The case of the stolen stove doors: Couple gives mining history to San Juan Historical Society

The case of the stolen stove doors: Couple gives mining history to San Juan Historical Society

Couple give mining history to San Juan Historical Society
High off a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains, this remote cabin still stands but the interior has been looted. Thieves and “collectors” illegally take historic artifacts off our public lands.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes, each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes, each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
This hidden cabin and bunkhouse on public land in the San Juan Mountains still has its original stove and stove door. The cabin has a hasp but no lock and is almost impossible to see from farther than 30 yards away. Unfortunately, many cabins on public lands in the San Juans have been looted.
A Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer watched a vandal steal this ore car from a mine on BLM land near Naturita. The ore car was recovered, the thief was fined and those funds went to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton for an exhibit about uranium mining.
This cabin on the Lake City side of Engineer Pass has no furnishings. Sitting on Bureau of Land Management land, the cabin is routinely visited by four-wheel-drive users, but no historic artifacts remain inside. All too often, cabins on public land are looted.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
Within the vast beauty of the San Juan Mountains, this small cabin in the center of the photos sits beneath towering peaks in a view from Animas Forks. Cabins on public lands continue to be looted for artifacts, but in the case of the Stolen Stove Door Collection now at the San Juan County Historical Society in Silverton, sometimes thieves have remorse and seek to return items they took decades ago.
This cabin on the Lake City side of Engineer Pass has no furnishings. Sitting on Bureau of Land Management land, the cabin is routinely visited by four-wheel-drive users, but no historic artifacts remain inside. All too often, cabins on public land are looted.

The case of the stolen stove doors: Couple gives mining history to San Juan Historical Society

High off a mountain pass in the San Juan Mountains, this remote cabin still stands but the interior has been looted. Thieves and “collectors” illegally take historic artifacts off our public lands.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes, each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes, each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
This hidden cabin and bunkhouse on public land in the San Juan Mountains still has its original stove and stove door. The cabin has a hasp but no lock and is almost impossible to see from farther than 30 yards away. Unfortunately, many cabins on public lands in the San Juans have been looted.
A Bureau of Land Management law enforcement officer watched a vandal steal this ore car from a mine on BLM land near Naturita. The ore car was recovered, the thief was fined and those funds went to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton for an exhibit about uranium mining.
This cabin on the Lake City side of Engineer Pass has no furnishings. Sitting on Bureau of Land Management land, the cabin is routinely visited by four-wheel-drive users, but no historic artifacts remain inside. All too often, cabins on public land are looted.
Stove doors and embossed metal sides from heating and cook stoves are part of a large collection taken off public land from remote mountain cabins in the San Juan Mountains and given to the Mining Heritage Center in Silverton. The collection included 15 boxes each weighing from 30 to 55 pounds. For years, the stove parts decorated a couple’s basement in a Denver suburb. Eventually, the stove doors will be exhibited in Silverton.
Within the vast beauty of the San Juan Mountains, this small cabin in the center of the photos sits beneath towering peaks in a view from Animas Forks. Cabins on public lands continue to be looted for artifacts, but in the case of the Stolen Stove Door Collection now at the San Juan County Historical Society in Silverton, sometimes thieves have remorse and seek to return items they took decades ago.
This cabin on the Lake City side of Engineer Pass has no furnishings. Sitting on Bureau of Land Management land, the cabin is routinely visited by four-wheel-drive users, but no historic artifacts remain inside. All too often, cabins on public land are looted.