The 2014 Stephen H. Hart award was given to IAWC, Anthony & Associates and the Bureau of Land Management by History Colorado on February 5, 2014 for the ambitious project to rebuild a portion of the historic flume above the San Miguel River. The award recognized an innovative effort at reconstructing history.

The project to rebuild the Flume was done over five days in April, 2012. The project was an effort to answer the question, “How did they DO that?” In its day, the flume was used to transfer 80 million gallons of water in a 24 hour period for gold placer mining. Funding for the project was made possible by the J.M. Kaplan Fund and the John Hendricks Family Foundation.

“The Hanging Flume is much more than a marvel of engineering. It is a statement driven in stone – a monument to an era of innovation and ‘can-do’ attitude in the 1880’s” according to the team that has worked on the Flume project for the last decade. The Flume is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the longest historic structure in the state at nearly 10 miles in length. It is also the most intact flume left in North America. In 2006 The Montrose Placer Mining Company Flume was listed as one of the “100 Most Endangered Sites in the World” by the World Monuments Fund.
More information is available on the new website www.hangingflume.org.