Brandon Rivera
Professor: V. Bull
Class: Geology
31 July 2011
Cave Bacon High in the hills of the Rocky Mountains lays the small town of Aspen, CO with its unrivaled scenery in the summers and its world class skiing in the winters this small town attracts some of the world’s most powerful people. With its robust shopping, trendy restaurants, classy small-town architecture, and ability to make you feel like you grew up there, most come seeking peace and solace, while perhaps looking to explore more personal inhibitions during their visits. On July 23, 2011, ten geology students set out from the Colorado Mountain College campus in Glenwood Springs to explore the Roaring Fork Valley’s diverse number of geological features. This is the story of one student who will never be the same after his visit to the aspen tree-lined piece of heaven. Nearly losing his life and those of his fellow students, it is a story of perseverance and mystery, both of which surround the unusual events of that day. During this transcribed interview I will bring you his story told first-hand from the routine educational stops that dot the Roaring Fork Valley landscape to the dark and damp catacombs of Aspen’s Smuggler Mine.
Post Independent: I understand many have tried to get you to speak about your experiences that day, and you have refrained from speaking to the press or any other form of publication. Why now? Why the Post Independent?
Brandon: Well quite simply I just was not ready for that level of attention after the events that took place and the injuries I sustained. It takes time to heal both physically and mentally after such an ordeal. I chose the Post Independent because this is where I live and I feel the local community deserves to know what happed in their own back yard before the world does.
Post Independent: So how did that day start?
Brandon: Well all of the students were supposed to meet at the CMC campus in Glenwood Springs at 8am. I arrived around 7:55am and the majority of the students were already there. I remember it being a rather perfect day, the morning was crisp and bright, and the temperature was around the mid 60’s. Crowded around a table our professor was handing out itineraries for the trip and making last minute preparations before we were to load into the van and begin our journey into the Roaring Fork Valley and Glenwood Canyon. After waiting for several minutes, there was one student who did not make it and we would later find out that he had a long week and just overslept. So around 8:15 am we loaded up and right from the start it was not very comfortable for me. I like to have my space and not only did I not have my space but I was sat next to a rather odd character who often wanted to argue with me about global warming, he was interesting in the “OK I’ve heard enough please stop talking kind of way”.
Post Independent: So what were the other students in your class like?
Brandon: It is hard to say really. We had a little of everything; there were quiet types like myself, outgoing types, cute petite types, overly smart types and just some normal ones peppered in there as well. I am not the most social individual in a class environment so you are asking the wrong person really.
Post Independent: What about your professor?
Brandon: Well she will be grading this so of course she was fabulous and fun!
Post Independent: Tell me about the first stop?
Brandon: The first stop was not really a stop; it was more of a ride. We made our way up Cattle Creek Road and observed some different rock formations. Peppered along the sides of the hills, we were able to see many dark colored basaltic and pyroclastic type rocks. They are fined grained volcanic rocks usually grey to black in color and often form with gas bubbles in them.
Post Independent: I did not know that.
Brandon: It is ok; I would not expect anyone to know that in most honestly. So after making our way up Cattle Creek Road we made our way through Red Canyon to Spring Valley Road where the plan was to observe a sink hole. I remember having Pandora playing in my headphones as our van lumbered over the pitted back roads, and I was just admiring the scenery and trying to ignore my neighbor who tended to lean against me in every turn. Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley is an amazing place littered with rolling hills and jagged mountains. In every direction is something new and interesting. So as we road along, I could not help but notice how visible the separation in the layers of rock was. Both small and large alluvial fans run off virtually every hillside.
Post Independent: I’m sorry but what is an alluvial fan?
Brandon: An alluvial fan is area where silt, sand, gravel and sometimes rocks are deposited by stream channels, flood plains, glacial outwash terraces, rivers and their tributaries.
Post Independent: I see. So when did you arrive at the Spring Valley Campus?
Brandon: I would say around 9:15am.
Post Independent: What happened there?
Brandon: After arriving, we parked in a parking lot and piled out to observe a sinkhole located there on the campus. This collapse was part of a much larger topographic depression called the Carbondale Collapse. This collapse was the result of unusual evaporite-related structures, where the evaporitic rocks are at or near the grounds surface. This depression is as much as 4000 feet lower in elevation as the surrounding terrain and late Tertiary basalts are down dropped 3000 to 4000 feet within the collapse block. However, while standing at the edge of this collapse and watching shirtless men play Frisbee Golf it can be hard to visualize what such an epic shift in the earth’s surface may have looked like.
