Disaster in the Argo Tunnel
Near Idaho Springs, Colorado
For thirty years the Argo Tunnel worked as intended, quietly draining the mines above it and carrying ore down to the mill. Then, on January nineteenth of nineteen forty three, it ended in catastrophe. A crew was working to connect a group of mines called the Kansas Lode into the Argo system.
What the miners could not see was that their work had weakened a wall of rock holding back an enormous reservoir of water trapped in old flooded workings above them. The wall gave way. Millions of gallons of water under tremendous pressure burst through, killing four men instantly.
The flood, laced with acid and heavy metals, shot out of the tunnel mouth like a fire hose for hours afterward. The Argo never reopened as a mine. The federal government had already ordered most gold mining halted during the Second World War to free up manpower and materials, and the disaster sealed the tunnel's fate.
Today the state and federal governments treat the acidic water that still flows out of the Argo, part of a larger cleanup effort, so that its toxic legacy does not poison Clear Creek downstream.
