The Crystal Mill, or the Old Mill is an 1892 wooden
powerhouse located on an outcrop above the
Crystal River in
Crystal, Colorado
Crystal (also known as Crystal City) is a ghost town on the upper Crystal River in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. It is located in the Elk Mountains along a four-wheel-drive road east of Marble and northwest of Crested Butte. Crysta ...
,
United States. It is accessible from
Marble, Colorado via
four-wheel drive. Although called a
Watermill, it is more correctly denoted as a compressor station, which used a
water turbine to drive an
air compressor, and was originally built with a horizontal wheel. The
compressed air
Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...
was then used to power other machinery or tools.
Names
In the 21st century, the mill is usually called the ''Crystal Mill'' or the ''Old Crystal Mill''. Many decades ago, when the mill was still in use, it was called the ''Sheep Mountain Power House''
at the ''Lost Horse Millsite'', or simply the ''Lost Horse Mill''. The building is built on a mining claim named "Lost Horse".
Sometimes it is erroneously called the ''Dead Horse Mill''. The site is referred to as a "mill" because there was a 3-stamp mill for crushing ore, in a building directly adjacent to the south of the surviving structure.
History
The mill was constructed in 1893 by George C. Eaton and B.S. Phillips, promoters of the Sheep Mountain Tunnel and Mining Company.
It was built as a power plant for the Sheep Mountain Tunnel.
Originally it had a horizontal
waterwheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with a number of blades or buckets ...
that generated
compressed air
Compressed air is air kept under a pressure that is greater than atmospheric pressure. Compressed air is an important medium for transfer of energy in industrial processes, and is used for power tools such as air hammers, drills, wrenches, and o ...
for miners in the nearby
silver mines.
It fell into disuse in 1917 when the Sheep Mountain Tunnel mine closed. The mill was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places on July 5, 1985.
See also
*
References
External links
Directory of Colorado State Register Properties
Gallery
File:Crystal-mill 1890s.jpg, The Crystal Mill in operation, 1890s
File:Crystal Mill Power Plant.jpg, Another view of the mill
File:The Crystal Mill 2014.jpg, The Crystal Mill 2014
Industrial buildings and structures in Colorado
Buildings and structures in Gunnison County, Colorado
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado
Tourist attractions in Gunnison County, Colorado
Watermills in the United States
National Register of Historic Places in Gunnison County, Colorado
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