argogold mill and museum

We visited today with a teenager and a 5 year old. I remember coming here as a kid, so I wanted to share it with my children. It did not disappoint. The tour guide, Bob, was very knowledgeable and friendly. We heard a lesson on rocks and gold, watched a 10 minute video on the history of the mill, then were taken up to explore.The cave and mill are entirely self guided so you can go at your own pace. We enjoyed the mine and took a peel at the old Argo tunnel. The mill has some scary stairs - might be hard to navigate with very young kids but plenty of spots to sit and rest.After exiting the mill, you get a quick lesson on panning for gold. That part was pretty fun - we ended up with a few flecks to take home as souvenirs. All in all, this is a neat place to visit - we learned about mining, rocks and local history. Worth the time and money!

This used to be a working mine. Now you can have a tour of the mine itself, see veins of silver in the walls of the mine. Then you get to go step by step from when they took the minerals from the mine to where they ended up on ground level. See the old machines and carts and equipment used back in the day. It is a very informative tour, good for adults but I'm afraid my 8 year old would've gotten very bored.

There was a nice old sallon style building where you watch a movie about the argo and get to start your trip. There is a small 300ft mine to have a brief idea of how you it actually work and after you get to go around argo mill and see how it would work. It is a fun place . Not really a must go but it is worth to go.

16 dollars per person tour takes about a hour to a hour and a half depending on how long you spend looking most of the tour is self guided and you can spend as much time as you would like. My husband loved it seems to be ore of a man thing to me but was still a enjoyable experience. At the end of the tour you are given panning lessons and a small amount go gold to take as a suviner.

It was a good experience in learning about what all had to go through to get gold but what had put a bad taste in my mouth was that for the cost and no guide. For $20 per person, someone drops you off at the top, tells you where to go and then drives off. For an 1 1/2 hrs, you try to figure out the maze that they put you in and read everything for yourself. If I wanted to do that, I would have stayed at home to read about it and look at pictures. I would not go back or recommend it .

It was truly a unique experience and the personal attention that the staff and owner's give helped make this trip truly fun. If you want to learn about gold-mining this is the place to go.

We are a family of 6 and we loved being able to delegate our own pace of the tour. We could spend time with the places that interested us and speed through the less interesting parts. The staff was nice and friendly. Our kids loved panning for gold at the end of the tour and even picked up sand from the trough so they could keep practicing their technique. Due to the a self guided pacing crowds weren't a problem at all. We loved our trip to the mill!

Overall an interesting glimpse into Colorado's mining history, although a bit overpriced.First of all, keep in mind that you are visiting a gold MILL and not a gold MINE. The little mine you do get to see as part of this tour is only a short tunnel about 300ft long, so everybody walks in, waits in line for his turn, takes a photo and walks back out. The video at the beginning of the tour was very informative and also easy for kids to understand. Our guide (a very nice young chap, don't remember his name though) was very knowledgeable and patiently answered our many questions. Part of the tour was also a little demonstration with a pneumatic drill and anybody who wanted to give it a try could do that. That was great as it provided a little bit of a feeling for the miners' work. While I liked that we could set our own pace on the self-guided tour after that, it would have been nice if they had a guide stationed inside the mill to answer additional questions (then I think the price would have been more justified). The gold panning afterwards was fun, but, yes, you only find 2-3 teeny tiny "flecks". Too bad also that the Argo tunnel is too dangerous to visit and is boarded up. Also, I found that not everybody working there seems to value the visitors as much as our guide. The girl who sold us the tickets was rattling down her text like a robot, she couldn't have been more bored with her job. Take the tour if you are really into historic artifacts and interested in Colorado's mining history. Otherwise there are maybe more exciting things to spend your money on.

I've read through the other reviews & agree with the bad & the highlights. The film was educational & the guide's discussion afterwards was good (for what I could hear over a screaming child). The tour guide did drive us up a hill on a small bus, dropped us off & said "go that way to the mine" and left. We had a sheet of paper that was to help "guide" us through the tour. The main "Argo Tunnel" is boarded up & it's true you walk a short way into the mountain of a mine tunnel (hard hats provided). Then the tour through the mill following the "handy" map. There were several times I had wished there was a live guide on hand to answer some questions. Even though there were signs that stated what we were looking at, I didn't know what I was looking at. Since I've never worked in a mill or mine, I was a little lost as to what did what & why. I didn't understand the terms. The floors did creak, but everything was solid & there were hand rails. However this tour is NOT for wheelchairs, crutches, or strollers. There is a lot of walking on rough terrain and once you're in the mill it's all stairs & narrow passages. We made jokes through the whole tour of the "Stephen King" feel of it all. A group of people taken up a mountain side, dropped off at the edge of the woods, left alone, then slowly you go from a crowd of 15 down to 2. More weird than creepy in this instance. The panning at the end of the tour was okay. The employee that explained how to do it, seemed put out she had to work with us. She was very impatient that we didn't immediately come down the hill when we came out of the mill (we were looking at the equipment scattered along the path). She flew through the panning instructions and left. I would've enjoyed it more with a knowledgeable tour guide on hand. I don't know if I would plan a day trip to the mine/mill, but since we were staying in Idaho Springs I took my 12 yr old through the tour because it was the one thing on vacation he asked to do. And he enjoyed the whole thing. Maybe because it felt more like an adventure & not a tour (he was free to move at his own pace & wander to look at things he wanted to see).

This tour was a short film and a self guided tour. We were taken up the hill dropped off, walked to a cavern saw a gold vein and that was the highlight. Our family, including a 10 and 12 yr old, found it very disappointing and not worth the time or the cost.

A tour lady was nice and very informing about the miners and we went into a real mine. Also we saw mountain rams come down the mountain. It really is a nice museum and mill. Very worth seeing!

5 min video and self guided tour, very poor explanations. Not worth the money. Could have been done much better.

Our daughter loved this place. You learn a lot about mining and Colorado history here. If you like old things, don't miss this as the display of old mining equipment is great. And the store has wide variety of historical things to check out.

When early in the morning and was the only people there, was told a field trip was coming but we should be ok, got thru the tour and was ready for the gold panning and was treated as a pain instead of customers. Not sure that treatment was worth the drive.

While the Argo Mill Building is quite imposing as you view it from Interstate 70 in Idaho Springs, the tour is not a mine tour; it is a mill tour. After an introductory lecture, which goes on far too long, you are led to a bus which takes you up a large tailing pile to their "mine". The mine is a joke, extending a very short distance into the hillside, with absolutely nothing to see. After that, you are on your own to wind your way down through the extensive mill building , back to where you started. While there are placards to explain some of the imposing machinery you pass, the lack of a knowledgeable guide detracts measurably from the visit. As usual, at the end of the tour, you can try your luck at gold panning at tables provided..