Back in 2025 there was a photo and an article in the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette for a structure the author referred to as the Cliff Hanger Mine. He couldn't find out anything about it and just opted to build the structure, which is great all model railroaders do that. However, I found it so intriguing that I started digging into it, and the hole is deep.
Here is the photo, it is literally built into the cliff side, this photo has cut off the drop off directly under it.
And some other views I found online, these came from a Facebook Group:
Its missing a couple of key features; there is no apparent adit where the ore would come from and there doesn't seem to be a way to get the ore from the bins to a wagon or truck below it. In the background of the last photo you can make out a structure on the left. That's a set of massive ore bins for the Commodore #5 mine in Creede CO.
In the end I discovered that this is an Ore Sorting building. So it has ore bins, obviously, and then the chutes would be open slightly and ore would be poured out on to a sorting table. The good ore went into a plank chute coming out the open side and down to a waiting truck (this building was built in the early 30's). But where did the ore come from? Looking at the last photo again you can see a pile of waste rock (tailings) running from the complex, with the big ore bins, to this sorting building. There is a rail tram running along the top of that pile and it would dump ore into another chute that feed the ore bins from above. So ore was provided by rail. Apparently the building was not part of the Commodore complex per say but was used by a company that leased a portion of the Commodore mine. The Amethyst vein runs through that mountain and there are literally miles of tunnels in there.
I learned a lot more about the complex but its this little structure that might find a home on my layout.
That's a fascinating structure; almost more fantasy than 20th century.
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