History
The Native Americans knew well the riches of Battle Mountain, but their pursuits and those of later settlers were very different.

The Utes and Arapahos engaged in a multi-day battle in the mid 1800’s over hunting territory on the mountain, giving the area its name. Details of the conflict are historically hazy.

The area was discovered by prospectors in search of gold and silver that helped fuel westward expansion. They began to spill out of the hills near Leadville and found promising mineral bands at what is now Gilman where the Canyon of the Eagle River shows its fractured rocky face.

The ranch in Wolcott, which now constitutes the majority of the community of Red Sky Ranch, was purchased in 1926. Some say that the mountains of Colorado must have reminded these families of the mountains in their homelands of central Greece. The rich Greek Orthodox culture was faithfully carried into their new homeland, where arranged marriages were week-long celebrations, and children were raised with integrity, respect and religious ethics.

From believing in sun-swallowing monsters, to screaming in terror, people have responded to the brief disappearance of the sun in strange ways for millennia.

The Eagle Mine Superfund site is located in the Rocky Mountains, approximately 8,000 feet above sea level, bordered to the south and west by the White River National Forest. The roughly 235-acre site sits one mile south of the town of Minturn in Eagle County, Colorado. The Eagle River and a number of its tributaries flow through the site, which is an area heavily impacted by heavy metal contamination as a result of past mining activities. The site includes an estimated 70 miles of underground mine tunnels; underground mill workings; the abandoned company town of Gilman; and various mine waste features such as former roaster pile areas; waste rock piles; tailings piles; a tailings slurry line and trestle, and the Belden Mill and load out area. Contaminants include of arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead and zinc in the soils, structures, surface water, sediments, and groundwater across the site.