Mount Lincoln
Maps and GPS:
USGS 7.5' Map:	Alma
Statistics:	Difficulty: Number: Miles: Altitude: Obstacles: Time: Easy 3 FR 437 3.80 11,360 to 13,120 ft. Ledge Road 1-2 hours
County:	Park
Adopted by:
Managed by:	Pike Nat. Forest, South Park Ranger District	320 Hwy 285, P.O. Box 219 Fairplay, CO 80440	(719)836-2031
Summary:	Mount Lincoln 4WD road climbs past the site of Quartzville and up above timberline to the ridge below Mount Lincoln peak.
Attractions:	Scenery, History
Seasonal Closure	Natural - Closed by heavy snow
Best Time:	June - Early, may still be snowed in above timberline. July - Best August - Best September - Best
Trail Heads Accessed:	Mount Lincoln - Access from the end of the road. Mount Bross - No access due to private property.
Camping:	Once past the private property there are two spots to camp just below timberline.
Base Camp:	This would be a good area to base camp to explore the area around Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross.
Fall Colors:	Poor - Pine forest
Navigation:	From Breckenridge CO. head south on S Main St toward W Adams Ave for 0.3 miles. Turn left onto CO-9 S/S Main St and continue to follow CO-9 S for 10.9 miles. Turn right onto County Rd 4 and go 0.6 miles. Take a sharp left onto Goldfinch Place and go 0.5 miles. Take a slight right onto Goldfinch Lane and go 0.3 miles. Turn left onto Nuthatch Dr and continue to follow Nuthatch Dr for 0.3 miles. Take a slight left onto County Rd 4 and go 79 feet. Take the 1st right onto Beresford Crossing and go 0.2 miles. Continue onto Roberts Road and go 1.8 miles. Turn right onto Mount Lincoln 4WD road. From Fairplay, CO. head northwest on CO-9 N/Main Street toward 4th Street and continue to follow CO-9 N for 7.6 miles. Turn left onto County Rd 4 and go 1.8 miles. Turn left onto Alma State Wildlive Area Access and go 0.1 miles. Turn right onto River Dr and go 0.1 miles. Take the 1st left onto Roberts Road and go 1.8 miles. Turn right onto the Mount Lincoln 4WD road.
History:	Montgomery was a gold mining town below Mount Lincoln along the South Platte River. It started in the mid 1860s and had 2,000 people at one time, six stamp mills, and produced $500,000 in gold. But by the end of 1869 the many houses and cabins were dilapidated, with only a dozen residents, one being Joseph H. Myers. Today Montgomery is covered by the Montgomery Reservoir. Two experienced prospectors, Daniel Plummer, who had come to Montgomery in July of 1865 to superintend the Pioneer Mill, and Joseph H. Myers, who had been mining in Park County since the early 1860s, continued searching for promising mineral outcrops. In 1868 their searching was rewarded when they found an outcrop of silver in limestone at 13,600 feet on Mount Bross. This was the first discovery of silver in limestone in Colorado. Plummer and Myers assumed the silver would lead to a fissure vein in granite, so they continued searching down the northeast face of Mount Bross. Making their best guess of the veins location they filed their claim in March of 1869 and named it the Dwight. A third name was added to the deed, Richard B. Ware, who had probably grubstaked Plummer and Myers. At 14,172 feet, Mount Bross is the southern summit of a large mountain massif. The northern summit, Mount Lincoln, is 14,286 feet. These two summits are connected by Mount Cameron, at 14,238 feet, rises above the ridge crest one mile north of Bross and a mile west of Lincoln. To determine the value of the silver, Plummer and Myers mined 100 pounds of ore from the Dwight and sent it to Newark, New Jersey, for an assay that proved the silver at 265 ounces to 400 ounces per ton, making the Dwight a rich silver mine. Without funds to develop the mine, no activity took place at the Dwight. In the early summer of 1871 Plummer and Myers climbed back up Mount Bross to the Dwight and found more indications of silver higher up at 13,700 feet. Using their prospecting knowledge they traced the silver outcrops horizontally across Mount Bross. They took another 100 pound ore sample and sent it to Newark to be assayed. After the results came back the Moose Mine was filed on August 5, 1871. The assay had come back with ore as high as 879 ounces of silver per ton, making it very rich ore. Two new partners were added to help finance the mine work, Judson H. Dudley and Andrew W. Gill. By September of 1871 the Moose Mine had been surface-stripped for 250 feet uncovering ore from sixteen to twenty inches wide assaying at 400 ounces of silver per ton. Taking 30 tons of ore from the Moose and 10 tons from the Dwight the owners pack trained the ore to Denver, shipped it to New York, then on to Swansea, Wales, one of the most advanced smelters in the world, for processing. Even with the huge shipping cost the Moose Mine ore still produced a large profit. Following the limestone outcrops from Mount Bross onto Mount Lincoln, Addison M. Janes laid claim to the first mine on Mount Lincoln in July of 1871, the Wilson lode. More mines were claimed on Mount Lincoln, including the Lincoln lode at 13,200 feet, the Russia Mine at 13,880 feet, and the Present Help at 14,157 feet. Janes and William E. Musgrove located the Present Help on September 3, 1871, which included the summit of Mount Lincoln, making it the highest mine claim ever filed in Colorado. Back on Mount Bross, in early 1872 George W. Brunk and Assyria Hall discovered Dolly Varden Mine, below the Moose Mine, another