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The Montrose Placer Mining Company completed the hanging flume in Dolores Canyon in 1891. The flume operated for only a few years, but portions of it still hang from the canyon's sandstone walls.
Image by Engineering & Mining Journal, v. 49 (May 1890): 564
Date May 1890
Copyright Notes
Courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History/Genealogy Department.
To purchase a copy of this image, please contact Photo Sales staff at
photosales@denverlibrary.org or 720-865-1818.
The hanging flume is is a five mile section of wooden flume that was built on the sheer cliffs of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers in the canyon country of western Colorado. Built over a three-year period from 1888 to 1891, the flume was 150 feet or more above the canyon floor and was built at great cost, but the mining venture it supplied water to was ultimately a failure.
The combination of the dry climate in this part of Colorado, and the extremely difficult placement of many of the flume sections which has deterred vandals and scavengers, has resulted in many segments surviving, although greatly deteriorated, for almost 130 years.
“Its construction dazzled mining pros with its sheer ingenuity”
An overlook and interpretive site on highway 141 provides a view of the flume and several interpretive signs that convey the history of the flume and recent efforts to preserve the history of this amazing structure. The following quotes are from the interpretive signs at the overlook.
Source: https://westernmininghistory.com/2252/an-engineering-marvel-colorados-hanging-flume/
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