Argo Mill & Tunnel

The Argo Mill & Tunnel on Riverside Drive is now part of the Mighty Argo, which runs the cable car from the same base. The operator’s mill page tells the story: the tunnel was driven 4.16 miles into the mountain to drain the flooding mines of Central City, and served more than a hundred of them; the mill was completed in 1913 at the tunnel mouth to process lower-grade ore on site before it went by rail to the Denver Mint, using alternating current before Denver itself was electrified. A collapse of mine workings flooded the tunnel in 1943 and closed milling for good. James Maxwell bought the mill in 1977 and ran it as a historic tour until the current owners bought it in 2016. (Elsewhere the same site calls it “a gold mill and tunnel from 1893”.) The older mill-tour site, argomilltour.com, says it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

The guided tour follows the ore from the tunnel through the mill, much of its original equipment still in place; the mill page calls it an hour, the FAQ 1 hour 20 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes with the panning. Tours leave at the top of each hour, the last at 3 pm; arrive 15 minutes early. On the operator’s ticket table on 10 October 2026 the mill tour, with gold or gemstone panning included, was $32.95 for adults, $19.95 for ages 6 to 17, $4.95 for ages 5 and under, and $29.95 for seniors, military and Idaho Springs residents; panning alone was $21.95 (the FAQ still gives $30 and $20 for the tour). Walk-ins are taken but tours fill, so the operator advises booking. Dogs and strollers are not allowed on the tour, sturdy closed-toe shoes are advised, and the operator says the mill’s steep terrain makes the tour inaccessible to some visitors; call to ask. Parking on site is paid, even with a ticket. The Mighty Argo is closed Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.

Hours and prices were read on the Mighty Argo’s Plan Your Visit page, and the tour rules and the mill-tour number (303-567-2421; the Mighty Argo’s main line is 983-955-8866) on its FAQ, on 10 October 2026; the plan page gave that day’s last cable-car times (“6pm on Oct 10th”) and a fall sale, the dated evidence that it is operating. The City of Idaho Springs’ visitor site lists the Mighty ARGO at the same address and with the 303-567-2421 number.