Corey Sobotka12/19/2015COE 255

Supersession by Superfund: A Visual History of the California Gulch Superfund Site

Leadville, Colorado sits in a valley between the Sawatch and Mosquito

Mountain sub-ranges of the Rocky Mountains at 10,200 feet. Since its beginnings

in 1860, and its official founding in 1878, it has been home to some of the largest

mining operations in United States history, and even the world. However, This

lucrative past has left scars in the pristine alpine town, leaving behind polluted

ground and water as a result of mining waste. This pollution, mainly stemming

from the silver and lead mining operations in and around the town, lead to the

EPA declaring various areas in the area as a superfund site, known as the

California Gulch Superfund Site, which they have since dedicated impressive

resources in remediating so as to decontaminate the area of toxic and harmful

waste. In this paper, I will be exploring the visual history of the California Gulch

superfund site utilizing photography and maps with both scientific and

social/cultural import in order to better understand the import of the pollution and

cleanup process on the lives of the townspeople of Leadville.

Eighteen years before the founding of Leadville, a prospector named Abe

Lee arrived in California Gulch, putting the area on the map after he found gold in

California Gulch.1 This mining effort, though drawing thousands of workers, was

short lived, as the operation was hampered by black carbonate sands, which 1 "Leadville Colorado." Leadville Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/leadville>

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made the operation infeasible.2 However, in 1877, a discovery was made which

would change the area for the next 150 years- the black sand which had shut

down the gold mining operation was found to be composed mainly of cerussite, a

lead carbonate, which frequently occurs in metal deposits of lead and silver. [3][4]

Thus began the silver boom of Leadville, and, only one year later in 1878, the

town was named and officially founded.

After the silver boom began in Leadville, thousands flocked to the town,

which had grown to a population of more than 50,000 by 1882. In Figure 1, we

can see a map of the town of Leadville drawn in 1882. The map is an illustration

depicting the town and the surrounding area with great detail from what appears

to be a mountaintop view. The map shows a sprawling but organized city,

complete with both commercial, cultural, and private buildings. In the town itself,

we can see a hub of culture and commerce at the center, with a wide street,

Harrison Avenue, bisecting the town. On this block and in the adjacent streets we

can see prominent commercial buildings, a large church, and town hall, which is

no doubt a measure of both the size of Leadville at this time, and also its

economic success. On the outskirts of town, in the top half of the perimeter of the

map, we can see black clouds rising from smokestacked smelting plants and

productive mines, symbols of the industry and wealth of a booming mining town,

as well as the beginnings of the pollution of Leadville. In the top left corner, we

2 "Leadville Colorado." Leadville Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/leadville>3 "Leadville Colorado." Leadville Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/leadville>4 "Cerussite." : Mineral Information and Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.mindat.org/min-934.html>.

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see the heaviest concentration of these buildings, in an area just outside of the

town- this area is California Gulch, the area of heaviest pollution, and the

namesake of the superfund site.

In Figure 2, we can see more details of California Gulch itself. In this

photograph, taken in 1885, we see various mining buildings, small smelting

operations, and an insight into the environmental degradation which occurred at

this site. This photograph seems to be documentary in nature, showing the scale

of the mining operation. The first thing that seems conspicuous to me is the

noted absence of trees in the mining area, undoubtedly cut down to produce the

buildings and fuel the smelting operations- you can even see a large pile of cut

trees in the bottom left corner. Above the pile, on a diagonal line from the center

of the left third to the top middle third we see three successive tailings piles,

containing sediment, and leaden and ferrous ores which would have been

discarded as refuse in the search for silver. It is from these tailing piles that much

of the contamination that has persisted to this day stemmed. In Figure 3, we can

see a close up of these tailing piles, with the contaminants neutralized in the

present day, showing the size and composition of the piles.

From here, the silver and Lead-Silver ores were moved to smelting plants

like the one in Figure 4 to be processed and purified into useable metal. There is

an obvious contrast in this photograph that jumps out at the viewer upon first

glance –the man-made smelting plants, polluting vigorously in the foreground

against a backdrop of Mt. Massive, the second highest peak in the North

American Rockies and the second highest in Colorado, after its neighbor, Mt.

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Elbert. This stunning juxtaposition of the man-made and the natural holds great

symbolism. The process of smelting itself is man’s conquering of earth, turning

rock into metal –it is the beginning of the mass manipulation of the environment.

