view of the Centennial mine in all directions. Directly ahead of us, in line with the hoist behind us, sat the collar house and rock house foundation to what we think is the #2 shaft. While the collar house still stood in relatively good condition, only the concrete pillars of the rock house still stood. Nearby sat a collection of other support buildings including a rather large and nice looking sandstone structure. In the distance, behind the collar house, we could make out the mill remains from the #3, and to our right - down in a valley - we were greeted to a high view of previously explored Centennial #6.
Looking back behind we noticed that we had come some distance from the Hoist remains. From here we could see one possible reason why the building had been half-demolished. Slicing right across it was a power line corridor, a power pole sitting almost inside the building itself. With the building intact, the lines would have had to go right through it. The power company must of knocked down the walls in the way, but didn’t bother to deal with those parts not in the way. The hoist had survived the landfill only to succumb to this. A victim to the march of progress I suppose.
one of the still standing buildings was a dry house it was converted from something else. if you rear copper country road trips its says in there
geoff | March 20, 2007