Summitville tour showcases history

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By Ruthanne Johnson
MONTE VISTA— On Saturday, June 30, the Summitville Superfund site in Rio Grande County was opened for public tours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. About 120 people took the tour, hailing from states such as Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas, Nevada, Wisconsin and Colorado.
The tour included the mining site, water treatment plant and lower Summitville townsite, where miners and their families once lived. The site represents three phases of mining: placer (late 1800s), hard rock (1930s) and open pit (1980s).  
The event was the culmination of several years of collaboration between Rio Grande County, the U.S. Forest Service and the Department of Public Health and the Environment. The tour highlighted a sort of reopening of the surrounding wilderness and parts of the historical mining site to the general public, said Rio Grande County Commissioner Karla Shriver, who has headed up the tourism part of the project for the county. The county is currently seeking a historic heritage tour designation from Colorado.
The Superfund site covers about 550 acres and is the result of open-pit mining during the mid-1980s run by the Canadian-based company Galactic Resources Ltd., which used cyanide to extract gold from otherwise uneconomic ore. The mining operation declared bankruptcy and then closed up shop several years after a cyanide spill leaked into the Alamosa River, causing fish kills that reached into Terrace Reservoir. The reservoir serves as a water source for the greater San Luis Valley agricultural communities.
Since the U.S. government declared the mine a Superfund cleanup site in 1994, it has spent some $250 million in public funds. In 2011, the state of Colorado built a new water treatment plant on site to replace the less-efficient plant once operated by Galactic Resources.
The first part of the tour was led by Superfund site project managers Mark Rudolph and Mary Boardman, taking folks near old pits and drainage ditches that were built to route contaminated surface water into a large holding pond. From there, the water is funneled into the water treatment plant, where it is processed and cleaned by separating sludge from fluid, pressing water from solids and stabilizing the water with additives such as lime. The cleaned water is then released into nearby Wightman Creek.  
“Right now, the EPA takes care of about 90 percent of the operating costs and Colorado pays for about 10 percent,” said Rudolph. In 2021, the state will take over the operating and maintenance costs to the tune of about $2 million a year.
“This site is one of the unfortunate legacies of open-pit mining,” Rudolph said. But it’s also been a positive experience in bringing awareness to the general public about the different mining eras. “If it isn’t grown, its mined. It’s one of those necessary things and it’s good to have this site here so we can learn from our mistakes.”
Despite the visible scars from decades of mining, the surrounding landscape is some of the most beautiful in Rio Grande County. For Shriver, the Summitville project has been a crowning achievement in her tenure as county commissioner. “The county was forced to take this property from the bankruptcy court,” she said, “and it’s great that we’ve turned it into a working asset.”
The drive up to the old Summitville mining town on County Road 13 west of Del Norte is long and windy— but well worth the trip. High elevations provides majestic views, and the wildflowers grow thick even in this 2018 drought year: Indian paint brush, purple aster, bluebells and cinquefoil, among others. The surrounding peaks include Silver Mountain, Summit Peak and Grayback Mountain, which sits directly across from the Superfund site with a radio tower on top to provide communication between the town of Del Norte and the remote Superfund site.  
For many years, the public couldn’t get near the site, Rudolph said, which meant much of the surrounding backcountry was unreachable to people. Now the area enjoys frequent use and the mining site may soon become part of Colorado’s Heritage Tour Program. Rio Grande County recently built a picnic pavilion for public use and historical markers telling the story of old mining days and the area’s geologic history. Next are public bathrooms.  
Though the water treatment plant and open-pit areas are off limits to the public, people can hike to both upper and lower mining towns, which once boasted a butcher, baker, post office, brothel, saloons and dozens of homes. “At its peak, the population was upwards of 1,500 people,” said U.S. Forest Service archaeologist Angie Krall, who led the old mining town part of the tour.
“When you visit, bring warm layers,” Krall added. “The average temperature up here is only about 31 degrees.”
Also keep an eye out for wildlife. Rudolph said he’s seen badger, marmot, elk, mule deer and mountain lion around Summitville. “One day, I spotted a lynx on the other side or Grayback Mountain,” he said.
The nearby habitat happens to be one of the release sites for lynx, explained Shriver, who fondly remembered spotting a herd of elk lying down in a large patch of snow on the side of North Mountain, which sits directly across from the new picnic pavilion. The snow patch is still there, likely continuing to provide a cooldown place for resident elk.
Directions to get to Summitville: from Del Norte, take County Road 14 from U.S. 160 just west of town and follow the signs to Summitville (approximately 26 miles). From South Fork, head west on 160 to NF-380. Bear left on NF-21 and follow the signs to Summitville (approximately 24 miles).


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