Post Independent: I did not know there was a sinkhole at the CMC Spring Valley Campus.
Brandon: Well we learn something new every day I guess.
Post Independent: So after the sinkhole endeavor, what was next for you and the class?
Brandon: We loaded back up in the van and made our way out to CalX’s Mid Continent Quarry. This quarry mines limestone and is located high above the town of Glenwood Springs. Upon our arrival, we met our guide who would go on to explain the process of mining limestone. The first thing that caught my eye was how large the outcropping of limestone was. Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral calcite. It most commonly forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters. It is usually an organic sedimentary rock that forms from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal and fecal debris. It can also be a chemical sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate from lake or ocean water. There are many different names and uses for limestone, as our guide went on to describe. Some of the uses he mentioned were Flux Stone which is crushed limestone used in smelting and other metal refining processes. Lime, is calcium carbonate (CaC03) and when heated to high temperature in a kiln the product will release carbon dioxide gas CO2 and result in calcium oxide (CaO). The calcium oxide is a powerful acid neutralization agent. It is widely used as a soil treatment agent in agriculture and as an acid neutralization agent by the chemical industry. It is also used as Mine Safety Dust, also known as "rock dust". Pulverized limestone is a white powder that can be sprayed onto exposed coal surfaces in an underground mine. This coating improves illumination and reduces the amount of coal dust that activity stirs up and releases into the air. This improves the air for breathing and it also reduces the explosion hazard produced by suspended particles of flammable coal dust in the air.
Post Independent: Here I was thinking limestone was just a plain old rock?
Brandon: Yeah I did too. Anyway, after explaining its uses he invited us into the plant itself where the processing of the limestone took place. It is one of those things you really have to be there to see; first because the immense equipment being used was fun to watch in action, and second, once we were in there you could not hear a word the guy was saying. The only way to have an idea of what was taking place was to watch it happening.
Post Independent: I will have to make my way up there some time to check it out.
Brandon: You do that? After exiting the plant, we made our way up to a large man made landing where we could observe the use of terracing the formation. As it was explained, it allows the rock formation to stay in place while it is being mined. If this process is not closely monitored, the rock formation could collapse causing a major rock slide and a high level of destruction not only to equipment but to the environment itself. However, due to the heat, people were beginning to get impatient and most were ready to end this portion of the trip.
Post Independent: Tell me about the stop at Hanging Lake?
Brandon: Sure. Hanging Lake was a stop where we were to observe the Precambrian granite of the lower canyon. There are forms of gneiss, schist and some pegmatite dikes visible in the cliffs all over this area. However, the most interesting thing was the large boulder that laid along the walking trail which leads to the actual Hanging Lake trail. In this boulder it was easy to see the different rock layers which were heated and compressed together over time, creating these highly visible mixtures of granite, quartz and pink feldspar. While in the canyon we also observed a quite large disconformity in the rock formation across the Colorado River on the adjacent canyon wall.
Post Independent: Disconformity?
Brandon: Sorry, a disconformity is a where the parallel layers of rock on a formation do not match up. These are often hard to explain because it usually results in a loss of geologic time that cannot be accounted for.
Post Independent: I see. Ok, so you know why we are here. While all the surrounding stories are great, people want to know what happened down in that mine that afternoon late in July.
Brandon: Where to start? Well, we arrived at the Smuggler Mine that afternoon after having lunch at Sayre Park. The day was moving along quite well and in my opinion everyone was having a good time. The sun was out and I don’t remember a cloud in the sky. In fact, I remember taking several pictures because the view from the mine entrance was amazing in the way it overlooked the town of Aspen and Aspen Mountain itself. Outside the mine shaft was a shack that doubled as an office and info center so to speak. This is where we met our tour guide for the first time.
Post Independent: Tell us more about this guide.
Brandon: Well initially he struck me as a man who had been doing this type of work for a very long time. He was an older man of a medium build and funny in the way he would banter and poke fun here and there where he saw an opening. He was knowledgeable not only in the Smuggler Mine’s history but also the history of the town and the many surrounding mines in the area.
Post Independent: Take us into the mine.
