In the 1920s, local newspapers ran articles estimating there was gold in the Great Sand Dunes worth at anywhere from 17 cents/ton to $3/ton. Active placer mining operations sprang up along Medano Creek. In the 1920s the Volcanic Mining Company set up a device in Medano Creek to separate out gold sand. A remnant of their facility is still visible in the creek today.

In 1932 the Volcanic Mining Company established a gold mill designed to recover gold from the sand. Although minute quantities of gold were recovered, the technique was too labor intensive, the stream too seasonal—and the pay-out too small—to support any business for long.

Medano Creek is an important habitat for native fish species. The Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout (Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis) historically occupied the Rio Grande Basin and associated drainages in southern Colorado and New Mexico. At present, it occupies about 15% of that range, mostly in the headwaters of the upper Rio Grande watershed. Medano Creek serves as an important biological refugia for this trout, because it is a closed system where exotic species cannot enter; the creek is bounded by an alpine basin at its source, and the Great Sand Dunes at its terminus.

Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout are catch and release only; they are on the candidate list for threatened/endangered species at the federal level. The US Fish and Wildlife Service determined in 2009 that while there is sufficient evidence to support federal listing, the listing is currently precluded due to higher priorities. These trout are currently on the Colorado state list as a Species of Special Concern.

Médano is a Spanish word that means "sand dune". It is pronounced "MED-ah-no". In the original Spanish there is an accent on the é.

Credits and Sources:

“Great Sand Dunes: Fish,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/grsa/learn/nature/fish.htm, Accessed on June 28, 2015.

“Great Sand Dunes: History and Culture,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/grsa/learn/historyculture/index.htm, Accessed on June 28, 2015.

“Great Sand Dunes: Medano Creek,” National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/grsa/planyourvisit/medano-creek.htm Accessed on June 28, 2015.