12 rescued after becoming trapped in former Colorado gold mine tourist attraction

A rescue operation Thursday in Colorado to free trapped mining tour visitors from an underground mine was successful, seven hours after one person died and four others were injured.

Governor Jared Polis announced that the twelve people trapped in the Mollie Kathleen gold mine were successfully rescued.

“I am relieved,” Polis said in a prepared statement.

The popular tourist attraction, where gold was once mined, is located in Cripple Creek. Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said in an afternoon news conference that the tram that travels down the elevator as part of the tour was 500 feet underground when a mechanical problem occurred. This led to the injuries and death. It is not yet clear exactly how the victim died.

Mikesell said the fatal victim and the four injured people were part of a group that was removed from the mine, but the other group of 12 people at 1,000 feet were unable to surface for safety reasons.

After many hours, security forces managed to get the elevator operational again and the rescue of the 12 people was completed at 7:30 p.m

“We have people and engineers from the state of Colorado, from our local jurisdictions, from mine safety, from our partner mine over here, from our fire departments,” Mikesell said as they were still working on the rescue. “We have the best people in the country working on this problem right now and I hope we can solve it tonight.”

The identity of the person killed has not been released.

“Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of the person who died in this incident,” Polis said.

Colorado state Sen. Mark Baisley, a Republican who represents Teller County, called the situation tragic.

“The best outcome right now is that many families are coming together to recover from the death and comfort each other,” Baisley said.

Polis provided government funding to help authorities with rescue efforts.

About the gold mine tour

The Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine is located at 9388 Highway 67 in Cripple Creek, about an hour west of Colorado Springs. On its website, it advertises itself as the “Only Vertical Shaft Gold Mine Tour.” Tour visitors descend 300 meters underground.

Mikesell said the tourist attraction has been operating for more than 50 years.

The last tours of the season through the old gold mine were planned for this weekend.