Brandon: After our guide introduced himself he took us into the shack to tell us more about the Mine: He explained how Aspen first gained notoriety not as a celebrity ski town but as a world-class silver mining town. He stated in fact that Aspen was one of the country's largest mining towns, second only to nearby Leadville. In 1894, the world's largest silver nugget was harvested from Smuggler Mine; the nugget, 93% pure silver, weighed in at 2054 lbs. That is pretty amazing if you ask me. Anyway, after being fitted with hard hats and mining lights we lined up to enter the mine. I was last in line to enter and was fiddling with my iPhone in order to have my camera ready. I am a bit of an iPhonographer so to speak.
Post Independent: What was the inside of the mine like?
Brandon: Immediately you notice how cool the temperature is underground. It was quite dark aside from the mining lights that lined the individual shafts. We were told to watch our heads because the tunnels were very low and you could easily hit your head on the Mine ceiling. It was also very damp and you could frequently find puddles of water littered throughout Mine. The smuggler mine mainly consisted of wire silver ore encapsulated in the breccia rock formations. The Silver fault separates the Weber shale from the Leadville dolomite. At one point during the tour our guide even pointed out a crack about 3 inches wide and he explained how it was a fault that runs through the mine itself. Due to air quality issues we were unable to continue down the current shaft we were in, so we had to turn back. We approached a hole in the mine that went down some 200 feet. Our guide explained that had he thought of it he would have put a light down there before we arrived so that we can get an idea of how far down it really was.
Post Independent: Where did things begin to go wrong?
Brandon: We arrived at a point in the Mine where a small station was set. This was where the head miner for the current shift would communicate with the miners in the shafts as well as the office above ground. Our guide was demonstrating what working conditions were like using one to two candle power so he asked us to turn out our mining lights. It was interesting to see how little light the candles actually produce and you can only imagine how easy it would be to get disoriented or lost in the shafts if your candle went out. Over to our left was a door that said Danger Keep Out. One of our students Don I believe his name was, asked, “what was behind the door”? Our guide simply replied just an old collapsed shaft that was not properly supported and he continued speaking with us about the techniques of mining silver ore. After explaining the techniques of mining our guide was going to give us the opportunity to do it ourselves. Further up the shaft was a seam of boxite or some form of rock that started with a “B” I do not recall the exact name. In this seam of rock were flakes of silver which were visible even in the dark shaft. This was the spot where we were to begin chipping away for our own piece of history and the Smuggler Mine itself. Our guide looking over his shoulder asked if we were all accounted for. One student replied “where is Don”? Our guide looking back down the shaft saw the over curious Don opening the door he had asked about earlier.
Post Independent: What was the guide’s response?
Brandon: There was no response, what happened next was indescribable. Something changed in the guides eyes and without saying a word he grabbed one of the small mining hammers and hurled it down the shaft with the accuracy of an Indian throwing the very tomahawk he grew up with. Before any of us could say a word, the hammer struck with crushing precision hitting Don just below where the head meets the neck and we could hear the cracking of his spine echo back up the shaft to where we were standing, and just like that his body went limp and fell to the ground motionless. The first screams came from Kaitlin, and the guide spun around with bewilderment in his eyes now and he was not the same man who had been so cheerful throughout the tour. He reached for a small rusty shovel and swung it at Kaitlin but our professor pushed her out of the way before it could hit her. Both of them fell to the floor and the class began to scurry down the mine shaft like sewer rats. As I made my way down the shaft behind the rest of the students, I turned to look back at the guide. I remember his eyes, pupils dilated and dark now, as he began singing eerily “She got the Gold Mine, I got the Shaft” then the lights went out and we were all engulfed in darkness.
Post Independent: What was going through your mind in that moment?
