Underground Mining Museum — Attraction in Creede

Not impressed! Older lady at the front was VERY rude! Decided to come to the early 10am tour. We arrived around 920 so that we could be early and there was only one car parked out front. As we pulled up we could see the doors were shut and also had a sign saying Closed. They open at 10 and start the tours at 10. No biggy. We just waited in the car til they opened. As we waited a couple more cars pulled up. One of the men who came up went ahead and checked to see if they possible opened early and when we saw him come back he said it was still closed. Right around 9:59 we got out of the car, walked up to the entrance and it was open. The man and his grandson were ahead of use and asked about doing the guided tour. One thing I should note. We had come up 2 days prior and asked to do the guided tour and were told that the guide wasnt coming in that day because he had to go to his other job. Yea! I know! They said that if we came on Monday that there would be a guide provided. Not letting that ruin our day we decided to shop in Creedes awesome shops. So back to us waiting in line. As the gentleman was asking about pricing the older lady seemed very irritated over normal question You and I would ask. He asked about pricing for a child under 5 and also people over 50 discounts. She just rudely replied "All ages $15" $15 dollars for a 4 year old! Give me a break! Once he decided to just do the tour anyways he said we will go ahead and do the 10am guided tour. Now this is around 10:03. She says "You're too late! They already started! Huh!! Yea thats what I thought! We said you opened at 10. Hows it pissible we are too late??! She said "Our doors were opened at 9:30" . Theres no way that was true. A lady behind us said she tried opening the doors at 945 and they were locked. Then the Older lady replied "you must of not opened them right!" Are you kidding me! She talked to the lady like she was crazy. If thats how you talk to your customers you must not care for a lasting business. Now its obvious that the doors weren't truly opened at 9:30 and that the guide most likely didnt show up! Again! This was very frustrating. At that point we decided to take our money elsewhere. Never did the tour. Sure its a nice tour but if they dont care for my business I dont care to give them my money. Im not knocking the town of Creede by the way. The people in the shops and restaurants are very kind and love...

we don’t normally do paid museums, as we try to travel on a budget and choose free options…BUT multiple people had recommended this museum and we are so pleased we paid the $10/per person to do the 30 minute audio tour (plus they are dog friendly—which is a huge win)! i’m absolutely a visual learner and this helped me get a better grasp on mining culture, rather than just reading text.

note: staff is friendly! you don’t have to make reservations, just walk on in. but i’m not sure if the 4pm close time is accurate or not, as today the nice woman working said as long as we started the tour by 2:50pm we would be able to do it—so maybe earlier the better! it’s chilly/damp in there, so wear a jacket (if you don’t have one, they have ones you can borrow).

*after taking this tour, go check out Last Chance Mine, up Bachelor Pass, to get to explore a real mine! i felt like both tours worked together to give me a better understanding of mining!

suggestion for the owners: we would have found it really helpful if there were ranges of years at each stop of the tour. like what year was that particular technology or method being used? 1890-1895? 1920-1950? etc. that would provide a better understanding of the specific time periods, which left us with...

What a wild building first of all, the fact that they decided to put the community center and museum in the side of the mountain is crazy and I’ve never seen anything like it. We did the audio tour which was good at giving a general overview of what it takes to get the earth to give up her treasures and I found it very interesting. They are dog friendly which is awesome, just remember to bring a sweatshirt because it’s 55 degrees underground. 10$ is a fair price for what you get, my one minor complaint (because I’m a nerd) I do wish they would have elaborated on the years that the technology they displayed progressed. Within just a few exhibits we went from hand drilling to water jet air drills and it never explained the time frame in which those tolls were used and innovated. If you do this and enjoy it you should definitely check out the last chance mine tours as well which are up the mountain...