Horses heading to a mine in the backcountry like they would have more than 100 years ago. This time the purpose is different.
Pack animals are the only way to get to some of the remote mines.
A team of horses and equipment make their way to a mine.
Saving lives by closing mines properly
Steve McCollum and his team use pack horses to haul supplies (polyurethane foam (PUF), concrete, etc.) to the mine sites that are in the backcountry.
A lot of the work involves backfilling since the creek crossing and steep slope made access by construction equipment too difficult.
Preparing a shaft for a cable net closure by drilling anchor bolts into the stable rock around the side of the mine opening.
PEAK TO PEAK - Colorado’s picturesque mountains, rolling prairies, and pine forests are beautiful. However, underneath all that beauty, they conceal a hidden—and potentially deadly—hazard: abandoned mines.
According to a memo, the Colorado Department of Reclamation, Mining and Safety (https://drms.colorado.gov/programs/inactive-mine-reclamation-program/stay-out-stay-alive) notes that there are an estimated 23,000 inactive and abandoned mines throughout the Centennial State. There have been dozens of injuries and fatalities stemming from unsuspecting people entering those mines over the past several decades.
Jeff Graves, Director of the Inactive Mine Reclamation Program, stated that these abandoned mines are extremely hazardous, a fact that most people are not aware of. Staying out of these mines, Graves said, is the best way to avoid these hazards and stay safe.
“The public is generally unaware of the hazards associated with abandoned mines, which can include things like low oxygen environments, dangerous gasses, roof fall, unseen vertical openings, unstable mine timbers, and getting disoriented [lost], just to name a few,” Graves stated. “The unstable nature of abandoned mines can create extremely unsafe conditions. There have been a number of incidents over the years of fatalities or serious injuries of people venturing into inactive mines.”
"Stay Out, Stay Alive" is the CDRMS’ ongoing campaign to make Coloradans aware of these dangerous conditions and avoid inactive mines for their own health and safety.
Back in 1980, CDRMS created the Inactive Mine Reclamation Program (https://drms.colorado.gov/programs/inactive-mine-reclamation-program), which, in addition to helping educate the general public of the hazards of abandoned mines, aims to close them, ensuring that people don’t endanger themselves in them. The program is also aimed at solving the environmental problems that stem from the mines, like acid mine runoff, underground coal seam fires, and water quality issues.
“The State has safeguarded approximately 13,500 mines since the Program's inception in 1980,” Graves noted. “The State safeguards approximately 300 mines each year.”
Now that CDRMS has closed more than half of the abandoned mines throughout Colorado, a new challenge has arisen: the abandoned mines that are left are becoming harder to get to. That’s where Steve McCollum comes in.
McCollum owns McCollum’s Excavation, a business based out of Black Hawk that, among other earth-moving-related enterprises, has been helping the state close mines for 28 years. Since many of the remaining mines are in remote corners of the mountains or protected wilderness areas, he can’t use heavy machinery to close them. His answer: use pack horses.
“A lot of times, some of the sites that we work on, you can drive an ATV to them, and a lot of it's machine work,” McCollum said. “But a lot of these mines, they're getting to be pretty remote. And two years ago, we were actually up in close to the Fourth of July Mine with the state, and that was all a horse deal. A lot of the mines are in wilderness areas where you can't use helicopters, and you can't use power tools.”
McCollum’s family have lived in the Nederland area for generations, and were some of the people who mined in the area as far back as the 1800s, he added. He also grew up raising horses, and combined with his mine-sealing expertise, McCollum has found a solution to closing these otherwise hard-to-reach mines.
McCollum and his team will pack polyurethane foam—like the product you buy at ACE Hardware to seal around your house’s windows and doors—in with them, then pour it around the entrance to a mine, sealing it off.
But, McCollum pointed out, that’s only a viable solution if there aren’t bats living in the mines. Since bats are protected under federal and state law, McCollum and the state have to determine if they live in a mine, and if they do, they have to find a way to remove the animals without harming them.
“If there are bats in the hole, then we have to use what are called bat grates, which are steel, and that's a little bit more difficult to tackle with the horses. So a lot of times when you're doing those, you'll end up with helicopters mainly flying them to it,” McCollum said.
McCollum stated that the state sends biologists to each mine to determine if bats live there. If they do, and if the workers can’t fly in a bat grate, McCollum and his team will hang bat exclusion fences over the opening of the mine, which are designed to let the animals out when they leave at night, but prevent them from re-entering the mine. Once all the bats are out, McCollum added, they seal the entrance off.
But McCollum’s work goes beyond just sealing these dangerous mines. Since his family has such strong ties to the area through mining, he reminds people that this problem was accidental, and that if done responsibly, mining can create economic income in an area where other opportunities aren’t always there.
“I'm full mining if it's in a responsible manner,” McCollum said. “So for me, I just think it's important that people see that there are people and companies in the state trying to remedy some of these mining-related issues. So I always tell people, you can't really blame what we did in 1890 and ruined a stream or something. You can't really blame that on what we're doing today, because today that would never happen. So I just think it's important that people know that there are people out there that make a living trying to fix these mining-related problems.”
McCollum also indicated that the most important thing to stay safe around mines is to remember the state’s motto: stay out, stay alive.
For more information on McCollum’s Excavating, call 303-582-1500, and to find out more information about Colorado’s Inactive Mine Reclamation Program, head to drms.colorado.gov/programs/inactive-mine-reclamation-program.
