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gº 2
ADV ERTIS EMENTS.
C O M P L E TI O IN
-OF THE-
Council Bluffs and Omaha Line
(ſpitagg & Idrijutsitti $ailuan,
The “Great Connecting Link” between the
Atlantic Sea Board and Chicago º the Union Pacific Railroad, Main
Iles º
Two Daily Trains
Are run via Dixon, Fulton, Clinton, DeWitt, Cedar Rapids, Blairstown,
Toledo, Marshall, Nevada, Boone, Jefferson, Denison, and St. Johns,
FROM CHICAGO TO COUNCIL BLUFFS AND OMAHA,
With owt Ch a m ge of C a rs,
This Company operating a splendid Iron Railway Bridge over the Missis-
sippi River.
Passengers taking this route avoid all staging and the tedious navigation
of the Missouri River,
Šauing from Tuja to Three Éags in Time
Over all other Routes.
Connections are made at 0MAHA with “UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD,” .
(Now running to North Platte, 300 miles,) and being rapidly built westward
at the rate of from one to two miles per day.
Wells, Fargo & Co.'s Overland Stage Coaches
Run from end of Pacific Railroad to Denver, Salt Lake, and terminus
of the San Francisco branch of the Pacific Railroad.
This is the Shortest and most Direct Route
TO THE
Upper Missouri River, and all parts of Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Montana,
Idaho, Nevada, and California, º
Pullman’s Palace Slee in). Cars
º
Are tºo? all Night Train bm Chicago to North Platte, Nebraska,
(800 miles.)
Passengers desirous of securing comfort and saving time should take
the Chicago & Northwestern Railway.
B. F. PATRICK, J. P. HORTON, GEO, L. DUNLAP,
Gen’ſ Passenger Agent. Passenger Ag't, Chicago. Gen. Supt.
7-Zy
ar Af
22 AA-
f
g

THE COLORADO NATIONAL BANK,
Denver, Colorado,
(Successor to Kountze Brothers.)
Designated Depository and Financial Agent
Of the United States.
LUTHER KOUNTZE, President. CHAS. B. Kou NTZE, Cashier.
*
The Rocky Mountain National Bank,
CENTRAL CITY, COLORADO,
(Successor to Kountze Brothers.)
H. KountzE, President. T H. GooDSPEED, Cashier.
7"HE FIAE S T MA 7"/O AVA. L. B A M K,
OMAHA, NEBRASKA,
(Successor to Kountze Brothers.) -
Designated Depository and Financial Agent
A. OF THE UNITED STATES.
A. Kountze, dishier. E. Gºghton, President." A
H. W. Yates, Asst. Cashier. A. Saunders, Vice President.
AD VERTIS E M ENTS.
Smoky Hill Route.
ălnium Purific Railway,
JEA STEEN DIVISION.
tº
*—º-- a-
gr
Carrying the Great overland Mail and Express
NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS
From Wyandotte and Leavenworth, on the Missouri River, to Salina and
Fört Harker, or Ellsworth, Kansas, and Will be completed to
Pond Creek by January, 1868.
_º____.
-ºr-sº
In connection with the PACIFIC RAILROAD of Mo., and the HANNIBAL. & ST,
JOSEPH R. R., forms
THIE ONLY ALL R AIL R O U TIE
-FROM-
NEW YORK, DETROIT, CAIRO, BUFFALO,
WASHINGTON, ST. LOUIS, BALTIMORE, CHICAGO,
PITTSBURGH, PHILADELPHIA, TOLEDO, WICKSBURG,
BOSTON, CINCINNATI, MEMPHIS,
And all the Principal Cities East, North and South, to
LaWrence, Fort Riley, Fort Ellsworth, Central City,
Topeka, Pond Creek, Junction City, TaOS,
amlegO, Solomon City, Denver City, Fort Union,
Manhattan, Saline, Salt Lake, . . . Sacramento,
SAN FRANCIsco, BENT’s ForT, SANTA FE, and all points in California,
Oregon, and the Territories of
Utah, Montana, Nevada, ldaho, Arizona, Washington & New Mexico.
...sº º-
*—
The United States Express Company’s Overland Coaches, carrying the
Great California Mail and Express, leave Ellsworth daily on arrival of
trains, for Denver City and all points in the Territories and California.
Sanderson’s Santa Fe Coaches leave every Monday, Wednesday, and Fri-
day, for Bent's Fort, Fort Union, Taos, Santa Fe, and all points in Arizona
and New Mexico.
Two DAILY TRAINS leave Wyandotte and Leavenworth (Sundays ex-
cepted.). Passengers going to the Mountains, will save timé and insure
comfort by taking this Route, its southerly location preventing all detention
from Snow. Af e ſº º &
Attention is particularly invited to the facilities offered by this Line for
the transportation of ; between the East and far West. This being
the only road west of the Missouri River with direct rail connections, BET-
TER TIME will be guaranteed than by any other route. Through contracts
can be procured at the offices of connecting Railroads in Chicago, St. Louis,
Cincinnati, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, to the western
#. of this Road, and when desired, to all the principal points in the
€II’lt OT16S.
J. M. WEBSTER, Gen, Freight and Ticket Agt, W. W. WRIGHT, Gen. Supt.
gay 2,000,000 acres of choice Lands, located on the line of the Road, for
sale by Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division. Address,
LAND AGENT U. P. RAILWAY, E. D., Topeka, Kansas.
A DV E R T IS E M E N T S.
FOR SALE IN COLORADO,
—BY-
J. P. W H IT IN E Y,
19 Lindall Street, Boston, Mass.,
Commissioner for Colorado to the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867, and author of
work on Silver Mining Regions of Colorado,
Choice Mining Property,’
JBOTH OF GOLD AND SIL VER.
MILL SITEs, waTER Powers,
And AGRICULTURAL TRACTS in Colorado,
-*-
~~
The properties above mentioned were principally obtained at an
early day in the history of Colorado by Mr. W. A. Whiting either
by discovery, or by purchase from the original discoverers, and
were duly entered in the records of the different Mining Districts
according to the laws regulating ownership in such property, and
are held undisputed, and by the clearest possible titles. .
A portion of this property, is situated in Ten-Mile and Snake
River Districts in Summit County, and includes whole lodes and
claims upon the choicest silver veins in those districts.
Also, Gold Mining Property
In Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, all of which can be well rep-
resented by maps taken by actual survey of the respective districts,
and by large quantities of ore from, and full descriptions of partic-
ular properties.
At the office in Boston can be seen the largest collection of Colo-
rado mineral ores ever classified from that region, comprising over
5,OOO SE’ECIMIENS
From all the principal lodes in Colorado, also photographs of the
principal towns and mining sections, with the maps and mining
regulations of the different districts. i.e.
aps, descriptions, assays, and full reports made upon any min-
ing properties in Colorado in quick time.
- Resident Agent in Colorado,
VV. A. VV HITING!, Central City.
Civil Engineer and Chemist,
CHARLES A. HOYT, Central City,
Graduate of the Lawrence Scientific School, Chemical Department of Har-
ward College, Cambridge, Mass., and who has certificates of ability
and skiii from Čolumbia'school of Mines, New York.
A D V E R T IS E M E N T S.
Wells, Fargo & Company.
CAPITAL, $10,000,000.
#in ill §m £ms #nſin 3.
--TO THE--
Pacific States and Territories,
SOUTH and CENTRAL AMERICA,
CHINAL AND JALPA N.
-º-, -º- ºr-
PROPRIETOR'S OF THE
Óreat &etſättö ºftge ºtotite
Between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans,
farrying the U. S. Mails, Passengers and Treasure,
-* A = ** –º-
-ms x ºr
EXCPHANGE E'OIR SALE
sAN FRANCIS Co AND INTERMEDIATE Po INTs,
LONIDON,
IDUIBLIN,
and EP Al RIS.
Travelers’ Credits on Union Bank of London.
, FUNDS TRANSFERRED BY TELEGRAPH
-T0-
San Francisco, Salt Lake City, &c., at Favorable Rates.
LOUIS McLANE, President,
A DV ERTIS EM ENTS.
JOHN A, NYE, D, TOM SMITH, LOYAL S, NYE
New York. Junction City, Kansas. Denver, Col.
Nye Forwarding Company.
OVERLAND FIREIGHT
-WIA-
Union Pacific Railroad, Platte Valley, and Union Pacific Railroad,
E. D., Smoky Hill,
TO ALL POINTS IN
Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Utah, New Mexico.
IFreight Received
FROM THE
Merchants’ Union Express Co., and all others, at New York, St. Louis, Chi-
cago, Or the terminus of either Pacific Railroad Overland.
Through Éills of Haading Giuen,
ORDERS FOR THE PURCHASE OF MACHINERY, GOODS,
OR GENERAL MERCHANDISE,
IPROMIPTILY IFILLIED A NID FOR WAIR DIED,
Freight Shipped to all points in the West, North, and South,
VIA WESTERN WALLEY DISPATCH, ST, LOUIS, M0,
A 4-AA
vºw v.
