Argo Gold Mill and Tunnel - 4 Things to Know Before Visiting

This largest water wheel in the state of Colorado, was constructed in 1893 by Charlie Tayler. Tayler used this water wheel to power an ore processing stamp mill at his gold mining operations on Ute Creek. It was moved to its present site in 1946, a gift to the people of Idaho Springs by his estate. It was restored during the spring and summer of 1988 by volunteers and private contributions. It was dedicated during Gold Rush Days, July 16-17, 1988.

The Mount Evans Scenic Byway, just 60 miles west of Denver, is the highest paved road in North America. A day trip to the top is a journey that snakes and climbs through nearly 9,000 feet of elevation gain, from the high plains of Denver through five climate zones to the 14,264-foot summit of Mount Evans, one of 54 peaks in Colorado that soar to 14,000 feet and above – the famous “fourteeners.”

The Phoenix Gold Mine is an authentic trip into Colorado mining history. This is a working gold and silver mine owned and operated by third-generation hard-rock miner Alvin "Al" Mosch. As we found out, the mine's temperature hovers between 42 and 54 degrees F. year round, so it's good to wear a jacket no matter what month you arrive. Miners still push tons of gold and silver ore along the narrow-gauge rails in small underground ore cars, just as they did 150 years ago.

The historic City of Black Hawk is a home rule municipality located in Gilpin County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 127 at the 2020 United States Census, making Black Hawk the least populous city  in Colorado. The tiny city is a historic mining settlement founded in 1859 during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. Black Hawk is now a part of the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.

Teller House is a historic hotel in Central City, Colorado. Built in 1872, the building now serves as a restaurant.The bar at the Teller House is well known for the "Face on the Barroom Floor," a painting of a woman's face on the wooden floor, done in 1936 by local artist Herndon Davis, as a joke after being fired by the Teller House.

This is the fifth oldest professional opera company in the country and is renowned for exquisite world-class productions, a robust young artist training program, creative education activities and community engagement. It has offered operatic and theatrical productions that drew prominent actors and performers in the late 19th-century, and in the early 20th-century it was a motion picture theatre.