creede underground mining museum

Great tour of the inside of a mine given by a retired miner. I learned so much--each of the stops showed the progress in mining technology. Our miner tour guide was a real stitch--almost gave me a heart attack when he simulated a "boom" during a moment of silence in the mines. If possible, let them know you will be taking the tour the day before so they can arrange for one of the retired miners to take you.

Creede is one of the locations used for filming the recent Johnny Depp version of "The Lone Ranger". The sites here are breathtaking, especially the old silver mine and museum. If you're a fan of the old westerns, this is the place for you! You will learn about the work and daily lives of the miners and how towns popped up thanks to the mine camps where men came to make their fortunes. Creede is a beautiful, friendly town, but it is at nearly 9000 feet elevation, so if you're flying in, do your best to hydrate beforehand. Altitude sickness can be a problem. Also, watch the weather. Freak snowstorms can appear in the high country with little warning. You may want to wait and visit between April and October.Don't miss the mine and museum if you're anywhere near Creede. You will really enjoy the entire experience!

Being able to walk through the Underground Mine that is the main part of the Museum is very very interesting, you are in an area that is underground and shows everything about gold and silver hard rock mining, they did a wonderful job of making the tour so very interesting. There is a very reasonable charge for the tour.

You have to drive north of Creede to get to the museum. The first thing you see is that the fire department is built into a cave in the side of the canyon before you get to the museum. The museum was actually built into the side of the canyon by the city who hired professional miners to excavate a cavern to serve as a mine and as a community center. We got there just before it closed and had hoped it was an old mine that we would be allowed to go into. But since it was just excavated to create the museum, we weren't that excited about exploring the tunnel. However, they do explain mining techniques and have a gift shop and rest rooms and we took advantage to buy some rock samples. If you happen to have some crumbs, the squirrels and ground squirrels right outside the entrance are tame and come out to eat from you. There seemed to be dozens of the little critters and were all stuffing their cheeks and running back to the wall where they were filling their nests for the winter.

Creede is a pretty mining town and is worthwhile spending a few hours in. We enjoyed the excellent audio tour of its replica mine that is bored into the mountain just as the original mine was. It also serves as an underground community center! The self-guided tour lasts about 30 minutes and is very well done. We learned about early mining practices as well as more modern techniques. It gave us a feeling for how dangerous working in the mines continues to be. A short drive up the dirt road from the museum brought us to the original mine and its artifacts. The tour cost was about $4.

The children had a great time feeding the chipmunks, they will come eat out of your hand. The museum has a gift shop, but if you want to do the tour, make sure you get the time right. Our experience, the museum workers were not child friendly, and would prefer you to leave your children at home. Not a good experience this time around.

We arrived later in the afternoon and were too late for the audio tours, but just in time for a real, live tour guide! What perfect timing. He himself had been a miner for 46 years so he really knew what he was talking about. This museum was not a working mine but was built into the mountain to show the history of mining. Bring a coat or you can borrow one there as it is chilly throughout the tour. Lots to see and hear about. Not sure what the audio version entails as we didn't use it. As you enter there is a very nice gift shop with lots of things pertaining to mining, photos and posters, cute mining helmets for kids, etc. After the tour you can feed the many chipmunks that hang out by the entrance. Signs to advise you to "feed at your own risk". After the museum you can take a drive up a steep road to view some old mining buildings, railways, etc., along the creek.

It's not expensive and is not a real mine, but we learned a lot about mining in the area. It is not fancy and I would suggest the $7 audio tour. The people running the place were very nice - cool gift shop. physically cool but they have coats if you don't bring one. there was a family in front of us with 2 boys - 8 and 10 and they got bored - so take that into consideration - it really is more adult

This audio guided tour starts with some friendly locals giving a warm welcome. The tour walks you through the history of mining and educates how mining made Creede what is today. Do not miss out on this museum and take some time to visit with the folks in the gift shop.

There are 2 remarkable features of the museum. The staff is rude beyond belief, but the chipmunks are beautiful. We have been here three times and both of these features remain the same.

This museum was a snooze fest. Old, outdated and not well maintained. The mine tunnel was cool as was the fire station in the mountain but the museum needs some work! They should invest some money in improvements.

For quite a nominal fee you can take the self-guided audio tour or a giude-led tour when available. They've done a great job of explaining mining and it's even more interesting since they built the museum, and community center, in the mine!

Did not know what to expect but found this tour very interesting. Our tour guide was a former miner and we learned a lot about silver mining and the lives the miners who worked here. It was worth the money to have this gentleman tell us about the various areas of the mine and the lives of the miners. He answered questions and shared a number of personal experiences with us.

After making the Bachelor Loop, we popped in to the mining gift shop to look at souvenirs. When we realized their last tour of the day was just beginning, we grabbed coats off the rack and ran to join them. Not usually keen on tours, I was pleasantly engaged and absorbed in our guide's narration. Take the live-miner tour if you can. I would've been bored with an audio narration. Our daughters, 8 and 10, were also engaged and LOVED feeding sunflower seeds to the chipmunks afterward. (Take hand sanitizer).;)

We did the miner-guided tour for $15.00 per person. I personally thought it wasn't worth the cost. It was okay, but the guide spoke very quickly (seemed scripted) and used a lot of mining jargon that the typical visitor would be unfamiliar with. I would recommend that you skip the guided tour and do the audio tour to save money.