SEE: A Wyoming Mine That Was Opened 13,000 Years Ago

Wyoming's oldest mine actually was in service 13,000 years ago.

You can hear from the current owner of the town, and mine, in the video below.

A few years ago Archaeologists named the area the Paleoindian Archaeological Site.

Evidence shows that between 11,000 and 13,000 years ago people used the soil and minerals to create red paint from ochre, but also as a social gathering point.

It's still being minded today. But for different reasons.

The Sunrise Mine was the principal source of iron used at the Colorado Fuel and Iron plant in Pueblo, Colorado, from 1899 until 1980, making it an important contributor to the economy of Colorado as well as Wyoming.

When the first white settlers came to the area that would later be known as Wyoming they found a rather large deposit of iron ore in the area. At the time they had no idea how extensive it was.

When work began there was not even a road, or a town, in the area. Everything had to be built from scratch.

Workers were mostly immigrants fresh off the boat in NYC and sent to Wyoming to work.

From 1898 to 1984,  the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company established the camps of & Sunrise at Hartville Junction.

Sunrise became a company town. The company provided everything, including the state's first YMCA.

While the company did close the mine down and shut down the town in 1984 mining did not stop there. The area is still rich in metals and minerals.

Today, the site is a privately owned, 225-acre National Register Historic District, containing thirty-nine buildings, structures, foundations, and landscape features representing eighty years of iron-ore mining.

Sunrise was a dry company town. All work and no booze and little fun, except what happened at the YMCA.

That is where the town of Hartville comes in. It's within walking distance from Sunrise. Hartville had all of the bars, brothels, and gambling. It was a true roughneck town with all of the problems that came with it.