This manipulation, and its logical conclusion, dominance, and the destruction it

can cause, are represented in this photograph through the smoke from the

smelting plants. In the photograph, the smoke is covering most of Mt. Massive,

as if it is smothering it, as if man is smothering nature. Here we see a simulation

of dominance through visual oppression in a literal sense: the smoke is pressing

the image of nature’s avatar, the mountain, an unmoveable and seemingly

unconquerable force, from our view, veiling it with the refuse of the very earth

man is manipulating. This act of dominance shows the complete lack of remorse,

an unforgiving attempt to gain extrinsic value from the land.

Let us now look 100 years into the future from this bleak image. It is 1995

and Leadville is now a town of a few thousand. The mining has stopped, and the

mining structures have been torn down, or are in ruins (fig 6). The church still

stands in the middle of town, but it appears as if the town has shrunk around it as

the mining stopped, the jobs dried up, and the people left (fig 7). Houses and

buildings are now colorful and gaudy, perhaps to bring thoughts of spring and

summer during the long alpine winters. The waste from the smelting plants and

the tailings from the mines have been laying around for 150 years, fermenting the

soil, sediment, ground water and surface water with toxic levels of arsenic,

cadmium, copper, lead, iron, manganese, mercury, sulfate, zinc, and other heavy

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metals.5 These contaminants and pollutants have entered the lives of the people

of Leadville from above –leeching out of the tailing piles and smelting solid waste

piles into the soil, into the surface water of the surrounding area, most notably,

into the headwaters of the Arkansas River, and into the ground water, seeping

through layers of soil and sediment, expedited by faulting in the rock, and into the

limestone bedding beneath Leadville which holds most of the groundwater (fig. 5)

–and from below –through the mines themselves into the bedding layers beneath

the town, and flowing out from the mines in saturated flood overflows.6 Because

of this contamination, the government has realized that there is serious hazard to

human health, and the EPA has stepped in. They proclaim an 18 square mile

patch of Lake County, Colorado as a superfund site, Calling it the California

Gulch Superfund Site.7

Figure 8 shows a map of the California Gulch Superfund Site in its

entirety. I find this map interesting in its use of color. The map is remnicent of an

atlas, with low detail, showing major geographical features such as rivers and

lakes, as well as roads, and the different units of operation of the site. It is

interesting that this is one of the only publically available documents which

displays the plans of the site in that there is such a void of information. The map

5"Contaminants of Concern at CALIFORNIA GULCH." Superfund Site Progress Profile. EPA, 18 Dec. 2015. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.contams&id=0801478>.6 "EPA SUPERFUND PROGRAM: CALIFORNIA GULCH, LEADVILLE, CO." EPA Superfund Program. EPA, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0801478>.7 "EPA SUPERFUND PROGRAM: CALIFORNIA GULCH, LEADVILLE, CO." EPA Superfund Program. EPA, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0801478>.

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does not provide information as to what contaminants are at any given site, or

what the plans of mitigation are. It merely acts as a progress update in pastel, as

if to calm the viewer, assuring that it isn’t as bad as it seems, that the polluted

water and ground in and around Leadville are not as large of a hazard as it was

made out to be. Furthermore, it seems to be giving only the most basic of data –

where the operations are happening, the area of the site in general, and whether

or not cleanup in each subsection has been completed or not (it appears as

though only half of the total area of the site has been remediated so as to fall

within acceptable standards). There is no indication of timeline, relative risk, or

even what those risks may be.

The most evident source of remediation in the California Gulch Superfund

Site is the Mineral Belt Park, which is seated just east of the town, on top of what

used to be the most heavily mined areas, including California Gulch itself. Figure

9 depicts a section of the park from an overlook. While the park, compared to the

scene in figure 2, is much less of an eyesore, there are still remnants of the past

here. Leadville is a town that is proud of its mining heritage, and so it makes

sense that some mining structures still stand,8 but also still standing are giant

mounds of tailings, rising higher than the building in the photo. These tailing

piles, detailed in figure 3, loom over the mining structures, showing the price of a

proud past as they mimic the mountains in the background. The structure of the

park is a curious one- winding roads from the mining days kept as pathways for

pedestrians, cyclists, and the yearly Blaze the Belt longboard race, it invites

8 I have actually climbed the structure depicted here, and can honestly say that it is the best view of the Sawatch Mountains in Leadville

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people to come to it, advertising itself as a place to experience the outdoors in a

locale that has no shortage of pristine nature. However, this seems like a conceit,

for there is nothing natural about this place, and even being there could be

potentially damaging to one’s health.

