Gold Reef Mine

Wyoming was once a place that was sought after by dreamers, attracting people from all over, promising them gold and riches. This is evident in the landscape surrounding Meeteetse. Settlements built by dreamers still stand, abandoned and still clinging to the hope that was left behind. Kirwin is the more famous mining settlement, however, there is another abandoned mine high in the mountains. Sitting at 11,000 feet are the remnants of the Gold Reef Mine. Built and worked by gold seekers who thought that the promise of gold was a truth spoken by the land when someone found gold veins in a rock further up the hillside. Due to the rugged and strenuous route to the mine, there was never a significant extraction of precious metals. Several tried and failed and in the early 1900’s the mine was abandoned forever.