A G-ENTS.
JNO. A. NYE, Gen’l Agent—also for Western Walley Dispatch of 5 Com-
mercial St., St. Louis—No. 17 Nassau St., New York, $
L. S. NYE, or LIN00LN & STRICKLER, Denver, Colorado.
I). TOM SMITH, General Superintendent, Junction City, Kansas.
GE0, BANNING, North Platte City, Nebraska.
F. S. WAN BERGEN, 0ffice Chicago & Great Eastern Railway, Chicago,
J. M. BL00MFIELD & 00, Elm Street, St. Louis,
T H E M I N E s
OF
44% 7
C O L O R A D O;
BY
-
$.”
OVANDO J. HOLLISTER,
(LATE EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR COLORADO MINING JOURNAL.)
SPRING FIELD, MASS. :
SAMUEL Bow LEs & COMPANY.,

1867.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by
SAMUEL BOWLES & COMPANY.,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massa-
chusetts.
-ºr
SAMUEL Bowles AND COMPANY.,
Electrotypers and Printers.
º: .
sy
º
P. R. E. F. A C E .
THE approaching completion of two lines of rail-
way between the Mississippi Valley and the Rocky
Mountains, will mark an era in the history of the
nearer of the mining Territories—Colorado. It
will infuse new life into mining, by giving safe,
quick, and reliable communication, reducing freights
and risks, thus cheapening supplies and furnishing
a most necessary competition in the labor market,
under which the production of the precious metals
will be largely increased and the value and im-
portance of property of all kinds proportionally,
enhanced. This cannot fail to arrest the attention
of capitalists who are interested in Colorado gold
and silver stocks, or 'are thinking of becoming so.
It will be of yet more benefit to that large class
whose capital is their muscle, because it will make
accessible to them a new and large tract of virgin
land, which, though far West, is still on the World's
great highway, and therefore in no sense of the
word in the backwoods. This region has a pleas-
ant and healthy climate, and while its soil is unsur-
passed in strength by that of the prairie States, it
iy PREFACE.
has a superior market in the adjoining mines. It’
most eloquently invites settlement and improve-
ment. It will also give the Summer tourist a choice
between the West and the East. It is not hazarding
much to say that the Rocky Mountains offer the
most delightful Summer resort of the New if not
of the Old World. The climate is cool and bracing,
the air deliciously pure and soft, the scenery both
grand and beautiful, the forests full of game and
the streams of trout, with hot mineral springs of
high medicinal value boiling up at the root of every
shade tree in the sequestered parks. The annexa-
tion of the Rocky Mountains to the Union by rail-
ways will open a new world to science, a new field
of adventure to money and muscle, a new and pleas-
ant place of Summer resort to people of leisure.
To meet the growing want of definite informa-
tion concerning that interesting country, this book
is put forth. It treats of the discovery of gold and
settlement of the country, ifs geography, chorog-
raphy, geology, mineralogy, and agriculture, its early
efforts at self-government, and the progress and pres-
ent condition of mining industry, including descrip-
tive list of mining companies, principal improved
mines, mills, machinery, and methods of treating
ore—in short, it undertakes to give, as concisely
and precisely as possible, and without any preten-
sion, all that is known on the subject. O. J. H.
C O N T E N T S .
CHAPTER I.
Glance at Pike's Peak prior to the Discovery of Gold—Discow."
ery of Gold on Ralston Creek in 1852, and on Dry Creek in
1858–Effect of the News in the States—Crossing the Plains—
Indians–First View of the Mountains-Prospecting, Hunt-
ing–Placer Camp—Auraria–Arapahoe County—Election
of Delegate to Congress and Representative to Kansas Legis-
lature—Denver Town Company, . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER II.
Grand Physical Divisions of Colorado—The Snowy Range,
The Foot-hills, The Valley, and Over the Range—Charac-
teristics of the Snowy Range, of the Foot-hills—The Great
Mineral Belt—Metalliferous Veins—Mode of Occurrence of
Gold, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER III.
Discoveries of Gold in the Mountains—John H. Gregory and
the Gregory Lode—History of Discovery Claim on the Greg-
ory—Placer and Bar Diggings–First Mining Laws—Russell
Gulch—Quartz Mining—Gregory District Organized and
Code of Laws Adopted, . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAPTER IV.
Visit of Horace Greeley and Party—Establishment of News-
papers—Attempted Organization of Gºvernment—Jefferson
Territory—Mail, Passenger, and Express Facilities—Over-
land Mail—First Winter in the Mines—Quartz Mills—
Wagon Roads, . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
AGE,
22
59
83
vi CONTENTS.
CHAPTER V.
Development of Mining through 1860-1-2-3—Opening Pros-
pects—Immigration and Emigration—Quartz-Mining and
Milling—Difficulty in Saving the Gold—Placer Mining—Or-
ganization of the Territory of Colorado by Congress—Min-
ing Legislation—Miscellaneous,
CHAPTER VI.
Condition of the Mines at the end of 1863—Transferred to
Eastern Capitalists—The April (1864) Panic in Stocks—
Temptation to Speculation in Gold Mining—Why the Miners
were generally embarrassed at the end of 1863—Why the
Eastern Mining Companies have been comparatively unsuc-
cessful,
CHAPTER VII.
Gilpin County—Present Condition of the Improved Lodes—
Names of Mining Companies—Amount of Development—
Condition of Mines and Mills—Machinery—Processes, &c.
CHAPTER VIII.
Gilpin County continued—Swinging Round the Circle—Inde-
pendent, South Boulder, Central, Wisconsin Districts, Peck
and Missouri Gulches—Their Improved Mines, Mills, Com-
panies, Processes, &c., .
CHAPTER IX.
Clear Creek County—General Characteristics—Idaho—Em-
pire—The Mines of Idaho-Spanish Bar—Trail Run–Fall
River—Morris and Downieville Districts—Empire Mines—
Griffith and Argentine Districts—Discovery, Development,
and Richness of the Silver Mines,
CHAPTER x.
Boulder County, Characteristics—Mining Districts, Gold Hill,
Ward, Central—Boulder Valley, Boulder City, Valmont—
Geology and Topography of the Coal and Iron Region—Belle-
monte Furnace and Coal Beds—Black Hawk Foundery, .
CHAPTER XI.
Park County—South Park—Towns and Mines—Salt Works—
Geology—Placer Mining in the Past, in the Present—Beaver
Gulch—Tarryall—Crossing the Range in Mid-Winter—Lode
12AGE.
. Ioë
. I31
I4I
• 2 I4
. 227
. 263
CONTENTS. - vii
PAGE.
Mining in the Past, in the Present—Climate—The Espino-
sas—The Reynolds Guerrilla Raid, . . . . . . . . . 280
CHAPTER XII.
Lake County — Its Characteristics, Settlements—Arkansas
River—Mining Districts, Westphalian, Pine Creek, La Plata,
Georgia Bar, Hope, Lake Falls, Red Mountain, Arkansas,
Independent, California, and Sacramento–Approaches, . . .306
CHAPTER XIII.
Summit County—Middle Park—Upper Blue River—Ten-mile
District—Result of Assays—Work doing—The Snakes—
Peru and Montezuma Districts—Lodes and Companies and
Improvements Going On—Gulch Mining, Union District,
Gold Run and Buffalo Flats—Western Portion of the County, 321
CHAPTER XIV.
Processes—The Stamp Mill, In Australia, Lake Superior,
Copper Mines, California, Nevada, Colorado—Improvements,
Keith's Desulphurizer, Crosby & Thompson's, Mason's, Mon-
nier Metallurgical Process—Smelting, James E. Lyon & Co.
—Making of Regulus, &c., . . . . . . . . . . . . .338
CHAPTER XV.
Important Mining Legislation — Gregory District Miners’
Laws, Adopted February, 1860—Mining Legislation of Col-
orado Territory— Act of Congress Opening the Mineral
Lands to Pre-emption, . . . . . . . . . • . . 359
CHAPTER XVI.
Geology and Geological History—Classification of Minerals
found in the Territory, . . . . . . . . 375
CHAPTER XVII.
Agriculture—The Valley—Climate, Soil, Irrigation—Crops and
Production per Acre—“The Great American Desert.” Abol-
ished—Native Fruits, Culture—Pastoral Quality, Buffalo,
Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Dairy Products—Game, Animals,
Birds, Timber, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
CHAPTER XVIII.
Recapitulation—Mills and Mining Machinery—Production cf
Gold—State Organization—General Statistics—Newspapers
—Railways on the Plains—Population, Society, . . . . . 432
THE MINES OF COLORADo.
C H A P T E R I.