of the few mines staked that actually produced wealth for the owners. Quartzville is an old mining community on the east side of Mount Lincoln and Mount Bross. It was first settled in the early 1860s. By 1870 there were fifty cabins spread out around a sunken meadow below the mines high up on the mountains. The silver ore produced by the mines was shipped out to Denver and then back up to Black Hawk to a smelter, or overseas to Swansea, Wales for smeltering. Only the highest grade ore could be sent. Low grade ore was stockpiled at the mines. The main mines were the Moose just below the summit of Mount Bross, the Dolly Varden below the Moose, and the Russia on Mount Lincoln. The combined output of these mines was worth over three million dollars. By 1872 Quartzville had a small crushing and sampling works. But what was needed was a smelter in the Fairplay area. The owners of the Moose Mine created the Mount Lincoln Smelting Works Company and built a smelter, known as the Dudley Works, which fired up on December 1, 1872. The Dudley Works was south and east of Mount Bross along the South Platte River, a mile above the confluence of the Middle Fork of the South Platte River and Mosquito Creek. The Dudley Works smelter was a blast furnace design and only operated until 1874 due to the more cost effective smelter of the Boston and Colorado smelter at Alma. Another group of mine owners incorporated the Boston and Colorado Smelting Company and built a more advanced reverberatory furnace, unlike the Dudley blast furnace, in the spring of 1873. The site of the Boston and Colorado Alma smelter was at the confluence of Buckskin Creek and the Middle Fork of the South Platte River, and became the town of Alma. By 1873 wagon roads were being built up Mount Bross to the Moose Mine, and from Quartzville up Mount Lincoln to the Russia Mine. Boston and Colorado Smelter at Alma, 1875. Right of center with smoke stacks. Retrofitted with a reverberatory furnace, the Dudley Smelter reopened in September 1875 and began processing ore from the Moose Mining Company's holdings. With both smelters operating at capacity, silver production in Park County reached new hights. Moose Mine in 1880    photo by: T.C. Miller Moose Mine in 1880    photo by: T.C. Miller In 1877, silver discoveries in Leadville initiated a boom that would significantly affect the fortunes of Alma-area smelters. As investors, prospectors, and miners flocked to Lake County to take advantage of the new opportunities, Park County mines closed and ore supplies diminished. The big silver mines-the Moose, Dolly Varden, and Russia-continued to produce a healthy amount of ore, but not enough to keep both the Dudley and Alma works operating at full capacity. In 1878, construction began on a new state-of-the-art smelter facility at Argo, two miles north of Denver. As ore supplies in Park County continued to decline, production at the Alma branch waned and in 1879 the decision was made to shut down the Alma smelter and consolidate the Boston and Colorado's smelting operations in Argo. In 1884 the Quartzville Tunnel was started to drill under the mines to access the lodes which revitalized the area for a short time, but later the tunnel was abandoned. After the Denver, South Park & Pacific railroad reached Alma Junction in 1888, it become more cost effective to ship ore via the new rail line for smelting elsewhere. The Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1893 caused the town and mines to finally be abandoned. Today only cabin foundations and mine tailings remain at Quartzville. Alma remained a small town in the area.
	Jessen, Kenneth Ghost Towns Colorado Style, Volumn 2, 1st ed. Loveland, Colorado: J.V. Publications, 1999. Print. Gardiner, Harvey N. Mining Among the Clouds The Colorado Historical Society, 2002. Print.
Description:
Once across the private property you will quickly climb a few short switchbacks that will bring you close to timberline. The last section of road may be eroded from run off. At a flat spot the road will loop back to the east to two campsites. The road to the west continues around a marshy area up a switchback. This is the area where the ghost town of Quartzville once existed. You will now be above timberline as the road continues to climb toward Mount Lincoln. photo by: Adam M Look for old power poles along both sides of the road. During wet years the alpine meadows will be full of wildflowers. The road will continue to climb and become a bit more rocky as it follows the north side of Quartzville Creek. Look for marmots that live in the rock piles. At the head of the cirque you will pass a sign for the Cameron Amphetheatre which has a dispersed hike in campspot. From here the road will loop back east and become a ledge road climbing the side of a ridge. Ledge road to the gate photo by: Adam M After a half mile you will come to a locked gate that is the turn around point. Enjoy the views of South Park and the surrounding mountains. Gate at private property photo by: Adam M Views Mnt Lincoln road is below above timberline photo by: Adam M Beyond the gate, the old road climbed around to the north, then northwest, to climb the southeast ridge of Mount Lincoln. At one time this old wagon road went all the way to the Present Help mine at the summit of Mount Lincoln.
Data updated - January 24, 2022       4WD Road driven - July 22, 2014       Copyright 4X4Explore - 2000-2022