Mill is considered one of the main attractions of Colorado.
In the County of Gunnison, Colorado, USA, is a Ghost town called crystal.
But this place is famous not empty most of the time houses and streets, and the wooden mill crystal mill (Crystal Mill), which is more than 120 years, it annually attracts tourists and photographers.
The town of crystal was founded back in 1880 near silver deposits, copper and iron. Work in the mines began to boil, and by 1886 the population of the Crystal has reached 400 people. And after another seven years to provide energy tunnels were built wooden windmill.
The mill had an interesting mechanism, which was the horizontal water wheel with the drive shaft going to the gear wheel connected to the leather belt with the compressor located in the front part of the building. So the mechanical energy is transferred to the compressor that compressed the air and gave his iron pipe to the base of the mountain the Spike further into the tunnel, stretching more than 1,500 feet into the mountain. Compressed air was used for ventilation of the mine and provides energy to pneumatic tools for drilling.
Economic depression in 1893 led to the fact that the crystal began to leave the residents. The mine was closed, and in 1917 the mill stopped working.
The building stood for another hundred years thanks to the initiative of volunteers: in 1934 they avoid the collapse of the established inside the building support structure. In the early 1980-ies on the grants of the government were carried out restoration work, but the system of dams and turbine has not survived to our days.
If you decide to visit and capture the picturesque Crystal mill, its coordinates are as follows. The mill is located on a stone ledge overhanging the waterfall of crystal river, 3.7 miles South-East of the town of marble in Gunnison County, on highway 82 between Glenwood springs and aspen, Colorado, USA.
Today the mill is private property and to the public closed. However, the picturesque scenery around the Crystal mill attracts photographers, hikers and romantics: the mill is one of the main attractions of Colorado. It also organizes Hiking and Cycling trails, rafting down the river in canoes.
