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Founded in 1882, the Colorado Scientific Society promotes knowledge, the understanding of science, and its application to human needs, focusing primarily on earth science, but welcoming members with interests in all fields of science.

Upcoming Field Trips

CSS 2009 Spring Field Trip

The Victor Mine and Front Range Geology
Saturday, May 16, 2009

Student grants are available!!

Join us and be immersed in the innards of the ancient volcano at the Victor Mine outside of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Strange rocks and volcanic structures of many types will be seen: phonolites, lamprophyres, and volcanic cooling columns. Looking at the high wall, tunnels of the old mine workings lend a respect for the immensity of the present operation. Next the tour will go to the crusher building with its primary cone crusher and secondary crushers that prepare the ore for the leach heaps. The final stop is the Ed Hunter mill building where the solutions come from the leach pads into the charcoal filtering vats. From there the gold is poured... but no one but very trusted employees are allowed in that room! We will make several stops as we drive down from Lakewood through the Pikes Peak Batholith, the Great Unconformity and the Cambro-Ordovician section, highly fractured and re-cemented sandstone dikes in the Sawatch Formation, and the Tertiary Divide gravel. The mine tour guides (Tim Brown and others) will meet us in Victor at 1:00 p.m. to give us a brief history of the town and mine and then we will head up to the mine for a 2.5-hour tour.

We will leave from the Cold Springs Park-and-Ride at the northwest corner of the Federal Center at 7:30 a.m. We will return to Cold Springs Park-and-Ride about 5:30 p.m. Bring your own sack lunch, beverages, cameras, and rain gear. Cost, including transportation (vans) will be $20.00/person.

Student grants from the Pillmore Fund are available to cover student expenses.

Contact Lee Shropshire, 970-352-8778, leeshrop@comcast.net, to apply for a student grant.
Contact Cal Ruleman, 303-236-7804, cruleman@usgs.gov for questions or additional information about the field trip.

Click here for PDF of information and field trip Sign-up Form.  

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