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Argentine Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass that crosses the Continental Divide in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. Argentine Pass is located on the crest of the Front Range along the boundary southwest of Georgetown and is the highest named vehicle-accessible pass in the state.
Some early references use other names for the pass. An 1867 description of the trip from Georgetown into the valley of the Snake River refers to it as Sanderson Pass.Over the Plains to Colorado, Harpers New Monthly Magazine, Vol XXXV, No. CCV (June 1867); pages 1-21, pages 13-15 discuss the trip over Sanderson Pass, which must be what is now known as Argentine Pass. A lithograph caption from 1869 calls it the Snake River Pass.Alfred e. Mathews, Grays Peak, Gems of Rocky Mountain Scenery, self published, New York, 1869; pages are not numbered.
The continental divide at Argentine Pass serves as the boundary between Clear Creek and Summit counties.
The pass was formerly used by a toll road and stagecoach route. The trail on the west side of the pass is the remains of this road. To the east, the Argentine Central Railway ran from Georgetown to the pass from 1906 to 1918. The Jeep trail to the pass follows the grade of this abandoned railroad.
Work began on a toll road over Argentine Pass in 1869; the toll was typically one dollar for a team and wagon. In 1883, the road was purchased by Clear Creek County and Summit County as a public highway; in the same year, the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad reached Dillon, diverting most of the freight traffic from the toll road. The stagecoach fare from Georgetown to Chihuahua, away by road over the pass, was $2.50 in 1885. Crofutt's Grip-sack Guide of Colorado Vol II, Overland Publishing, Omaha, 1885; page 81. Under county management, the road was never well maintained, and it gradually became impassable to teams and wagons.T. S. Lovering, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Montezuma Quadrangle, Colorado, Professional Paper 178, United States Geological Survey, 1935; page 66 discusses the history of the toll road, page 111 discusses the Vidler Tunnel. The town of Waldorf was established as a rest stop on the east side of the pass.
In 1875, the Hayden Survey reported the Argentine Pass wagon road to be the highest wagon road in Colorado; at the time, it was the primary route from Georgetown to the mining camps in the Blue River Valley (Breckenridge and Montezuma).Gustavus R. Bechler, Geographical Report on the Middle and South Parks, Colorado, and Adjacent Country, Chapter I: The Crest of the Main Rocky Mountains from Latitude 40° 30' to Tennessee Pass (130 Mi), Ninth Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories Embracing Colorado and parts of Adjacent Territories, Being a Report of Progress of the Exploration for the Year 1875, F. V. Hayden, ed., Government Printing Office, 1877; page 376.
Colorado Telephone laid the first telephone line across Argentine Pass in 1899; this was a Twisted pair line resting directly on the ground, but it was replaced a year later with submarine cable. The cable, which carried six toll lines, required intensive maintenance and was entirely replaced three times before its use was abandoned in 1909. Conies () chewing on the line caused major damage, as did . From 1909 to 1916, twisted pair lines were used again, with annual replacement. Finally, in the summer of 1916, Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company installed a heavily engineered overhead line, hauling supplies by rail to Waldorf and then onward by pack train. This line, only long, cost more than of a comparable line in more forgiving territory; the cost was justified because it was the only telephone connection from Denver to Leadville and the western half of the state.Philip H. Dexter, The Denver-Leadville Toll Line Via Argentine Pass, the Mountain States Monitor, Nov. 1917; page 2, with many illustrations.
In mid 1909, the Central Colorado Power Co. began delivering power over the Shoshone Transmission Line from Glenwood Springs to Denver.Charles W. Henderson, Chapter 7 -- Production, history and mine development, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Leadville Mining District, Colorado professional paper 148, government printing office, 1927; page 134. This three phase 90 Volt line was split into two parallel lines as much as apart for the segment that crossed Argentine Pass from below Waldorf in the east to Argentine in the west (both are ghost towns today).High-Tension Transmission Experience in Central Colorado, Electrical World, Vol. 58, No. 15 (Oct. 7, 1911); page 871.Re: Colorado Power Co., Decision No. 527 Public Utilities Reports 1922D, Public Utilities Reports Inc, 1922; page 809. As currently routed, this line crosses the Continental Divide south of Argentine Pass, just south of Argentine Peak.
The Vidler Tunnel under Argentine Pass began with the Horseshoe tunnel, a silver mine. Reese Vidler purchased the mine in 1902 with a plan to extend it under the Continental Divide as a railroad tunnel. Tunneling progressed about from the west portal and from the east portal before work stopped in 1911 (after several changes in ownership). In 1952, Herbert T. Young purchased the unfinished tunnel, along with water rights on the west side of the divide, intending to finish the tunnel as a water tunnel.Herbert Court Young, About the Author, Understanding Water Rights and Conflicts 2nd Ed., Burg Young Publishing, Denver, 2006; page 5. The tunnel was completed in late 1968, and is currently owned by the City of Golden. In 2007, major repairs were completed to the east portal and the mined-out area of the Flossie Vein. This water diversion project has a capacity of with an average annual diversion of around .John N. Winchester, A Historical View: Transmountain Development in Colorado , 2000; retrieved July, 2015. 2007 Vidler Tunnel Repairs: Flossie Vein Collapse Area and East Portal Rebuild; retrieved July, 2015.
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