Caribel

Lily Smith

Ajax

Moberg

Stella

Anderson

Crowe

Inferno

Bitter Creek

Placer Creek

Black Copper Canyon

Sometime in the late 1890s two prospectors, Melville Pierce and Andy Manson, began to explore the upper Pioneer canyon and filed on several claims about five miles from Red River City. Thirteen of these claim s seemed to be of particular value and they were combined into the Caribel Claim named for Pierce's wife, Caribel ("Carrie").

In 1910 the Claim was purchased by H. L. Pratt who decided to open a mine. He retained Pierce as superintendent and began to search for venture capital for the new Caribel Mining and Milling Company. Financial backing was obtained from A. H. A. Furu of Trinidad, Colorado who became the Asst. Secretary and Treasurer of the company. The venture is said to have been capitalized at $500,000. An extensive building program was put in place and before long the Caribel was the largest mining operation in the Red River Mining District.

By 1917 there was a five story cyanide mill containing a five-stamp crusher, a ball mill, and a large separator. In addition to the usual buildings - bunk houses, office, cook shack, assay office, blacksmith shop, there was housing for families of some of the miners. At its peak, a total of 30-40 men were working the mine, often in three shifts. Ore removed from the mine was at times treated at the June Bug Mill and it was reported that 75 tons of ore produced $2,000.

World War I took a heavy toll on the Red River mining operations as manpower and capital moved elsewhere. The Caribel had exhausted much of its finances and the operation was markedly curtailed. In 1922 the company attempted to re-structure and resumed operations, but this was short lived. By 1930 the mine was closed. It sat undisturbed at the head of Pioneer Canyon for about fifty years and then was dismantled in the 1980s.

The large separator wheel from the Caribel Mine now rests at the Red River Museum.