Love this post, and as you said this is nothing new. To tie it into Jeeps and 4-wheeling, it's interesting to learn about Colorado's mining history via driving the old trails and seeing what's left of the old mines and mills. When I drove the Alpine Loop a few years ago, I got a book from the library beforehand and read up on the mining history of the area around Ouray. I've learned a lot that I didn't know before moving to Colorado, from wheeling, reading, and going to museums and tours of the sites. The initial gold rush in CO, the switch to silver, the crash of the silver price due to the end of government manipulation, mine closures and ghost towns as a result, the mining barons who got rich and sometimes went bankrupt, conditions for miners and their fights to unionize, the Ludlow Massacre, environmental effects (ongoing today such as the spill into the river near Durango and ongoing massive mines near Leadville and Cripple Creek), etc.
