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About Crystal CityActually, the Crystal Mill isn't a mill at all, but a defunct hydro-electric plant. (Contrast this hydro-electric plant with the somewhat more modern one in Telluride.) Over the years, through some confusion that started long ago, the Crystal hydro-electric plant has come to generally be known as a mill. Via a horizontally positioned waterwheel at the bottom of the long shaft housing that drops into the river, the "mill" harvested the power of the Crystal River to drive an air compressor that provided power to mining equipment and to the stamp mill that was located next to it. Some sources say that it was used almost exclusively for powering hard rock drilling in the mines up on Sheep Mountain. Several of the remaining buildings in Crystal City are shown below, including the saloon, which is the building to the right in the top photo on the left. The original "mill," just a couple of years old (circa 1896), is also shown with the many miner cabins of Crystal behind it. Most of Crystal's existing buildings are occupied during the summer by seasonal locals, including Roger A. Neal, who has spent some fifty summers in Crystal, frightening folks with his Crystal ghost stories that are also captured in his book Creepy Crystal Tales. |