Gold just waiting to be mined:
One of the strangest things to occur in the San Juans was the U.S. Government’s Gold Closing Order of 1942. It forced all gold mines to close, with the logic that gold was a non-strategic metal, and that gold miners could be better put to work in copper mines or other strategic industries. Silverton’s Mayflower Mine avoided forced closure when Manager Charles Chase was able to convince the government that the operation was predominantly a base metal (lead, zinc, copper) mine. Several other local mines, however, were shut down by this order.
Shenandoah-Dives Mining Company had revived the Mayflower Mine from dormancy in the late 1920s, and built the massive Mayflower Mill in 1929. Silverton’s biggest employer for over twenty-five years, the mine survived several fluctuations in metal prices, a major strike, and the Crash of 1929 that ushered America into the Great Depression. With low-grade ores, Manager Chase was able to keep the mine open by keeping costs down. The mine shut down in 1953 at the end of the Korean War, when metal prices fell due to lower demand for metals and increasing competition from foreign mines.
Lightning cracks the blackened sky,
Hear the thunder chariot ride
All brave men with hearts of war
Ride the path of mighty Thor
