Our Vision #20: Tailings Pile

The largest mine tailings pile at the Ute-Ulay mill site has been estimated at 4,000 cubic yards in volume. Nearly a century ago, the pile was considerably larger. The pile may contain metals and other poisons that are lifting into the air, creating dust, and entering storm-water runoff. Sealing the tailings is the only practical way to reduce leaching and the threat of respiratory illness in visitors. We suggest using a powerful polymer emulsion that will retain the form of the pile. The sealant will bond the surface dust and aggregate together and "cement" it to the base to create a hard, dust-free, water-resistant, and resilient surface. This remediation technique will essentially freeze the tailings pile in time, establishing a memorial-like feature, a tribute to the work that took place at the site.

A monument to hard work

Our Vision #18: Audio Tours

Visitors to the Ute Ulay site may have the choice of various audio tours featuring the voices and knowledge of local residents. 

Julia enjoying an audio tour

For example, one could choose to take the poetry audio tour and listen to regional poets reading work evocative of the landscape or mining.  Someone else might choose the ghost tour, and listen to the voice of local miner George Hurd or historian Grant Houston telling stories about the mine and Lake City.  Yet another visitor might choose to listen to the voice of Matt Ingram describe what it was like to work at the mill.

Our Vision #17: Mill and Assayer’s Cabin

The unique and remarkably intact mill building could become the central historic attraction of the Ute Ulay site, as well as another source of revenue.  There may be potential for a partnership with the Hard Tack Mine, and with miner Matt Ingram, who could give tours or record an audio guide.  

Mill Building with Walkway Superstructure

Building walkways around and through the mill would solve the problem of a costly indoor restoration, allowing visitors to view the complex machinery and imagine the milling process. A sound artist could be invited to repurpose some of the machinery as kinetic sculptures, giving visitors a sense of the industrial cacophony inside a working ore mill.

The assayer’s office next to the mill might be reused as a workspace for a resident artist or writer or building administrator.

Our Vision #13: Water Tank as Camera Obscura

The term camera obscura comes from the Latin for “dark vaulted chamber.” Popular in Victorian times, the camera obscura is an optical devise that projects an image of its surroundings onto a screen.  Also referred to as The Mirror of Life, camera obscuras were seen in many U.S. parks and public spaces from the 1870s to 1950s. The proposal to use the water tank at the Ute Ulay as a periscope camera obscura combines two methods of viewing the surroundings in one experience. Light is tunneled down a shaft (not unlike light filtering down a mine shaft) to project a moving image onto a concave dish. Inside the tower, viewers may manipulate the periscope themselves or with the help of a guide.

1880s Redwood Water Tank as Camera Obscura

 

Our Vision #9: Hostel & Cabins [1/2]

This is the first element within STAGE II

miner’s boardinghouse

 The miner’s boardinghouse and the two cabins will be a revenue-generating hostel, reflecting the buildings’ original use.  Structures will undergo a deep energy retrofit to preserve historic character while becoming energy efficient.  Thoughtful interior decoration could interpret the site’s history. 

Winterization will be self-contained in the boardinghouse, with cabins for summer use.  The main structure will include private and group bedrooms, hot showers, plumbing, gathering space, and a communal kitchen.  Other amenities could include interpretive resources, educational programming, and a small-scale farming endeavor with chickens or alpacas.  A live-in site caretaker, potentially a VISTA volunteer or artist-in-residence, could handle online reservations, light housekeeping, and greeting duties. 

Marketing would target ice climbers, backpackers, corporate retreats, family reunions, and student groups.  A price spectrum could be implemented to include a special rate for locals and work-trades for low-income visitors; one or both cabins may be renovated into more private, rustic luxury accommodations. 

Creative interior and exterior wallpapering, drawing on the structure’s original wallpaper and Victorian patterns, could emphasize the hidden history of domesticity within the mining landscape.  

hostel or cabin interior

Our Vision #6: Early Art Integration [2/4]

Structure Splinting

There are two frame structures on the Ute Ulay site in need of immediate repair, the head frame and the remains of the flume head at the former mill site. Both of these historical fragments communicate how the mine worked at the height of its productive life. 

historic structure splinting

In medical parlance, bone fractures can be held together using internal and external orthopedic metal splints. If we consider the frame structures as skeletons of the industrial past, an aesthetic sculptural component of the remediation process could be making visible methods of repair.

Our Vision #5: Early Art Integration [1/4]

Roof Tarps

Many of the buildings on the town site and mill site are currently degrading due to inadequate roofing, and the community has considered installing tarps as a short-term solution. This presents an opportunity to embellish the site with creative tarps in lieu of plain blue ones.

Protective vinyl tarps could be printed with images or information related to future creative enhancements of the site. For example, one tarp may showcase how the water storage tank may be transformed into a camera obscura. Alternatively, tarps could display historical imagery of miners who once worked at the Ute Ulay. This imagery could be provided by the historical society or created by an arts group or class. After the tarps are used, they can be transformed into tote bags as a fundraiser.

protective and decorative tarps