My Colorado

Memories of Climax Molybdenum Mine

Motorists driving over Fremont Pass on State Highway 91 see acres of tailing ponds and a disemboweled mountain with gigantic piles of dirt and rock at its feet. But in my mind's eye, I see a tiny guard shack at the gate and a steam engine struggling up the grade, throwing plumes of snow from its rotary blade in front. My memory reverts to the late 1940s and 1950s, when my husband and I lived and worked in the town operated by the Climax Molybdenum Company.

Climax was a vibrant community with a complex of mill and industrial buildings, a hotel, apartment buildings, a school, a hospital and houses perched on switchback roads reaching up the hill to timberline. Our old duplex and many of the other Climax homes and buildings are now in Leadville, a dozen miles away.

Hidden now by the piles of overburden lies one of the world's largest supplies of molybdenum, which is used to strengthen metal and as a lubricant. It was once the world's largest underground mine, but the decision was made about 30 years ago to initiate open-pit mining methods. It is closed (temporarily, many former miners hope) due to competitive pricing by other producers.

But the ghosts remain hovering over the sleeping giant-of Charles Senter who first discovered the deposit in 1879; of other men of vision whose names graced buildings, tunnels, streets and levels that are no longer there; of the multitude of men and women who worked extremely hard and braved the altitude, the weather and the isolation to help produce a unique commodity.

Betty Graves and her husband were employed by the Climax Molybdenum Company from 1948 to 1956. She later worked in advertising, public relations and writing. Nothing, she reports, was as difficult or rewarding as their work at Climax. Betty now lives in Strasburg, Colo.

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Mail to: The Motorist, Attn: My Colorado, 4100 E. Arkansas Ave., Denver CO 80222, or e-mail: keastlund@colorado.aaa.com

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