Glance at Pike's Peak prior to the Discovery of Gold—Discovery
of Gold on Ralston Creek in 1852, and on Dry Creek in 1858–
Effect of the News in the States—Crossing the Plains—Indians
—First View of the Mountains—Prospecting, Hunting—Placer
Camp—Auraria—Arapahoe County—Election of Delegate to
Congress and Representative to Kansas Legislature—Denver
Town Company.
IT is unnecessary here to inquire into the causes
of the immemorial movement westward of the hu- .
man race from its cradle in Asia. It may be ob-
served, however, as marking an era in the world's
history, that the planet is at last girdled; that the
extraordinary mineral discoveries of Western North
America have startled even the Orientals from their
accustomed lethargy; and they are moving from
China eastward, or rather westward, on the other
side of the globe, to meet the historic column on
this side, in the gold and silver fields of the Rocky
Mountains. Thus we have a double westward
movement, each wing starting originally from Asia,
and pursuing the same direction, only on opposite
• 3, te
2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
sides of the earth, to the same destination. There
are those who think this double-action immigration
pressure will essentially modify the future of the
mining regions of North America. Buddhism and
Polygamy will be brought into contact with Chris-
tianity and Monogamy; but it would seem to be
the senility of age contending with the strength
and vigor of youth. There can be no doubt as to
which will triumph.
If we could examine the old Spanish archives in
Mexico and Spain, we might perhaps find detailed
accounts of explorations in the region of the Rocky
Mountains now comprising Colorado; but if so,
none of them is known or published to the world
at large, thanks, we suppose, to the Japanese policy
which formerly actuated the Colonial Governors and
Captains-General of Spain in America. About
twenty years ago a work was published which con-
tained a full and authentic account of an expedition
in the years 1540–1542, by order of the Viceroy
Mendoca, and under the conduct of Vasquez Coro-
nado. It consisted of three hundred and fifty Span-
iards and eight hundred Indians. Starting from
Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa, they reached the
sources of the Gila, passed across the mountains
to the Rio del Norte, wintered twice in the Terri-
tory of New Mexico, explored it from north to south,
and afterwards, taking a northeast course, crossed
the mountains, reached the buffalo plains, which they
traversed a considerable distance eastwardly and
as far north as the 40th parallel. Finding no gold
they returned to Mexico. The Spaniards did not
CAPTAIN ZEBULON M. PIKE. 3
re-enter the country till the year 1581, and the con-
quest of New Mexico was not completed till about
the year 1595. There is nothing of interest con-
cerning this country in the published account of
Coronado's long, fatiguing, resultless expedition.
Had his party found the rich treasures of the Col-
orado Rocky Mountains, how different would have
been the history of North America. But it seems
that was not to be.
In our day the discoverer and first chronicler of
these regions was the energetic and indefatigable
Captain Zebulon M. Pike, after whom the “princi-
pal peak,” as he calls it in his quaint and curious
“Account,” was named. Colonel S. H. Long was
% “An Account of Expedition to the Sources of the Mississippi,
and through the western part of Louisiana, &c., in the years 1805,
1806, and 1807: Philadelphia, 1810.”—Pike first saw the mountains
from the Arkansas, November 15, 1806; November 24th to 28th he
explored the north fork (Fontaine qui Bouit,) of the Arkansas,
without discovering the soda springs, however, and ascended a
chain south of the peak from which “the summit of the grand
peak, which was entirely bare of vegetation and covered with snow,
appeared at a distance of fifteen or sixteen miles from us, and as
high again as we had ascended.” Pike measured the altitude of his
peak by triangulation “on the base of a mile,” and counting the
prairie 8000 feet above the level of the sea, made it 18,581 feet. He
exaggerated in both instances. Subsequently he wandered about
among the mountains with his few followers for two months in
search of the sources of Red River, visiting the head waters of the
South Platte, the Arkansas, and at last the Rio Grande, where he
was taken prisoner by the Spaniards of New Mexico. In the Ap-
pendix to his “Account” Pike relates an incident curious enough
in view of what has since transpired. He says he met in Santa Fe
one James Pursley, from Bairdstown, Ky., “the first American who
ever penetrated the immense wilds of western Louisiana,” and who,
after many adventures with the Indians, as whose captive he got
4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the second explorer of the country. The surgeon,
botanist, and historian of Long's expedition was
Dr. E. James, the first white man, so far as we
know, whose foot ever trod the summit of Pike's
Peak. He also measured its altitude by triangula-
tion, and counting a point twenty-five miles below
the springs on the Fountain, as it is now called,
3OOO feet above sea level, made it II,507.5 feet.
His mistake was in estimating or calculating the
elevation of his base. This was in 1820. In 1843
Fremont paid a hasty visit to the soda springs at
the base of the peak. He was delighted with the
beauty of the little mountain-walled cove contain-
ing the springs, remarked that the water resembled
in taste the famous Selter Springs in the Grand
Duchy of Nassau, and was almost of the same
character though still more agreeable in taste than
that of the Beer Springs on Bear River of the Great
Salt Lake, and left us the following analysis of an
incrustation made by the water on a piece of wood:
Carbonate of lime, gº sº & * 4- 92.25
Carbonate of magnesia, mº tºº i º I.2 I
Sulphate of lime, h -
Chloride of calcium, * º g is •23
Chloride of magnesia, j
Silica, - - - s tº tº tº I.50
Vegetable matter, - º tº gº; t- Ǻ .2O
Moisture and loss, gº tº gº * * 4.61
IOO.OO
into the Pike's Peak region, came to Santa Fe. “He assured me,”
says Pike, “that he found gold on the head of La Platte, and had
carried some of the virgin mineral in his shot-pouch for months,
and that the Spaniards had frequently solicited him to go and show
a detachment of cavalry the place, but that, conceiving it to be our
territory, he had refused.” Good boy.
FREMONT IN THE PARKS. 5
The temperature of the water ranged through the
day in one spring from 58° to 60.5°, and in the
other from 61° to 69°. Next year Fremont re-
turned from California via the Great Salt Lake,
Bear River, the North, Middle, and South Parks.
He found the Middle Park alive with buffalo and
other game, and made the hight of the Ute Pass, be-
tween Breckenridge and Montgomery, I 1,200 feet.
“Here,” says Fremont, “the river (Blue) spreads
itself into small branches and springs, heading
nearly in the summit of the ridge which is very nar-
row.” Immediately below us was a valley through
which ran a stream (Platte,) and a short distance
opposite rose snowy mountains (Lincoln,) whose
summits were formed into peaks of naked rock.”
The South Park was at that moment the scene of a
hard-fought battle between hostile bands of Utes
and Arapahoes, and Fremont was obliged to fortify
all his camps. On again arriving at Pike's Peak
he measured it and made it 14,300 feet above sea-
level, which agrees very well with the measurement
of Dr. Parry made in 1862. -
It was about this time or a little earlier that one
Rufus B. Sage passed over the same route in the
dead of December with a small party of trappers.
He says the snow averaged a depth of twelve or
* The Blue and Platte both rise five or six miles west of the Pass,
flowing east, parallel, about 1ooo feet lower than its summit, and at
the Pass, where the Blue sharply bends north and the Platte south-
southeast, only from 7ooo to 8ooo feet apart. This has been elimi-
nated by careful surveys of the vicinity, which, since Fremont's
passage through or over it, has become an important mining center,
6 THE MINES OF COLOR ADO.
fourteen inches, but that the valleys and sunny hill-
sides were generally bare. He seems to have been
content to let the eternal mountains point skyward
in solemn grandeur while his party humbly clung to
the willow-lined streams that threaded the fertile
valleys, and so in a few days they were led out of
the woods and found themselves at the inevitable
springs like all the rest; where, says our friend
Sage, “the ground was free from snow and afforded
occasional spots of green grass.” Sage also re-
marked the existence of a settlement of whites and
half-breeds, numbering fifteen or twenty families,
about thirty miles above the mouth of the Fountain
on the Arkansas, evidently the present site of
Canon City. There was also a trading post called
the Pueblo on the site of the present town of that
name, occupied at that time by ten or twelve Ameri-
cans living with or married to Mexican women, and
carrying on a thriving trade with the Indians. The
latter were somewhat troublesome, were indeed the
only drawbacks to settlement in the vicinity.
The existence of gold and other minerals in the
Sierra Madre mountains, now comprising Colorado,
was already suspected. There was a story among
the mountaineers and traders, that a few years pre-
vious an old French hunter named Duchet had
picked up in one of the principal forks of Horse
Creek, a piece of rock containing native gold; that
he carried it in his hunting pouch until he got tired
of it, and suspecting not its value but only regard-
ing it as an hour's novelty, threw it away. Subse-
quently, at Santa Fe, the emptyings of his pouch,
RUFUS B. SAGE. 7
being in part particles of gold, attracted attention.
But the old hunter could not again find the place.
