Mabon                                                                       Moon of the First Snow

After some ice cream, we left Georgetown and, since Ruth wanted to go back a different way, we drove the Guanella Pass south out of Georgetown. It comes out in the very small town of Grant on Highway 285 about 25 miles from Shadow Mountain. The pass reaches 11,669 feet at its highest point and includes several overlooks, national forest campgrounds and a large Xcel energy hydroelectric station.

As we climbed, the snow cover got heavier and heavier until we reached an area where the snow was thick on the ground somewhere close to the treeline. 24 miles long the Guanella Pass takes a while to drive because it’s both narrow and twisty.

Along the way we saw this guy sunning himself on the road. He never moved when I stopped the car, rolled down the window and took several pictures. A healthy looking red fox.

This is wild, forlorn country reachable, for now, by car. One socko storm though and the Guanella Pass will close for the season. The Mt. Evan’s road, which traverses a similar route further east, climbs one of Colorado’s fourteeners.

Mabon                                                                             Moon of the First Snow

Ruth wanted to go to the Argo Gold Mine. We saddled up the Rav4 and drove through Evergreen, caught I-70 and found Idaho Springs. The Argo, in spite of its website, was closed. So, we had to regroup. Ruth thought Georgetown, a historic mining town, further west on I-70 might be fun, so we headed over there.

An Energy Museum caught Ruth’s eye, so we parked and wandered over to the smallish wooden building on the edge of downtown. It looked closed. Ruth had seen an open sign, but I was dubious. She still has faith in the veracity of signage. She was right.

It was open and turned out to be a fascinating place. Jason, the onsite employee, was an enthusiastic guy near my age. He explained that this was a working museum. Working? Yes, the museum was built around a functioning hydroelectric plant installed over a hundred years ago and still producing electricity with the same equipment today.

And, Jason said proudly, “It doesn’t produce any of that Edison direct current crap! It’s AC from the git go.” The first commercial AC plant was in Colorado, too. The Ames Hydroelectric Generating Plant outside Ophir, Colorado. It was built in 1890 and the Georgetown site came online in 1906.

This confluence of AC power generation probably has something to do with Nikola Tesla, inventor of alternating current. From 1899 thru 1900 he lived in the Alta Vista Hotel in Colorado Springs, carrying out experiments focused largely on the wireless transmission of energy. He liked the dry air in Colorado.

“What does it feel like to be the smartest man in the world?” a reporter asked Albert Einstein. “I don’t know,” Einstein replied, “You’ll have to ask Nikola Tesla.” Tesla is a protean figure whose relative absence from the public mind puzzles any who know the remarkable things he did.

Not only did he invent alternating current and champion it as an alternative to Edison’s direct current (AC maintains its strength much better while being transmitted from power station to consumers), he invented radio, though Marconi would eventually get the credit for it. Other notable Tesla inventions: Neon signs. X-Rays. Remote Control. Electric motor. Robotics. Laser. Wireless communications and limitless free energy.

Tesla has fascinate me for a long time and I’d like to see him get some attention here.