Argo Gold Mill and Tunnel — Attraction in Idaho Springs

This could be such an interesting tour. Maybe sometimes it is.

Our tour guide made it clear that guides have substantial latitude to conduct the tours as they wish. I would have preferred that ours reduce the snarky commentary and include more, better-organized educational content.

The tour started with a video. That's fine, but it was content that was played from YouTube, and the soundtrack was many seconds out of sync from the video (that really needs fixing). It's odd to pay for content I can get for free online, particularly if the rest of the tour isn't great. Suggestion to staff: you may want to improve sound quality and/or volume, or edit the soundtrack to make sure narration isn't drowned out by other noise. Test it out on visitors and get their feedback. My hearing is excellent, but it was not always clear what was being said in the video.

I am a geologist working in the mining industry. The tour is expensive and in my opinion provided poor value per dollar for learning about the past/present mining, mine service, and environmental cleanup activities at the site.

One very positive note: I think the gold panning activity is well done. Having something hands-on like this is excellent.

Finally, respecting that there are people on both sides of this issue, some may want to inquire as to who, if anyone, will be masked indoors during a pandemic. Staff weren't masked in the store when we were there. No, Clear Creak County was NOT under a mandatory mask order at the time, but Colorado hospitals have been stressed by the rather high COVID-19 infection rate lately. It's completely up to the business what measures it wants to take within the confines of public health rules, and no rule was being broken when we were there. That said, being up front with your customers during a pandemic is probably a good idea.

You may want to call ahead, if you choose to go on this tour, and ask what kind of tour (and guide) you can expect. I hope your experience will be a positive one that measures up to the potential the Argo Mill site has for learning about local history, mining, and...

The Argo Gold Mill and Tunnel is a fascinating peek into history as well as a monument to ingenuity and physical labor.

I hadn’t done my homework before taking the tour and was surprised by what the tunnel actually is. It is a national historic site and an EPA superfund site. It is not a gold mine. The slightly over 4 mile tunnel was actually an access mechanism for men to get to the gold mines between Idaho Springs and Central City. They would mine the ore which was then transported back to the ARGO mill for processing.

You only get to go a few hundred feet into the tunnel before you hit a wall constructed by the EPA to keep flooded tunnel water contained for processing. Don’t let this dissuade you from the tour! A knowledgeable guide will entertain you with history and a thorough walk through the mill with explanations of how they turned ore into gold.

Also, don’t be concerned with physical exertion. A bus takes you from the tour center to the top of the mill and portal entrance. It is all down hill and stairs from there.

Your tour is wrapped up back at the tour center with a lesson in gold panning. Truth be told, I was planning on skipping that part thinking it was entertainment for kids. Don’t skip it. I had a ball reducing a pan full of sand to a few flecks of gold that you get to keep.

The tour is worth every penny of the $25 it cost. I now have more respect for the hard work and evolving technology used at the tunnel and mill over its...

This was a stop worth making - pretty neat to learn about the Argo Mill and the role it played in Colorado's mining era. Liked being able to walk through the mill and hear about their process for extracting minerals from what others had thrown away.

Our guide was very knowledgeable and happy to field questions. Overall, I felt hurried because there is a lot of ground to cover inside of one hour. The museum and mill had a number of informative signs and photos I'd have liked to see, but there simply wasn't time to look at them all, much less read all the placards. At $25 per person, I had hoped for more.

This is a tough balance to strike - I'm a history buff and dropped in for a taste of what this era had to offer. Others in the tour were clearly there to say they'd done it - and didn't take time to read or consider anything they were learning. Could a tour guide find a better balance? Not sure it's possible.

My recommendation would be for the Argo Mill to offer a deeper historical dive tour 1-2x daily (at an added cost) for people who want more than a surface explanation of the operation's history.

Panning for gold was fun - this tour would be a good time for kids in the 10+ range. Younger folks may struggle with information overload or reaching into the...