As Lead suffers dust from Open Cut Ouray enjoys $5 million winter economy

In 1999 we were listening to an NPR story about an ice climbing park in Ouray, Colorado, a former mining town that has remade itself by farming ice when my daughters' mother turned to me and said, "wow, they should do that in the Open Cut." 

It was if she had spoken with the Voice of God. The very next day I made an appointment then met with Homestake Mine General Manager Bruce Breid, an aerial photo of the pit displayed on the wall behind his desk. "What a brilliant idea, Mr. Kurtz, we have water here, here, and here," Mr. Breid said, pointing to locations at the rim near the Homestake Visitor Center. "Can you provide a legal instrument holding Homestake harmless?" Right. There was that.

Fans of ice climbing were not the only ones cheering at the Ouray Ice Festival last weekend. The state’s bosses of tourism and outdoor recreation were watching closely as thousands gathered in Ouray’s famed ice park, a rally supported by an unprecedented wave of grants designed to pull the community back from the pandemic. A 2018 study of the economic impact of the park showed park visitors and climbers contributing $3 million to Ouray’s $4.9 million winter economy. And early next month the park will host the UIAA North American Ice Climbing Championship, which will be live streamed around the world. It’s a tangled public-private-local-federal web that works in Ouray. [Ouray Ice Park’s rebound from rockfall is a test case for how Colorado can help tourism communities recover]

Fermilab boasts a $2 million annual economic impact and naming a dark matter lab 5000 feet below Lead after a lecherous, usurious billionaire from Sioux Falls sticks in plenty of craws in South Dakota yet real science is getting done there. The Homestake Mine represents 8000 feet closer to the geothermal potential capable of powering much of the region. But South Dakota is dumbing down requirements for math teachers because graduates flee the state where the SD Republican Party ridicules educated people and perennially threatens funding for public radio.

Fermilab officials discussed progress for the overall project to build the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF), as well as ongoing efforts to mitigate the noise and contain the dust at a small meeting of residents, Tuesday. Ceasing operations during high winds and directly observing the dust, adjusting for winds that blow dust beyond the fence line, have had some impact. A tackifier that is applied to the rock before it is dumped into the Open Cut has also proven to be effective, but only in the places where the tackifier rock is dumped. A dust collector fan at the crusher building that was making a high-pitched noise, and causing significant disturbance, has also been outfitted with a muffler that dropped the noise by 12 decibels. [Fermilab hosts second public meeting for LBNF/DUNE project]

Spearditch actually made Outside Magazine's list of best mountain towns but was completely outstripped by Taos, Durango, Telluride and Bozeman.

Learn more at the Ouray County Plaindealer.

Photo: dust from the Open Cut coats a park next to the pit.