This old coal tipple in south west
Some old large machinery
Looking east off of the sketchy roof. It’s actually very stable – just avoid getting too close to the holes.
A view of the structure from the track side. The building is larger than it appears from the highway.
Arilem taking a photo.
Old glass insulator for power lines.
Phoenix Enigma, Arilem, and I on the roof on one section
We tend to explore a lot of rural areas where access to sites is fairly easy, because the urban areas of
The plant consists of 4 or 5 separate buildings connected by conveyors. Each of the conveyor lines has a small walkway beside it, so once we accessed one building we could get into all of them. I have seen this location on a few urban exploration sites and it is referred to as a tipple; however after seeing all the machinery in the plant I came to the conclusion that this place was more that just a tipple, there was some type of processing of the coal taking place here. Perhaps it was a breaker, or perhaps there was more going on here, but I dont have enough knowledge of coal processing to make a conclusion on its use. There were some offices in a separate building but we didnt have the time or energy to attempt to see them. They probably werent that exciting anyways.
I have read that this old coal processing plant has a date with a wrecking ball. It has been idle since closing sometime in the 1980s. The whole town is pretty rough shape as this place and the nearby mines were the major employer and they have all shut down in the past 25 years. I would like to get back there someday as the whole town presents quite a few places I would like to check out.
The smallest building on site an connecting conveyors as seen from high up on the main plant building
Inside one of the connecting conveyors
Under the main bins where coal would be start it’s trip through the plant. From here it would be dropped on the conveyor and fed into the main plant.
Inside a different conveyor connection
Near the top of the main building looking down at some of the machinery
Arilem is intrigued by something – not sure what – she doesn’t remember either.
Main floor of the main building – various machinery
CaptainCanada using his telephoto lens to ensure the coast was clear before we made our exit from the plant.
There was a large tank with an agitator of some kind – not that kind of stuff you would find in just a tipple.
A quick shot of the main building as we were making our exit.
The Rocky Mountain Coal Mine is an amazing place to visit. It is a heritage property and if you can find it it is very easy location to see. The expansive facility includes at least 15 buildings. There were bunkhouses, power plant, heating plant, core sample warehouse, a couple clerical buildings, several maintenance / shop buildings, and a very interesting and dangerous load out building. The load out building was half collapsed but has the interesting setup for dumping the mining cars and then returning them to the mine. There are several mining cars laying around the facility and the main mine entrance is still in place; however it was blasted shut when the mine closed.
I assume the plant closed sometime in the 1970s however that is just an educated guess by the amount of decay and the type of electrical equipment that was on site. Time has been tough on this place, but it must have been amazing to see when it first closed. Even now it offers everything you would expect to see in a mountain coal mine. It’s too bad it wasn’t turned into a museum as places like this are fairly rare. However it is pretty far gone now and I expect it will continue to rot until it is gone all together.
The old mining carts outside the mine entrance
The mine entrance – blasted shut when the mine closed
Some interesting machinery in one of the buildings. I have no idea what this would be used for.
Generators in the power plant
A warehouse full of thousands of core samples
Unloading structure – the mining carts would be dumped here and then sent back to the mine
Looking back to the entrance of the unloading structure
There was a cart still in this in place. The coal would be dumped to the level below and then loaded onto rail cars.