This past April, the Mighty Argo Cable Car, seen in the photograph on the left, opened in Idaho Springs, Colorado, an old mining town about 35 minutes west of Denver. That cable car now whisks visitors up 1,300 feet in elevation over 1.3 miles to an upper terminal, which features a three-level facility with food and beverage options, an amphitheater, and an observation deck. This new tourist attraction is hoping to bring in a lot more visitors to Idaho Springs, which struggled this past winter due to a lack of snow. The number of skiers who stopped at Idaho Spring's restaurants and bars on their way home declined significantly, and it is hoped this cable car will help bring in more business. My sister Susan saw the local television news stories about that cable car and told me she would like to ride it to the top of the mountain this summer. However, yesterday, when she saw the actual cars going up the steel cables, she denied ever saying that. No spirit of adventure, I'm afraid.
The owner of the Mighty Argo Cable Car is also co-owner of the Argo Gold Mill and Tunnel, Idaho Spring's top tourist attraction, and seen in the photograph on the right. The tunnel was built between 1893 and 1910 to drain the gold mines in the area. It was such a success that a gold mill was built to process all that gold, recovering 10.1 trillion in today's dollars. The tunnel, by the way, is 4.16 miles long and connected almost all the gold mines between Idaho Springs and Central City. Idaho Springs itself is a nice old town with many homes from the Victorian era and a nearly intact 19th Century business district, with brew pubs, tourist-oriented shops, and the original Beau Jo's Pizza. Susan, my late brother-in-law George, and George's cousin Richard once wound up at Beau Jo's after a day of skiing when I-70 was closed due to a major snowstorm. I believe they spent half the night there waiting for the road to reopen. All three seemed to lose their appetite for Beau Jo's pizza after that evening. Go figure.
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