Western Museum of Mining and Industry

Sitting in the northern limits of Colorado Springs, Colorado, the Western Museum of Mining and Industry combines indoor educational displays with an outdoor collection of equipment to explore local Colorado mining history. The museum was originally incorporated as the Museum of the West in 1970 with a collection of mining artifacts donated by Mr. Frederick McMenemy Farrar and Mrs. Katherine Thatcher Farrar. The name was updated to the more descriptive Western Museum of Mining & Industry in 1972.

The collection today includes over 4,000 mining artifacts spread across a 27-acre exhibit site. Inside the main museum is a collection of displays, theater, and library. Pan for gold, wander down a recreated mine shaft, visit an assayers office, and more. Visitors can explore a blacksmith shop with live metal working demonstrations explaining its application in mining. Learn about mine reclamation: how land receives a second life after mining has concluded by preventing water contamination, reintroducing vegetation, and more

Notable among the collection is the Yellow Jacket II Stamp Mill, a recreation of a late 19th century stamp mill based off of and including equipment from the Yellow Jacket Mill in Montezuma, Colorado. The ten-stamp ore mill reproduced in 1978 is consistent with period construction and includes a Blake jaw crusher, amalgamating tables, flotation cells, and Wilfley concentration tables. One of the last operating stamp mills in America, the Yellow Jacket II is run once a year, usually in the summer.