Photos courtesy of Mike Sinnwell October 2014
The mill is located at New Cardinal. This town, like many others, moved several miles from its original place. In this case old Cardinal was about two miles up the hill in a nice medow. The new Cardinal was built at the location where a tunnel was driven into the base of the mountain to get at the ore in the mine. Better going in horizontally then the vertical shafts that started the mine. Also a tunnel allows for drainage of water. Ore was brought out on carts, sorted and immediately dumped in the hoppers at the mill.
There are numerous stories about Cardinal and nearby Caribou. They all involve woman. Apparently Caribou decided Ladies of the evenings were sinful in nature so they banned them in Caribou. The ladies of the evening took things into their own hands and left town for Cardinal where they set up shop. Besides it was only two miles down the hill. After some of the heat in Caribou died down they migrated back to Caribou. They were even given the name “Brides of the Multitudes”. Sounds better than Ladies of the evening.
In a couple years, if we are lucky, Boulder County will be opening this facility up so we can see what is inside. Supposed to be all the machinery. I have been in many of these mills and never was ALL the machinery there. Over the years these mills are changed as new milling methods are discovered, the effects of vandals, treasure hunters and damaged by the elements. Hopefully this will be different.