Pandora Mill

Pandora Mill

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1880s; many additions. 2 miles southeast at east end of Columbia Ave.

Much of the Smuggler-Union Mining Company's giant Pandora Mill survives, but not the surrounding company town, tram terminals, mine tunnels, offices, and boarding houses. This rusty remnant of yesterday's industry at first glance resembles a Mine-shaft Modern condominium, with its industrial glass walls and corrugated and skylighted metal roof. Built as a gravity flow mill, it steps down the hillside under shed roofing. During a century of operations it proved to be a Pandora's box, creating the huge mill waste mountains which Telluride has been struggling to detoxify and revegetate.

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