Sage camped on the present site of Golden City
during the winters of 1843 and 1844 successively,
whence on some of his hunting excursions he pene-
trated the mountains to a considerable distance;
but he records nothing in his published account of
particular interest, more than his confirmed belief
that it was a mineral region. For instance, cross-
ing from Cherry Creek to the Fountain, he remarks:
“The country hereabout for an extent of upwards of
one thousand square miles, is much subject to
storms of rain, hail, Snow, and wind. I can ac-
count for it in no way but by supposing it to have
some connection with the vast quantities of miner-
als lying embedded in its hills and valleys.” Some-
what of a Sage by nature as well as in name.
But the country in which he had long been travel-
ing abounds in Sage.
But we can scarcely pretend to give what was
known of Colorado prior to the discovery of paying
gold mines within her present limits, because our
space will not permit. We have therefore only
glanced at that period while hastening to the vastly
more interesting time when the discovery and pur-
suit of gold invested her stupendous mountains with
a more absorbing interest than even that with
which science inspires her votaries.
It was the commercial collapse of 1857 that set
many adventurous spirits in the then West peering
into the obscurity beyond them for a new field of
enterprise. A party of Cherokee Indians, traveling
8 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
overland to California in 1852, via the Arkansas
River and along the eastern base of the Sierra Ma-
dre to the North Platte at Fort Laramie, by some
means found gold in the banks of Ralston Creek, a
small affluent of the Vasquez Fork of the South
Platte, emptying into it near its mouth ; and each
year thereafter parties of Cherokees had gone out
and prospected the streams in the vicinity of what
is now Denver City. At last they were successful;
they obtained a few dollars' worth of the glittering
dust, which they carried home late in 1857, exhibit-
ing it freely as they passed through Nebraska and
Kansas.
The report of a new land of gold in the West
spread like an epidemic through the country drained
by the Missouri River, and soon traveled far be-
yond. These Indians appear to have gone home
and told their story on the confines of the Gulf of
Mexico, for Georgians were among the first to seek
the new gold country.
On the 9th of February, 1858, W. G. Russell,
with a party of nine men, left the state of Georgia
with a view of prospecting the eastern slope of the
Sierra Madre along the heads of the South Platte,
from Pike's Peak to the Black Hills. They arrived
on the head of Cherry Creek about the Ist of June.
They prospected Cherry Creek, the Platte and its
affluents as far north as Cache-a-la-Poudre, without
finding anything satisfactory. They returned to the
Platte, and about five miles up a small dry creek
which puts into the Platte seven miles south of the
mouth of Cherry Creek, a fine “prospect” one
GOLD STRUCK ON DRY CREEK. 9
evening rewarded their labors and enlivened their
hopes. They dug large holes in the wet sand, put
their “rockers” down in them, and dipping in water
with cups washed out in a few days several hundred
dollars' worth of gold. As soon as they got to
work, some of the party returned to Kansas with
the news. Pike's Peak was the nearest notable
natural object, and so the new gold field—the Do-
rado of many feverish dreams—took its name from
that.
In the last days of that Summer several small
parties were organized, and left Lawrence, Platts-
mouth, Omaha, Florence, Bellevue, Council Bluffs,
and other of the Missouri River towns for Pike's
Peak.” One party from Plattsmouth, numbering
forty-five men, with fifteen wagons, was threaten-
ingly approached near what is now Fort McPher-
son (Cottonwood,) by about four hundred Cheyennes
and Sioux. The train mounted an advanced guard
of five, and having a guard of equal number on
each flank, and one in the rear, ten footmen in sin-
gle file on the Indian side of the train, and the fif-
teen teamsters all having arms in the fore ends of
their wagons, they moved firmly along. The In-
dians came up on the flank one hundred strong in
fine style, and halted. The chief and four of his
braves made a circuit, and came down square in
*A Dutchman in Council Bluffs was observed gathering up a
large lot of meal-bags. He was asked what he was going to do
with them. “Fill them with gold at Pike's Peak,” he replied. Ol
he could never do that, they said, “Yes I will,” returned he, “if
I have to stay there till Fall ” It is matter of congratulation that
people have become well cured of such charming infatuation.
I#
IO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
front. When within about twenty paces they were
suddenly covered by the five rifles, and they halted,
trailed their arms, made peaceful gestures, and de-
manded a parley. They wanted pay for traveling
through their country. They were told that their
Great Father had already paid them for this privi-
lege. Seeing that nothing could be got by bluster-
ing, and being averse to fighting, they resorted to
begging. A plug of tobacco was given them, and
they sneaked off, Indian fashion. S-- *.
Well might one of these pioneers,” in a new cru-
sade on the Aborigines, write as follows in his diary,
upon passing through one of their decayed villages:
“As I sit, in the early morning, and gaze on the
ruins of this savage but once mighty people, their
council-fires mere smouldering embers, a strange
race overwhelming them in countless thousands,
and pushing them away from the land where lie
buried their fathers, I cannot but feel sad on ac-
count of their misfortunes; and I think how well it
may be that, in ages to come, the proud race which
is now occupying their pleasant places shall in like
manner be crushed out by a still stronger race.”
That was before the renewal on the Plains of the
desperate conflict which began on the Atlantic, and
has been fought hand-to-hand between the Ameri-
can and the savage, the latter always pushed back,
clear across the Continent. These men were so
enlightened as to feel deeply the hard and inevitable
fate of the Indians, and to recognize and accept
*William M. Slaughter, now Mayor of Central City.
DESTINY OF THE INDIAN. II
their own destiny in the matter. The above-quoted
sentences show the first, and the following the
second:
“Several small encampments of Indians are in
sight, but we have taken precautions against a sur-
prise, and in case they attack many an Indian will
bite the dust before it is over, for we are pretty well
prepared, and mean to go through, Indian or no
Indian.”
Thus was the last dreadful struggle between the
white and red man boldly braved by this handful
of pioneers, for what 2 For the chance of finding
an habitable land further west. That struggle we
have just fairly begun, and no one doubts that it
must go on to the extinction of the savages, involv-
ing great sufferings on our part, of course. Grant
beat the rebellion with hard knocks, and perhaps
gave man for man ; having more men he was ena-
bled to wear it out. It is not a bad illustration of
our conflict with the savages. Both were inevita-
ble, and both must end in the same way. The
Government and the rebellion were incompatible on
the same ground; so are our people and the sav-
ages. That was a life and death struggle, ended by
the death of the rebellion: this is a life and death
struggle, to be ended by the death of the savage—
and the sooner it can be finished the better.
At the time of which we are speaking—Septem-
ber, 1858—there was little of that semblance of
Tartaric civilization on the Plains which now char-
acterizes them. Forts Riley and Santa Fe, Forts
Rearney and Laramie, Salt Lake City and Camp
I2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Floyd, were about the only inhabited points. The
first hunters for gold at Pike's Peak had no smooth,
hard road, with occasional stations occupied by the
white man, to follow; no accompanying endless
train of white-topped emigrant wagons and fleets
loaded with merchandise. The Salt Lake mail
passed them regularly until they struck the Califor-
nia crossing of the Platte.* They met a small party
from Cherry Creek once in a while, all of them
with goose-quills or little vials of gold dust, which
some of them called “the elephant,” and were car-
rying home to show their friends, hoping thereby
to save them a pilgrimage to the Mountains to see
it; others were going to use “the elephant” to ob-
tain reinforcements. They also met straggling par-
ties from Salt Lake City or California, most always
packing a mule or two, and so much like Indians
that the latter never molested them. They might
have been overtaken by, or come up with, an Indian
trader's small train occasionally, or perhaps one of
Government supplies bound to Fort Laramie or
Camp Floyd; otherwise they were solitary and
alone. - -
After passing the California crossing they had no
road, but picked their way along in view of the
river as best they could. As they came within sight
of Long's Peak, lying like a smoky thunder-head in
the far and indefinite horizon, a hundred miles dis-
tant, we can imagine their exaltation of feeling.
*Eighty miles above the junction of the North and South Plattes;
a town called Julesburg, in the north-eastern corner of Colorado,
now marks the spot.
THE MOUNTAINS FROM THE PLAINS. I3
Pretty soon Pike's Peak could be seen compelling
the clouds; and then the varied outline of the en-
tire range of mountains between—one hundred
miles in length, cutting boldly the evening sky, and
doubtless exhaling the gold of the sunset, or per-
haps mysteriously mingling with the cloud-lands—
grew upon their vision, these men of the prairies,
who had never seen a hill five hundred feet high
The grand old mountains, with their eternal and
infinite solitude and solemnity, strength and repose,
were appealing to their hearts, as they always do to
men, the moment they came in sight.
