GEORGETOWN — From the Historic Georgetown offices in Georgetown, the past can be found all over the place.
“The history is everywhere,” said Executive Director Nancy Hale.
Historic Georgetown is based in the Hamill, one of the most visited and visible historic sites in Georgetown. Along Interstate 70 about 40 minutes west of Denver there’s another big piece of the town's history thousands drive by but might have never noticed.
“Just think of that one mile till Georgetown [sign], look to the left, study that mountain and you’ll see it,” Hale said.
Once you do see, it’s hard not to see it again and wonder what it is or how it got way up Saxon Mountain. Sitting on a rocky ridge overlooking I-70 there’s a big red building. It's larger than most in the area but hard to see because it's so high up.
“A lot of people ask us what is that?” Hale said.
To get that answer you must head up the 4-wheel drive-only Saxon Road. It runs about seven miles to the top of the mountain and about two miles after that you'll find a second road that leads to the red walls of the old Anglo Saxon Mine. It's a massive rundown relic of Georgetown’s past. It was built more than a century ago but is still generating money for Historic Georgetown.
“The mine, over a 100 years old, still giving money to the historical society,” Hale said.
It’s because much of the mountain and about 200 mining claims were given to Historic Georgetown by a man named Walter Barry. Now the historical society rents some of the land for cell towers.
“We have cell towers on the tippy top in the back,” Hale said. "It provides an operating income for Historic Georgetown,”
A worn-down fragment of history that’s still helping to keep history alive in Georgetown.
PHOTOS: Georgetown red building
9 Facts about the Anglo Saxon Mine
- Lead, copper, gold and silver were mined there
- Built in 1890 and went inactive in 1904
- It had 7 levels dropping more than 2,000 feet.
- The Anglo-Saxon Mine was part of a huge silver boom, one of the country’s biggest at the time and put Georgetown in the center of it all
- As silver was booming the Anglo Saxon mine helped start a rush to Georgetown that had more than 5,000 miners looking for riches in the hills
- It's located near where plans were once drawn up to build a tram from Georgetown to the top of Saxon Mountain. The tram was never built but some of the material was left behind on the mountain.
- The Anglo-Saxon Mine is one of 200 mining claims that were given to Historic Georgetown in the 1970s by a man named Walter Barry.
- Today those mining claims still make money for Historic Georgetown because they rent out land on the Saxon Mountain for cell towers.
- There’s also an Anglo-Saxon Mine in Australia that operated at about the same time.