Friends of the Cumbres & Toltec - FriendsOfCumbresToltec.org

On August 16, 2011, I was waiting at Hamilton's Point for a Cumbres-bound freight, and spent a little time snooping around. I found this little shack -A closer view -
This is just off the track, down the hill a little bit, at the rock outcropping at the west end of the Hamilton's Point rocks.

At the east end of the Hamilton's Point area was found this small tunnel -
The tunnel goes in about 25 - 30 ft, then "Tees" left and right about 10 ft each way.

If anyone has information about this shack and the tunnel, I would be appreciative. One suggestion I heard was the shack was for dynamite to break up fallen rock - reasonable, given the location.

Steve,

Interesting shots. I've been up there for a photo op a few times but up near MP334 ...I'll have to walk down closer to the actual point. Is that where these pictures were taken?

There used to be an old "camp" up there (in the 1800's). I had seen a photo of the settlement. We were working our way down grade from Coxo crossing doing some "housekeeping" work on the MP's and WB's. Bob Ross was the crew chief and had a Xerox copy of the photo of the settlement that was located back up in the canyon just west of MP334 ...there's sort of a broad area there with ready access to Wolf Creek ....the tracks sort of loop in behind it forming a slight cul-de-sac.

According to Doris Osterwald's, "Ticket to Toltec", Hamilton Point is also referred to as White Rock Point ....it's depicted in an old photo by W.H. Jackson ....which I've included here. It shows the settlement which, I can only assume, was built by miners ...not much else of a reason to put in digs up there. This would tend to bear out the finds you discovered; the "dynamite" shed and the possible old mine along the ROW.

Anybody know for sure about the camp up there??

Hi, Mike -
After looking at Google Earth, I determined that the location where I found the "dynamite" shack is about 100 feet west of the Archuletta/Conejos county line. This would be about 334.5.

Steve: The tunnel picture seems to show a quartz vein in the upper left part of the tunnel. Maybe someone thought gold or silver was present. Anyone with other info?