Mr. Bowles says of this view:
“All my many and various wanderings in the
European Switzerland, three summers ago, spread
before my eye no panorama of mountain beauty
surpassing, nay, none equaling, that which burst
upon my sight at sunrise upon the Plains, when
fifty miles away from Denver; and which rises up
before me now as I sit writing by the window in
this city. From far south to far north, stretching
around in huge semi-circle, rise the everlasting hills,
one after another, tortuous, presenting every variety
of form and surface, every shade of cover and color,
up and on until we reach the broad, snow-covered
Range that marks the highest summits, and tells
where Atlantic and Pacific meet and divide for their
long journey to their far distant shores. To the
north rises the king of the range, Long's Peak,”
—e
* The latest observations and calculations of the elevation of
Long's and Pike's Peaks put that of the former approximately, at
14,056 feet; that of the latter at 14,216.
I4. THE MINES OF COLOR ADO.
whose top is 14,600 feet high ; to the south, giving
source to the Arkansas and Colorado, looms up its
brother, Pike's Peak, to the hight of 13,400 feet.
These are the salient features of the belt before
us; but the intervening and succeeding summits
are scarcely less commanding, and not much lower
in hight.”
And Bayard Taylor, viewing them from another
point, gives his impressions as follows:
“The view of the Rocky Mountains from the di-
vide near Kiowa Creek is considered one of the
finest in Colorado. From the breezy ridge, between
scattered groups of pine, you look upon one hun-
dred and fifty miles of the Snowy Range, from the
Sangre de Christo to the spurs away toward Lara-
mie. In variety and harmony of form, in effect
against the dark-blue sky, in breadth and grandeur,
I know no external picture of the Alps which can
be placed beside it. If you could take away the
valley of the Rhone, and unite the Alps of Savoy
with the Bernese Overland, you might obtain a tol-
erable idea of this view of the Rocky Mountains.
Pike's Peak would then represent the Jungfrau ; a
nameless snowy giant in front of you, Monte Rosa ;
and Long's Peak, Mont Blanc. The altitudes very
nearly correspond, and there is a certain similarity
in the forms. The average hight of the Rocky
Mountains, however, surpasses that of the Alps.”
And again:
“Nowhere distorted or grotesque in outline, never
monotonous, lovely in color and atmospheric effect,
I may recall some mountain chains which equal but
THE MOUNTAINS FROM DENVER. I5
none which surpass them. From this point (Den-
ver) there appears to be three tolerably distinct
ranges. The first rises from two to three thousand
feet above the level of the Plains; it is cloven asun-
der by the kanyons” of the streams, streaked with
dark lines of pine, which feather its summits, and
sunny with steep slopes of pasture. Some distance
behind it appears a second range of nearly double the
hight, more irregular in its masses, and of a dark,
velvety, violet hue. Beyond, leaning against the
sky, are the snowy peaks, nearly all of which are
from thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand feet
above the sea. These three chains, with their vary-
ing but never discordant undulations, are as inspir-
ing to the imagination as they are enchanting to the
eye. They hint of concealed grandeurs in all the
glens and parks among them, and yet hold you back
with a doubt whether they can be more beautiful
near at hand than when beheld at this distance.”
Game began to abound. The gazelle-like ante-
lope trotted gracefully up to the trail to see the in-
vaders of their country. They soon learned by sad
experience to be more cautious. A being had come
among them to whose capacious maw everything
was food—to whose numerous necessities everything
must become subservient. He was to mar the
beautiful, natural meadows with winding wagon-
roads, muddy the clear streams, cut away the for-
ests, disembowel the hills, and cover their sides
* Canon, a Spanish word implying a narrow, tunnel-like passage
between high and precipitate banks. It is pronounced KANYON,
and as it has been adopted by us, might as well be spelled so.
I6 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
with unsightly rubble, tear out the gulches, exter-
minate the game, the fish, and the wild lord of the
soil together, and taint the very atmosphere with
impurity. The carrion-fly, the house-fly, the chin-
cha, the mosquito, and other similar civilized pests,
went to the Rocky Mountains only with the white
man; but the rapidity and ease with which they
became acclimated show that the country and cli-
mate excessively agree with them.
As the pioneers approached nearer the Moun-
tains they began to prospect the numerous streams
cutting their eastern slope and putting into the
Platte, which for fifty or sixty miles after its escape
from, runs nearly parallel with them, and from
twenty to forty miles distant. Sometimes they
found the “color” with a good deal of black sand,
sometimes not.
On the 23d of October, the train which we have
been accompanying crossed the mouth of Cherry
Creek, “dry, and about one hundred yards wide,
banks twenty inches high,” and came upon Jones'
and Smith's wigwams and the tents of D. C. Oakés
and Dr. Russell and party. Jack Jones was just
starting a corral-ranch house, the walls of which
were formed by rows of logs set on end in a
trench close together. Such houses used to be
quite common ; but few or none now remain.
Three miles further up the Platte on the western
bank were gold diggings worked by Mexicans and
called for them, “Mexican Diggings.” For a few
days parties were constantly arriving and pros-
pecting and hunting were carried on with vigor.
FIRST TOWN-AURARIA. 17
There does not seem to have been much success in
the former line, only the Dry Creek before men-
tioned yielding an encouraging prospect. But the
latter paid better. Antelope, deer, elk, bear and
sheep, were plentiful, and it was not unusual for
the mountain lion to present his countenance in
camp, once going so far as to peer into a tent where
a man had died of fever. In the dusk they were at
first taken for the large gray wolf of the prairie;
but soon one of them was shot, when they were
found to be a species of panther, standing two feet
high and with a body four feet long—a new and
formidable kind of wild fowl. But who ever knew
the Western pioneer to quail before anything with
his trusty rifle
The camp at the mouth of Dry Creek was
called “Placer Camp,” the first named place in
the vicinity. The divide between the Platte and
Arkansas was then covered with snow, but the
very first pioneers did not fail to remark the unique
and wonderful sandstone formations of the streams
leading off that divide at the base of the main
mountains. On the 31st of October ten inches of
snow fell about the mouth of Platte Kanyon. Next
day the adventurers were confined to their camps,
and true to their instincts began to talk politics
and town-sites. By the 4th of November a town-
plat had been surveyed on the west side of the
Platte opposite the mouth of Cherry Creek by
William Foster, and christened “Auraria” by Dr.
Russell whose party had come from a town of that
name in Georgia. This region was then within
I8 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the bounds of Kansas, and a county was defined
and called “Arapahoe,” after the neighboring tribe
of Indians. An election was held on the 6th of
November, there being about two hundred inhabit-
ants in the new place, “six hundred miles from
nowhere,” as they designated it. H. J. Graham
was elected without opposition, Delegate to Con-
gress, and instructed to get the Pike's Peak gold
mines set apart from Kansas as a new Territory.
A. J. Smith was elected Representative from Arap-
ahoe County to the Kansas Legislature. Of this
proceeding, which now seems wonderful as an illus-
tration of the organizing, assimilating character
which our countrymen bear in common with the
old Romans, William M. Slaughter, who we have
before had occasion to quote, made the following
philosophical entry in his diary:
“Just to think that within two weeks of the arri-
val of a few dozen Americans in a wilderness, they
set to work to elect a Delegate to the United States
Congress, and ask to be set apart as a new Terri-A
tory ! But we are of a fast race and in a fast age
and must prod along.”
On the 8th the Delegate from the new political
camp started for Washington, loaded with letters
from his constituents to their friends and to the
powers that were. On the same day W. A. Mc- .
Fadden was elected President of the Auraria Town
Company, Dr. L. J. Russell Secretary, and build-
ing commenced rapidly, every settler being allowed
to possess as many lots as he would build on.
Arrivals from the States continued. A party,
MOUNTAIN SHEEP. I9
entering or climbing the Foot-hills to hunt and pros-
pect, scared up a flock of two hundred and fifty
mountain sheep, which they followed a long way in
vain. We find the following naive entry in their
diary: “Game plenty here, but no gold”—a fix
in which many a similar party has since found
itself.
The mountain sheep is larger in size than the
domestic animal of that name, and beside the
head and horns, there is not much similarity. Its
habits are much like those of the deer, its flesh
equal in flavor to that of the buffalo and savoring
somewhat of mutton, too, generally in good condi-
tion, tender and sweet. Both the male and female
have horns, the latter about six inches in length,
small, pointed and somewhat flat; the former grow-
ing to the enormous size of two to three feet in
length and six or eight inches in diameter at the
butt. In short the male mountain sheep runs to
horns. In color they vary from a dingy white to a
dark brown, or even black. A strip of pure white
extends from ham to ham, including the tail, which
is short and tipped with black. Instead of wool
they wear hair, shedding it annually. They “ba-ah,”
“ba-ah,” like a domestic sheep, and the same odor
is common to both. They are extremely hard to
capture, even while young, and it is next to impos-
sible to make them live away from their native
hills. Hence the mountain sheep is not seen
even in the largest zoological collections. They
are not so often met with now as when Colorado
was first settled.
