Hanging Flume: A Marvel of Engineering

Hanging Flume is a rarely visited, yet still interesting site in Western Colorado that showcases the length to which people went to obtain precious metals and minerals.

History
A flume is a man-made channel built to transport water. The flume in Uravan, Colorado was constructed from 1887 to 1891 along the cliffs of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers. The flume was needed to get water to the mines along the river. While many mines used flumes, this one was unique in that it was suspended 150 feet up the cliffside and ran for 10 miles. It took a group of 25 men to build the flume over the course of 3 years. It is incredible all the manual labor that went into this structure during a time before power tools. The work began from the top of the cliff where all supplies and the men were lowered down the cliff where each wood plank was fastened and each metal rod was driven into the cliffside by hand. Unfortunately all of this work did not lead to prosperity like they had hoped, because the gold that was mined, consisted of fine flakes and was difficult to separate from the gravel. This resulted in the whole mine being abandoned shortly after it began.

Current
Today only remnants remain of the flume. A lot of the accessible flume was deconstructed to be used in building projects in the surrounding area many years ago. It is still incredible that after over 125 years much of the supports still remain in the cliffside. An overlook is easily accessible off of CO-141 where visitors can see the remains of the flume. A 40 foot reconstructed section of the flume was built in 2012 to show what it looked like in its completed form and this is visible from YII rd just east of the lookout.