Replacing the image of pollution and environmental degradation with one

of supposed cleanliness and nature is no small task, and I believe that in this

pursuit, the EPA has failed. While in some parts of the site, like the headwaters

of the Arkansas, the ecosystem has been superficially restored, other parts of the

site, such as California Gulch itself, have been essentially paved into a large

parking lot. This may not be the EPA’s fault- they were working with a ripped

canvas, so to speak- but I do not think that the Mineral Belt Park constitutes as

rehabilitation, but rather as a remediate measure to outwardly show progress and

present an image of reconstitution and safety, much like figure 8, that is

distracting from the truth of a drawn out clean up effort which is far behind

schedule, meant to ameliorate the local population with promises of pleasure.

Throughout the last 150 years, California Gulch has changed drastically,

going from a pristine alpine wilderness to a heavily devastated environment,

hazardous to humans and the local ecosystem alike, and now, back on its way

towards what will hopefully one day be wilderness again. Throughout this

process, the human impact on the land has been more than evident and well

documented, showing the repercussions of irresponsible mining practices, and

the onus of environmental stewardship through reclamation efforts. Hopefully, we

can learn from the story of the Leadville mining boom and the California Gulch

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Superfund Site, and use the past to better inform the future of both conservation

and resource extraction.

APPENDIX

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Figure 1, Map of Leadville, CO, 1882, Library of Congress, Contributors: Henry Wellge, J.J. Stoner, Beck and Pauli. Created/published by J.J. Stoner

Figure 2, Photograph, taken in 1885, “California Gulch Leadville showing Helen, Sellers, Mover, & Minnie Shaft”

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Figure 3, Photograph of Tailing piles. Corey Sobotka. 2010

Figure 4, A.V. Smelter with Mt. Massive in the Background - Leadville. N.d. Postcard

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Figure 5. Geologic Cross Section of California Gulch. USGS Bulletin 707, Figure 27

Note: The black masses are indicators of the lead-silver lodes. The brick patterned sections are bedding layers of white limestone. Dashed and solid vertical lines show fault planes.

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Figure 6. Old mining equipment in ruins. Photograph. Photographed by Corey Sobotka. 2010

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Figure 7. Modern Day Leadville. Photographer:John Orr. 2015

Figure 8. California Gulch Superfund Site Map, EPA, Leadville Herald, August 2014

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Figure 9. “Mineral Belt Bike Trail”. Bob and Lisa Linhart. May, 2014

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Works Cited

A.V. Smelter with Mt. Massive in the Background - Leadville. N.d. Postcard, Leadville, CO. A.V. Smelter with Mt. Massive in the Background - Leadville. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/gallery-image/709/36901>.

Beck & Pauli, J.J. Stoner, H. Wellge, and Henry Wellge. "Bird's Eye View of Leadville, Colo. 1882." Birdseye View of Leadville, Colo. 1882. 2nd ed. Madison, Wis.: J.J. Stoner, 1882. 72. Library of Congress. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <https://www.loc.gov/item/75693140/#about-this-item>.

Bob Linhart, and Lisa Linhart. "Mineral Belt Bike Trail." Linhart Photography. Wordpress, 31 May 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <https://linhartphotography.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/mineral-belt-bike-trail/>.

California Gulch Leadville Showing Helen, Sellers, Mover, & Minnie Shaft Houses. 1885. Denver Public Library, Denver, Co. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/gallery-image/709/38160>.

"Cerussite." : Mineral Information and Data. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.mindat.org/min-934.html>.

"Contaminants of Concern at CALIFORNIA GULCH." Superfund Site Progress Profile. EPA, 18 Dec. 2015. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.contams&id=0801478>.

"EPA SUPERFUND PROGRAM: CALIFORNIA GULCH, LEADVILLE, CO." EPA Superfund Program. EPA, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0801478>.

EPA. "Three More Operable Units Are Up For Deletion by EPA." Herald Democrat (20 Aug. 2014): n. pag. LEADVILLE HERALD. EPA/Leadville Herald, 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.leadvilleherald.com/free_content/article_b935ed5e-28a7-11e4-b172-001a4bcf6878.html>.

"Leadville Colorado." Leadville Colorado. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2015. <http://www.westernmininghistory.com/towns/colorado/leadville>.

Leadville tailing pile, Mineral Belt Park, Leadville, CO. Personal photograph by author. 2010.

Old Mining Ruins, Mineral Belt Park, Leadville, Co. Personal photograph by author. 2010.

Orr, John. "California Gulch." Coyote Gulch. Wordpress, 3 Sept. 2015. Web.

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19Dec.2015.<https://coyotegulch.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/leadville.jpg?w=696&h=462&crop=1,>.

USA. Department of the Interior. United States Geological SUrvey. Geological Survey Bulletin 707: Guidebook of the Western United States: Part E., The Denver & Rio Grande Western Route. By Marius R. Campbell. National Park Service, n.d. Web.<http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/geology/publications/bul/707/images/fig27.jpg>.

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