2O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
One can imagine that the Plains at that time
were a pretty panorama for a spectator, say on
Bradford Hill. Here is a sketch of it, from our
favorite diary:
“All the region, from Long's Peak around by the
Cache-a-la-Poudre, Beaver and Bijou Creeks to the
summit of the divide between the Platte and
Arkansas, and back past where I stand ‘to the
place of beginning,’ lies spread out at my feet like
an unrolled map. West is a vast sea of dark-green
mountains, sweeping away and upward into the
clouds, tipped in the distance with the whitest of
snow, now more or less agitated by the storm-spirit.
These be the everlasting watch-towers of the Con-
tinent. But the first is the lovely part of the pic-
ture. There, spread out like a carpet, glowing in
the rich splendor of the autumn sunlight, lies the
brown, swelling plain, cut in various directions by
wood-fringed streams—a magnificent sight ! Cok-
umns of blue smoke rise calmly, and float leisurely
away from Auraria City, from Placer Camp, and
intermediate camps along the river. The Ameri-
can has come to this hitherto unknown region, and
the sound of the rifle and the axe, the lowing of
stock and falling of timber around the smoke col-
umns, are sounding the death-knell of the wild
beast and the wilder man of the soil—are proclaim-
ing the fact that their restless and encroaching
enemy has set himself boldly down in their midst,
to scatter them like chaff, and to possess and im-
prove the talent they have so long had buried in
the ground.”
GOLD FOUND IN THE MOUNTAINS. 2I
During the early Winter a town called St.
Charles was laid out on the east bank of the
Platte, opposite Auraria, by a party from Law-
rence, most of which returned home. The inter-
ests of St. Charles were left in the hands of a man
who sold out to the “Denver Town Company;”
hence, through the natural process of aggregation,
DENVER as it now is.
C H A P T E R II.
Grand Physical Divisions of Colorado—The Snowy Range, The
Foot-hills, The Valley, and Over the Range—Characteristics of
the Snowy Range, of the Foot-hills—The Great Mineral Belt—
Metalliferous Veins—Mode of Occurrence of Gold.
BEFORE proceeding further in our account of the
discovery of gold in Colorado, it may be wełl to
devote some space to a general description of the
great physical features of the country. Of a new
place we first want to know where it is, then what
it is. Our description, in connection with the map
which accompanies this volume, will at least serve
to render succeeding chapters more intelligible.
Colorado, then, is almost square in form, is mount-
ed upon the Sierra Madre precisely as one mounts
a horse, and covers an area of IO6,475 square miles;
territory enough to make thirteen States as large as
Massachusetts—as much territory as is comprised
in the States of Massachusetts, New York, Penn-
sylvania, and New Jersey combined. It exactly
occupies the space between the 37th and 41st de-
grees of north latitude, and between the 25th and
32d meridians of longitude west from Washington.
Its northern boundary just fences up the mouth of
the North Park, allowing the North Platte to escape
GRAND DIVISIONS OF COLORADO. 23
underneath, however; its southern boundary per-
forms the same office for the park of San Luis,
whence escapes in like manner the Rio Bravo del
Norte. The main bulk of the Sierra Madre lies
between the 28th and 30th meridians, leaving about
an equal area within the eastern and western limits
of the Territory on either side; and it extends from
the northern to the southern boundary of the Ter-
ritory, elevated and expanded laterally to the full
of its gigantic proportions.
The following grand divisions of Colorado have
insensibly come to be recognized, and named by
the people: The Snowy Range, or The Range,
with its subdivision, the System of the Parks; the
Foot-hills, with its subdivision, the Great Mineral
Belt; the Valley, comprising the agricultural sec-
tion, from the base of the Mountains eastward ;
and Over the Range, including all west of the
snowy crest of the continental divide. The latter
division is of little consequence, since the Basin of
the upper Blue, about twenty-five miles in diame-
ter, is all of it that has yet been found of use. It
embraces the Middle Park, Bear, Grand, and Gunni-
son rivers, and innumerable broken mountain chains.
The bottoms of these rivers furnish hundreds of
square miles of excellent pasturage, but it is doubt-
ful if anything but vegetables and the hardier cere-
als will mature on them, so cold and short are their
seasons. The Middle Park will receive worthier
mention in a subsequent portion of this work.
The peculiarities of the South Park, so far as they
vary from those of the Foot-hills, will be fully no-
24. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ticed under the head of Park County. The North
Park is not inhabited. It is well-timbered and
watered, and abounds in game, but the existence
of valuable mineral deposits there, while strongly
suspected, can hardly be said to have been thor-
oughly demonstrated. The San Luis Park is larger
than all the others together, enjoys a warmer cli-
mate, and supports a population of perhaps ten
thousand Mexicans, who confine themselves to pro-
curing subsistence from the soil. The Honorable
William Gilpin owns something more than a mil-
lion acres of land here, in two separate tracts, under
Spanish grants, which have been confirmed by the
Senate of the United States. A year or two since
he explored these estates quite thoroughly for mines,
and satisfied himself at least of their existence the
same as in other portions of the Mountains. The
Valley, being altogether agricultural and pastoral,
will be treated at length under the head of Agri-
culture. It is in the Foot-hills and the Snowy
Range the mines occur, and hence it comes within
our purpose to notice their characteristics some-
what in detail, here. We shall use the vernacular
of the people of the Territory in speaking of these
natural physical divisions.
Travelers on the Plains expatiate eloquently on
the gigantic mountain mass that crowns the great
plateau midway between St. Louis and San Fran-
cisco, “capped with eternal snow and gleaming in
the sunshine with untôld beauty and splendor;”
but the truth is, the snow line is not reached in the
Colorado mountains at all, though masses of snow
TIMBER LINE ON THE SNOWY RANGE. 25
lie in ravines, under beetling cliffs, and on the
northern exposures of the higher altitudes per-
petually. It is a peculiarity of the Range that the
deep snows fall late—usually not till after New
Years'—the fall becoming deeper indeed way into
April and even May;” and this moist snow it is
that clings to the Mountains from base to summit
and gives them that all but awful beauty which has
so often struck travelers with amazement, as late
as June. During that month their spotless snowy
mantles begin to show holes. These feed on the
fabric round the edges, until, by the first of August,
very little or none of it is left. In tropical and
sub-tropical climates the snow line is only reached at .
5,000 to 6,000 feet above the timber line; in the
Alps, the difference between them is but 2,600 feet;
and it is not likely that it would be less than 3,000
to 4,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. Well, the
timber line in the latter is well marked along the
slopes of the higher and more massy chains, and
its average elevation above the sea is given by Dr.
Parry at 11,800 feet, nearly corresponding with the
same limit in the great mountain ranges of the
globe nearer the equator. Thus the Schlagintweits
give the limit of the trees on the Himalaya (lat.
31°) at 11,800 feet; on the Andes within the trop-
ics it is said by Humboldt to be between II,000
and I2,OOO feet; on the San Francisco Mountain,
in south-western New Mexico, Capt. Whipple found
* At Breckenridge, on the Blue, between 9,000 and 10,000 feet
above the sea, there fell from September 7, 1859, to May 2, 1860,
one hundred and fifty inches of snow.
2 -
26 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
pine timber about 12,500 feet above the sea ; and
only in Mexico have we been able to find it recorded
as growing higher—12,800. On mountains of the
same and even lower latitudes the line of arbores-
cence is not near so high as in Colorado. Thus on
the Peak of Teneriffe (lat. 28°) it reaches only to
7,300 feet; on Mt. Etna (lat. 38°) to 6,600 feet, and
on the Alps of Switzerland (lat. 46°) it averages
6,500. The cause of this remarkable apparent de-
viation from physical laws is questionless to be
found in the great extent of this elevated inland
plateau, the most expansive on the globe. It is
I,600 miles wide in the latitude of Colorado, and
there it also heaves its giant masses to the highest
altitude. Its length is co-extensive with that of
North America, and its average elevation not much
less than 5,000 feet. It is far from the cold, moist
breath of the Atlantic Ocean. Its elevated western
border condenses and catches the moisture from
the Pacific air currents, leaving them dry and warm.
The consequence is, the mean temperature of the
whole region is far above that of smaller mountain
ranges or isolated peaks of the same altitude and
under the same latitude. As everywhere else north
of the tropics, coniferous trees form the extreme
limit of arborescent vegetation in Colorado, though
aspens and birches grow almost as high in favora-
ble, moist localities.
