Warm Spring Camp is a great place to stop and explore the buildings, mining relics and ruins left over from the former mining camp located there. It also makes for a great campground. The interpretive sign at Warm Spring Camp explains the history of the place built by Louise Grantham in nice detail for visitors. Regarding Warm Spring Camp when it was still being used for mining purposes, a 1955 park memo explained: "Mrs. Grantham has undoubtedly the finest mining camp of any in the Monument. Her residence, the mess hall, shop, and generator building are all of substantial cement block construction and there are four frame buildings including a dormitory and two small houses. There are eight employees at present and this number may be increased to twelve or fifteen. The buildings are equipped with flush toilets, estimated at six, and shower baths. There is a community mess hall." Today, you can see these same buildings for yourself. One of the most interesting aspects of a visit to Warm Spring Camp is checking out the swimming pool, which is sometimes full of black water, sometimes half-full and sometimes empty. Below we have included two overview maps which were published in The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology Volume 32, No. 1. It is helpful to print out these overview maps to take with you when visiting Warm Spring Camp, so you can fully understand and appreciate the area.
The interpretive sign features a picture of Louise Grantham and her dog sitting outside her house at Warm Spring Camp:
The 1st building on our tour was the Dorm, seen in the next three pictures:
This is either the Shop or the Generator Building:
A giant tank sitting on top of a rock foundation:
And the legendary pool is seen in the next three pictures as it appeared in March of 2011:
The small building is in between the Dorm and the Mess Hall:
The next five picture show the outside and inside of the Mess Hall:
Seven pictures of the Residence building, revealing an enclosed porch, picnic area in the yard, and fireplace inside:
Just beyond the Residence is this enclosed backyard area:
After exploring all of the buildings, we took a walk out to check out the gold ore processing facilities. This view is looking back towards the camp and the huge trees:
In the right front of this picture, we have what is left of the Primary Ore Bin:
This is the Callow Cone (or cone crusher):
Left to right, we have the Secondary Ore Bin, Ball Mill, Classifier, and Callow Cone unit:
This is the Mechanical Arrastra:
Full view of the Secondary Ore Bin:
Full view of the Cylindrical Ball Mill:
Close-up of the Diesel Engine unit:
Close-up of the Classifier:
Close-up of the Blake Jaw Crusher:
Steve next to the Diesel Engine unit at Warm Spring Camp:
Next we headed back to the parking area and found this nice picnic and camping spot:
Three pictures of the major Talc Mine next to Warm Spring Camp. The talc mines of this area made up for 1/7 of U.S. talc production in the year 1960: