Entry No. 119 — the Denver file — filed under: history

Edgar Experimental Mine

This isn't a tourist gold mine with fake gunfights — it's the Colorado School of Mines' actual working research mine, where engineering students learn to drill, blast, and survey in half a mile of 1870s tunnels. Lately it's gone weirder: under ~200 meters of rock the school built the Colorado Underground Research Institute (CURIE), including a room nicknamed the Subatomic Particle Hideout where muon and neutron detectors run quantum and particle-physics experiments shielded from cosmic rays. Public hard-hat tours wind through the historic workings at a constant 54 degrees year-round. Almost nobody outside the geek pipeline knows you can just book a tour.

The move: Book a guided hard-hat tour, go deep into the cold dark tunnels together, and have them point out the quantum/particle-physics gear before you surface for daylight and a thaw-out lunch in town.

📍 Before you go The mine sits above Idaho Springs, about a 40-minute drive west of Denver on I-70 — take exit 240, head north to Colorado Boulevard, then west to 8th Avenue, where the road climbs to the mine at the top of the hill. Drive through the main gate and continue up roughly a quarter mile to the office; there's parking on site. Tours run only by reservation and waitlists are common, so plan ahead rather than dropping in. Wear sturdy closed shoes and bring a warm layer — the tunnels stay genuinely cold year-round. Any season works since you're underground, but pair it with the historic downtown below: Idaho Springs has old mining-town pizzerias and hot springs to thaw out in afterward.

• 📍 Idaho Springs
• 💸 $
• ⚡ Up for anything
• 🌗 Indoors

Where: 365 8th Avenue, Idaho Springs, CO 80452 (Colorado School of Mines Edgar Experimental Mine)

Hours: Tours by appointment; contact [email protected] or 303-567-2911. Public tour times appear via Mines' ticketing site and fill up (waitlists common). Note: the CURIE quantum lab is an active research space and not guaranteed on every public tour — confirm when booking. Mine is a constant 54°F; bring a layer.

Plan a visit & invite your people →

Further reading: mining.mines.edu · uncovercolorado.com · cpr.org · minesnewsroom.com

last checked: 2026-06-07