The Snowy Range, divested of its primary spurs
and of its great wings—the Foot-hills—is not far
from twenty miles in width. This includes a uni-
form system of spurs or wings thrown out on each
THE SNOWY RANGE. 27
side between the water courses as if for support, ,
and sloping down to timber in the course of eight
or ten miles, something like, “to compare great
things with small,” the rafters from the ridge-pole
of a house. The Range itself, the immediate crest
of the Continent of North America, is somewhat
broken in outline, often serrated like the teeth of a
saw, whence the name, Sierra, scrimetimes exhibit-
ing the bare, native granite of the earth's crust in
terrible masses, terrible from their gigantic deso-
lateness and uncouth shapes, “which shape have
none;” but in good part it is smoothly-rounded and
grassy, accessible and passable in any direction
during July, August, and September, from two to
five miles broad, stretching itself like a huge, gorged
anaconda, five hundred miles from north-west to
south-east, enveloping the great parks in its folds
and hiding myriads of small ones, suspending al-
pine lakes with lilies all their own on its rugged
sides, often breathing like leviathan of the deep,
and shaking Storms from its angry mane.
Between I I,000 and I2,OOO feet above the sea, the
larger timber growth gives place to the Pinus
aristata Engel, having deformed trunks hidden
by withered branches, and sending off leafy tufts
close to the ground, as if life were dependent upon
sheltering their roots from exposure. Soon, open
patches, with a vegetation purely alpine, begin to
appear. Suddenly, on climbing some little knoll,
between snow banks, a profusion of alpine flowers
bursts on the view. Among these Dr. Parry
mentions Primula angustifolia, Cymopteras alpinus,
28 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Eritrichium arettoides, Arenaria arctica, Silene acau-
lis, Aplopappus pygmaeus, Primula Parryii, Sedume
zhodamthum, Mertensia Sibirica, Sióðaldia procum-
bens, Saxifraga cernua, S. debilis, S. punctata, Cal-
tha leptosepala, Androsace Chamajasme, Saxifraga.
Jamesii, Dryas octopetata, Mertensia particulata,
Chionophila (snow-lover) Trifolium manum, and 7.
dasyphyllum. The tap-rooted Claytonia, and an
Alpine Thlasp; give perfume and beauty to the
highest summits. It may be more intelligible and
satisfactory to the general reader to know that
all these hard names stand simply for such plants
as go to make up a mountain sheep pasture. When
the snow is off, the sward of the highest peaks,
whether composed of grasses, weeds, mosses or
lichens, is of all things a flower-bed. Of the
prospect from any point on the summit of the
Range, it must be seen. No words can more or
less than mock at it. One feels as though wings
were starting from his shoulders, and his heart
rises with something of the bodily sensation expe-
rienced upon wading slowly into a pond of cold
water. The world you have left. It is far below
you with its leaden clouds and fierce storms; but
heaven has come down to you, it envelops, pene-
trates, and purifies you. With the old Indian Chief,
you say to the Sun, “My Father l’ to the Earth,
such earth as this, “My Mother l’’
The following altitudes, from observations made
on the ground by Dr. C. C. Parry and calculated by
Prof. George Engelmann, are approximately correct
at least, and will be found interesting as showing
ALTITUDES OF TOWNS AND PASSES. 29
the distribution of the incipient population of Col-
orado and the hight of the most noted mountain
passes: .
- 1. WESTERN PLAINs.
Omaha (Library ... State House,) - * > * - 1,211
Julesburg, eight feet above river, Le gº tº 3,703
Denver, tº e iº lºs dº “E” º - 5,317,
2. BASE OF MOUNTAINS.
Pranklin (St. Vrain's,) - w ſº * * ū- 5,256
Boulder City, - ſº * wº tº - 5,536
Golden City, sº & º sº ſº gº gº 5,882
Golden Gate, * { * * dº tº - 6,226
Mt. Vernon, tº tº ë * º sº 6,479
Soda Springs (Pike's Peak,) & tº gº - 6,515
Colorado City, 15 feet above water, gº ſº - 6,342
Divide between Arkansas and Platte on road from Colorado
City to Denver, - tºº tº ſº - 7,554
3. EASTERN'SLOPE OF MoUNTAINS, UPPER PLATEAU.
Central City, '-'. * ºr - { * tº º tº 8,300
Gold Hill, - '- gº - - “º - , 8,636
Osborn's Lake (Ward District,) • - - º 8,821
Bergen’s Ranch, sº ſº- gº tºs - tº - 7,752
North branch of South Platte, Denver and Buckskin road, 8,028
Lake, where Denver road enters South Park, - & IO,O4I
Jefferson (South Park,) tº- A gº sº tº - 9,842
Tarryall, $6 sº iº sº tº g 9,932
Forty-six miles below Tarryall on the Platte, tº - 8, 151
Where the Tarryall road leaves or strikes Fontaine qui ... "
Bouit, - - - - - - - 8,273
Three miles lower down, - - - $º * - - 7,794
Junction north and south Clear Creeks, , , - tº e 7,086
Idaho (12 feet above South Clear Creek,) - tº - 7,8oo
Head of Virginia Kanyon, gº • . sº 9,690
Consolidated Ditch Office (Missouri City,} . tº - 9,073
Mouth of Fall River, - • vs - • 7,930
Level of Clear Creek at Empire City, * ſº - 8,583
Base of Berthoud's Pass, - - , , - . ºf 9,464
Georgetown, ſº sº º - sº - 8,452
3O THE MINES OF COLORADo.
- 4. PASSES.
Georgia Pass (South to Middle Park,) - ſº ſº
Berthoud's Pass (Clear Creek to head of Middle Park,)
Same (Gen. Case,) - ſº tº t- * * ſº
Ute Pass (Fremont,) † tº º tº º
5. ALPINE SUMMITs.
Mt. Audubon (southeast of Long's Peak,) ſº ſº
Velie's Peak (north-northwest of Long’s Peak,)
Long's Peak (approximately,) sº º ſº gº
Mt. Guyot (west of Georgia Pass,) & gº ſº
Pike's Peak, sº - gº gº tºº º
Same (Fremont,) tº- tº- gºe tºe tºs
Gray's Peak (Argentine District,) - gºe gº : ;
Parry's Peak (northwest of Empire City, named by Gen.
Case,) * -º * tº- :- g= *
Mt. Flora (a detached peak east of Parry's Peak,) - gº
6. MIDDLE PARK.
Three-fourths of a mile from summit of Berthoud's Pass,
western slope, - sº º * †º.
Head of Middle Park, wº * - -
Hot Springs of Grand River, 25 miles from head of Park,
7. TIMBER LINE.
North slope of Pike's Peak, e sº * iº
On the Range at Berthoud's Pass, - gº a tºm
Eastern slope of ridge leading to Gray's Peak, º
Eastern slope of Mt. Engelmann, - * º *
Southern slope of Mt. Flora, - gº U-º gº
On Snowy Range, - * ſº - II,700 to
Mt. Audubon, - * se sº * tººl
Long's Peak, * mºs gº. * tºº. tº
Wind River M’ts., $º- * *-*. gº º
II,487
II,349
II,37I
11,200
I3,4O2
13,456
I4,056
I3,223
I4,216
I4,3OO
I4,25I
I3, I33
12,878
Io,696
8,690
7,725
I2,043
II,816
II,643
II,578
II,807
II,8oo
II,3OO
Io,8oo
Io, I60
A peculiarity of the Range is its tortuous course.
Rising gradually from the Laramie Plains in lati-
tude 41° 30', north, and longitude 30° 30', west,
(from Washington) it assumes its average
alti-
tude—12,000 feet—upon crossing the 41st parallel,
pours off north-eastward the waters of the North
TORTUoUs course of THE SNOWY RANGE. 3 I
Platte, and westward those of Green and Bear
Rivers. It soon changes its course a trifle, strik-
ing east-southeast for about seventy miles, dividing
the North and Middle Parks, and abutting squarely
on the Plains in Long's Peak. Here it breaks
sharply to the south-southwest, shedding from its
eastern slope the numerous affluents of the South
Platte, and from its western the Grand River Fork
of the Rio Colorado. Pursuing this course perhaps
thirty miles, it suddenly makes an ox-bow curve,
forty or fifty miles in length, to the west, round the
more immediate heads of Clear Creek. Thence it
resumes its southerly course for twenty or thirty
miles, starting eastward Bear Creek and the north
fork of the South Platte, and westward the Snake
and Swan Rivers, affluents of the Blue, the latter a
tributary of the Grand about sixty miles in length,
and emptying into that stream just before it escapes
from the Middle Park. It is only on the Blue and
its tributaries that mines have yet been worked west
Df the Range. We are now at the north-east cor-
ner of the South Park. Here the Range breaks
suddenly to the west, presenting in a distance of
twenty miles three wagon-road passes—the Georgia,
the Breckenridge, and the Ute"—and culminating
soon thereafter in Mt. Lincoln. This, in the words
*The hight above the sea of half a dozen practical passes through
the Range in Colorado varies from II,000 to 12,000 feet; and the
average descent to the parks or elevated valleys of streams below
is 2000 to 3000 feet, in a distance of eight to twelve miles. They
rarely attain an elevation above the limit of trees, but usually show
a near approach to it in a stunted growth of timber and the occur-
rence of various alpine plants.