Brandon: Same thing that goes through anyone’s mind when they believe they just saw someone die and they know that they could be next, FEAR. Further down the shaft I could hear the voices of the students yelling each other’s names, some crying and some just screaming; there was literally nowhere to go. Most were tripping over the cast iron tracks that littered the floor of the mining shaft and a few were calling out for help from various injuries. From my experience in the military there is one thing you never forget and that is the smell of blood. Although I could not see what was happening I could smell that same smell and I knew things were really bad. Crouched now I was making my way further up the shaft and I came up on another student who was on the ground semi-conscious. I grabbed the disoriented body and whispered, “Get up we have to keep moving”! There was only a slight moan and shift in this person’s body. The students’ cell phone vibrated and lit up and just over my shoulder I saw him, shovel elevated and ready to strike I rolled into the darkness of the shaft as I heard it crash down and hit the gritty breccia and gravel littered floor of the shaft. Moving even faster now I was following the moist calcite covered wall of the mine with only my hand as a guide towards the voices further down the cool tunnel. I could tell the students and professor had come to a dead end in the shaft because the voices were pooling now and arguing amongst themselves, “what are we going to do”, “get me out of here” and sobs could be heard. The sheer terror in their voices was evident, the yell of “HELP US I DON’T WANT TO DIE DOWN HERE IN THIS F-ING MINE” literally echoed two or three times as I was getting closer and closer to their position. As I was feeling my way around I thought I felt a familiar feature I had noticed earlier in the tour. I reached up and felt the letters of Denver & Gardner Mining Co on the side of a small box car which told me about ten feet ahead was the 200-ft shaft he had showed us earlier in the tour.
Post Independent: A real fight or flight moment wouldn’t you say?
Brandon: You could say that. I knew this was our only chance at getting out of there alive. This was his playground and we were at his mercy if something wasn’t done to stop him. “Sheeee got the Goooldd mine, I got the shaaaft”, he was close now and there was little time. I pressed myself against the wall of the mine and waited as his echoing melody of choice grew louder and louder. As he approached he whispered, “I can smell your stink”, followed by some gibberish I could not make out. The guide rounded the corner and I heard his footsteps stop 10 feet in front of me. He switched his mining light on and reached for a mining spike on the floor. As he stood upright I knew it was now or never and I ran toward him with everything I had. He heard my steps and began to turn toward me, spike in hand, his mining light blinding me I felt the impact of our bodies colliding. Driving him backward with everything I had, we hit the rail and tumbled over. My mining light belt must have caught on the rail because I was hanging now and slightly dazed. Looking over my shoulder down the hole I could see the guides mining light down at the bottom and wouldn’t you know it, it was a long way down just like he said. As the adrenalin began to dissipate I felt a hot burning sensation just above my hip. Sliding my hand down I could feel I was bleeding out quickly. “The spike” I thought to myself as I felt my eyes growing heavy, “he got me with the damn spike”. As I struggled to right myself, I remember looking up and seeing some cave bacon and then….. Nothing.
Post Independent: Cave Bacon?
Brandon: Cave Bacon is composed of sheet like brown or whitish deposits of calcite formed where water flows down the walls or along the floors of a cave. They are typically found in limestone caves. However, they may form in any type of cave where water enters that has picked up dissolved minerals.
Post Independent: When did you know you were alive?
Brandon: I woke up at the Aspen Valley Hospital to a very busty and attractive nurse. As I tried to sit up, she eased me back down and told me to relax. She said there were a lot of people waiting to talk to me and that I would need to rest up. I asked, “How long have I been out”? “Two days”, she replied. I asked about the rest of the class and she explained to me that they were fine. Don had suffered some broken vertebrate in his neck but would recover from his injuries.
Post Independent: Did you ever find out why the guide did what he did?
Brandon: After an investigation of the incident I learned that the guide was investigated for the disappearance of his wife and unborn child nearly 20 years earlier. While investigating the Smuggler Mine, they had found the remains of his wife and a partially developed skeleton of his unborn baby lying next to her pelvic bone behind the door Don tried to open. Unfortunately it is one of those odd mysteries I don’t think we will ever know exact answer too.
Post Independent: I want to thank you for sharing your story with us today.
Brandon: Absolutely, it has been a pleasure.
Post Independent: I understand you have a book coming out that goes in to more detail about this experience you and your fellow classmates shared?
Brandon: Yes, it will be released Halloween this year and I will be doing a book signing at the Butter Me Up for Sex concert in Glenwood Springs that same night.
Post Independent: What is the title?
Brandon: Cave Bacon: My Nightmare in the Smuggler Mine
Post Independent: I’ll be picking up a copy.
Brandon: Don’t sweat it; I have one for you right here, already signed too.

Well, that was sure an interesting read. Very very clever, and you used good geology terms. I made a few comments. Overall this was a very good paper. Unfortunately it was late, and has to be docked a grade. So I’m giving you an 88, but it would’ve been a 98 had it been on time . . .
Good job.