History of Camp Ilium

World Famous Ilium:    In 1890, a plucky Telluride lawyer by the name of Lucien L. Nunn conceived the idea to build a hydroelectric power plant to deliver electricity to an ore processing mill of the Gold King Mine. This was the first A.C. hydroelectric plant in the world.  This was the Ames Power Plant and is still in operation today, just five miles upstream from Camp Ilium.     That same year in the same valley, the Rio Grande Southern Railroad was built to connect Ridgway and Durango by going over Lizard Head Pass.  It ran along the South Fork of the San Miguel River past the Ilium wye.  Ilium was primarily an RGS railroad wye for the purpose of maintaining track and turning the snowplow around.

An early image of the Ames Power Station

The Old Power Station Coalchute

Ten years later, in 1900, Nunn built a power plant at Ilium to increase the capacity of the system and provide a backup for the Ames facility.  Water from the Ames Plant was transported through an ingeniously engineered five miles of covered flume along the hillside of Turkey Creek Mesa, until it was directly above the Ilium powerhouse.  From the end of the flume, the water dropped 450 feet in a penstock to provide a high-pressure stream for two impulse-type water wheels, which in turn, drove a 1,200-kilowat General Electric generator.  In accomplishing this world-renowned feat, highly innovative design methods and technics were necessary, resulting in patent after patent being filed.     For a little more info, you can go to WaterHistory.org, where you will find some interesting facts concerning the construction of the Ames Power Plant. You will also learn a little about some of the other individuals that were invovled with Mr. Nunn in the accomplishment of this mammoth undertaking.

Below,  campers bike past Vance Junction coal chute as it is today.  The local "Galloping Goose Trail Association" is turning the old railroad right of ways into a biking and hiking trail network.  They are also preserving the historic sites, such as this, for an authentic "Rails to Trails" experience of the past.

High voltage lines ran to Telluride and also back up the valley to Ames to provide an alternative for the main system. The Ilium Power Plant operated until 1958. Evidence of the flume and penstock can still be found today.    Just two miles down stream from Ilium was Vance Junction, a railroad town that provided for the coal refueling of the RGS engines and maintenance of the rail line and a switch for trains going up the valley to Lizard Head Pass or up across the river and up Keystone Hill to Telluride.  Vance Junction coal tipple is not only still standing, but has just recently been returned to it's original state.

In 1958, St. Barnabas of the Valley Episcopal Church of Cortez, Colorado began it's own Christian camping, having a summer camp in a different place each year.  Back then, boy's work-groups chopped wood for the cook fire and girls washed dishes in tubs outside and "camp" some years was a big army tent.       In the fall of 1963, the Ilium Power Plant and property was owned by the Western Power Company who put it up for sale. St. Barnabas bought it for $17,000 and Camp Ilium was born.

The remaining bridge of the Ilium Wye

The Lodge

In the first several years much work had to be done such as pouring a cement floor in the main lodge for a dining hall and building on a kitchen, serving area and cooks quarters.     Other Western Slope Episcopal churches jumped in immediately to help setup a lay-led non-profit corporation for Episcopal camping, retreats and Christian education.