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Hunter Creek Mill near the entrance to the Cowenhoven Tunnel 1925. Aspen Historical Society photo The hunter Creek Mill, around for around 40 years, opened and closed a number of times. Explaining its on-again off- again history provides context for explaining mining after 1900. The mill was built in 1902 to process ores from the two-mile long Cowenhoven Tunnel that was driven to drain water from several Smuggler Mountain mines and to provide a cheaper way of getting the ore out of the mountain. Before that time much of the ore was not milled. Ore was sorted at the surface with the better ore shipped directly to the smelter and the lesser quality ore dumped on site. But the quantity of the better ore was dropping and milling processes improved to make the dump material more profitable. In addition, the Hunter Creek Mill could process ore from smaller mines (the larger ones often had their own mills), and mines with lower grade ore. ....