Smuggler Mine

Smuggler Mine

Mine surface facilities and tailings piles, 2009
Location
Smuggler Mine Location within Colorado
Location	Aspen
State	Colorado
Country	USA
Coordinates	39°11′33″N 106°48′23″W / 39.19250°N 106.80639°W / 39.19250; -106.80639
Production
Products	Silver
History
Opened	1879 (1879)
Active	1879–1918, 1970s-present
Closed
Smuggler Mine
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Area	9.7 acres (3.9 ha)[1]
MPS	Historic Resources of Aspen MRA, Mining Industry in Colorado
NRHP reference No.	87000194
Added to NRHP	May 18, 1987
Owner
Company	New Smuggler Mining Corp.

The Smuggler Mine is located on the slopes of Smuggler Mountain, on the north edge of Aspen, Colorado, United States. It is the oldest operating silver mine in the Aspen mining district, and one of the few still operating from Aspen's early boom years. In 1987 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The largest silver nugget ever mined, weighing 1,840 pounds (830 kg), came from Smuggler. At its peak the mine was responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world's total silver output.^[2] Its extensive tunnel system reaches more than a thousand feet (300 m) below the entrance, extending under the city of Aspen, although most of the lower tunnels are presently flooded.

Smuggler was one of the few mines in the Aspen area to reopen after the 1893 repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act. It continued producing ore until 1918, and was reopened in the 1970s. In 1984 it was designated a Superfund site after tests found high levels of lead and cadmium in the soil. It took the Environmental Protection Agency 12 years to clean up the site. While it is estimated that nearly a million pounds (400,000 kg) of recoverable ore remain in the mine, it is used as much for tours today as mining. In 2012 it and two nearby lots were put up for sale.^[1]