*
32 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of the Hon. Wm. Gilpin, “is a supremely grand focal
point of primary mountain chains, primary rivers,
and parks.” It is in the same latitude as St. Louis
and San Francisco (39°), is about one thousand
miles from each and in the center between them.
Soon after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,
the Hon. Wilbur F. Stone, then temporarily editor
of the Denver Gazette, wrote and published the fol-
lowing article:
“Movements have been set on foot in various
parts of the Union to erect suitable monuments to
the late President of the United States. Columns
of granite and obelisks of marble will soon be scat-
tered over the land by the gratitude and munificence
of the American people, making their mute appeals
to the memory of the nation, throughout the gen-
erations to come, until these works of art shall
crumble to dust in the far-off time. While these
praiseworthy efforts are exciting the interest and
admiration of all true lovers of the good and great
dead, it may not be generally known that here in
Colorado we have a monument to the memory of
Abraham Lincoln, already erected by Nature's great
Architect, outstripping in grandeur, endurance, and
beauty, all the works of art the skill and wealth of
the world can conceive and adorn.
“At the elevated northwest corner of the South
Park, at the very head of the three great rivers—
the Platte, the Arkansas, and the Colorado—where
these mighty streams, flowing to the two oceans, be-
gin their journey in the eternal snows of the dividing
Range—a corner stone of the three great counties
MT. LINCOLN THE LORD OF THE MOUNTAINs. 33
of Park, Lake and Summit, the two latter much
larger each than the State of Massachusetts—the
focus of the gold mines of the Territory, and over-
shadowing the picturesque little village of Mont-
gomery as the pyramids overshadow the tents of
the Arab–stands Mount Lincoln, this mighty
monument of the Almighty's handiwork.
“One warm day in August, three summers ago,
the writer of this, in company with a gentleman
from Omaha, made an ascent of this peak, for the
purpose of taking its altitude. Starting early in the
morning, we slowly wound our way from the village
up through the dense pine forests until we reached
the dimit of timber, where the pines dwindle into
dwarfs a foot in hight, twisted into fantastic con-
tortions by the storm blasts of winter. Then came
the carpeting of grasses and flowers, of a vegeta-
tion which terminated at the snow-line in moss and
lichens. Stopping every few minutes to rest the
lungs, tired of their expansion inhaling the rarified
air, and clambering over blocks of granite and
porphyry, fragments of quartz, lava and scoriae,
and beds of ice and snow, all mingled in wild con-
fusion, we reached the top, and about the middle
of the afternoon sat down upon the very apex of
this lord of the mountains. The sky was clear, the
temperature 50° Fahrenheit, and adjusting our in-
struments we took the measurement of altitude.
We made the hight to be over 15,000 feet above the
level of the sea. The summit is a conical peak,
which rests on the base of the mountain like
* Pelion on Ossa piled’—the apex terminating in
2%
34 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
about a square rod of level rocks and ice. In the
centre of this area, stones have been piled up by
prospectors climbing up at different times, until a
monument-like pile has been formed, ten or twelve
feet in diameter and about fifteen feet high, but
which is altogether invisible from the foot of the
mountain. A long slope reaches from the summit
eastwardly to the valley of the Platte. The other
sides are precipitous, and rent with yawning chasms
hundreds of feet deep, into which the light of the
sun never penetrates. At the end of an hour after
our arrival, a storm approached from the west and
swept over the mountain. In less than ten min-
utes from the time the clouds struck us, the mer-
cury fell from fifty degrees to zero. Fierce blasts
of wind roared and shrieked among the crags and
snow darkened the air. In the midst of this, we
commenced our slippery descent. We soon became
charged with electricity so that the hair of our
heads stood on end, sparks flew from the ends of
our fingers and cracked at every step with a hissing
sound that could be heard a distance of a hundred
feet. Forked lightnings leaped from rock to rock
and played about our heads, almost blinding the
sight, but as our bodies were charged equally with
the clouds and mountain, there was of course no
danger. Black clouds rolled and tumbled over
each other a mile below us like the uncouth gam-
bols of terrible monsters in this upper ocean.
Descending through the strata of clouds, we at last
reached sunlight and entered the village at dark—
the whole distance along the slope, from the valley
MONUMENT TO ABRAHAM LIN COLN. 35
to the summit, being about ten miles. Our report
was made to a meeting of the citizens of Mont-
gomery, and in honor to the President under whose
administration Colorado had been organized and
settled, the peak was named ‘Mount Lincoln.’
“Such is Mount Lincoln. Few ever die having
beheld so magnificent a prospect as is seen from
its summit. Colorado is spread out at your feet.
The South Park—sixty miles long and thirty wide—
with its undulating hills, green meadows, and a
thousand glittering lakes and brooks, dwindles to
a pleasure garden. You look over Long's Peak,
north, almost into Dakota. You look over the
plains of Utah, to the west, stretching towards the
golden shores of the Pacific. You look over the
Spanish Parks, south, into New Mexico; and turn-
ing to the east, your vision wanders over Pike's
Peak where the great Plains seem to rise up like an
emerald ocean.
“And such is Colorado's monument to our dead
but immortal President. From its side, the great
rivers suck the nutriment which feeds both oceans,
and upon which ride the nation's navies and the
commerce of the world. A thousand storms sweep
over it, but in vain to level it. A thousand cata-
racts dash around its base, but from its summit
you hear not their murmurs. A score of quartz
mills stamp their iron feet in thunders beneath its
shadow, but their sound dies half way up its sides.
Lightnings and thunders glance harmlessly from
its crest. Tunnels may pierce its ribs, and the
mineral wealth of future centuries be poured out
36 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
into the lap of the world, but its foundations will
remain unshaken. Its base is clothed with ever-
greens—sublime wreaths, such as never hung on
the tombstones of emperors. Its top reaches so
near the heavens as to attain the spotless purity of
eternal white—bright emblem of immortality.
“Let, then, other States and other peoples raise
their monuments of patriotism and of art to gild
the fame of the great dead; but Colorado can point
in all time to this proud monumental mountain,
which rears itself as the gigantic spine of this con-
tinental vertebra—she can point it out hundreds of
miles away, to the traveler as he goes from ocean
to ocean on the future international railway, and
exclaim with the old Latin poet Ovid: ‘Ezegi mon-
wmentum dere perennior, atque altior Pyramides'—
I have erected a monument more enduring than
brass, and loftier than the Pyramids.”
Appropriate, eloquent, and beautiful as that is, it
is still unworthy of the subject. Here, as at St.
Peter's or the Coliseum, is “matter for all feeling.”
Later observations indicate the hight of Mt. Lin-
coln as nearer 17,OOO than 15,000 feet. Nothing
but a visit can give any adequate idea of the gran-
deur of Mt. Lincoln and the numerous scarcely
lower peaks that are assembled, Titans in council,
at the head of the South Park.
From Mt. Lincoln a spur, called after the little
town on the Platte at its head, the “Montgomery
Spur,” shoots off directly southward about twenty-
five miles, where it ends in the “Buffalo Peaks.”
Beyond this it is a low, serrated, wooded range, and
THE MONTGOMERY SPUR. 37
it soon curves eastward and finally northward,
meeting a similar range from the opposite direc-
tion in Pike's Peak, the two forming the complete
circular rim of the South. Park, Mt. Lincoln at the
head, Pike's Peak, directly facing Lincoln east-
southeast and one hundred miles distant, at the
foot. It is as though the great spur, thrown off
from the Range at the north-east corner of the
Park, had opened for the first hundred miles of its
course, the two halves removing sixty or seventy
miles asunder to make room for the Park; then,
becoming one again, but displaced forty or fifty
miles northward from Pike's Peak, had pursued its
descending course until it was lost in the bank of
the Mississippi River. A series of similar spurs
accompanies this mother of mountains throughout
its course, forming water-sheds between Hudson's
Bay and the Great Lakes, between the Missouri
and Yellowstone, and in regular succession the
Platte, Arkansas, Red, and Del Norte. On the
west they are more irregular, presenting us with
the Columbia and the Colorado, the latter having
several large tributaries—the Green, Grand, Gun-
nison, Puerco, and Gila — which show it more
especially.
The Range bears off westward from Mt. Lincoln
for twenty or thirty miles, in which distance it
sweeps round the head of the Arkansas. Thence
it strikes southward for perhaps seventy miles,
shedding off into the Arkansas on the east, Ten-
nessee, Lake, Clear, Pine, Chalk, Cottonwood, and
South Arkansas Creeks, all of considerable size
38 THE MINEs of color ADO.
w
and exposing by the immense furrows they have
cut into the heart of the mountain, innumerable
and rich gold-bearing quartz veins; and into the
Gunnison Fork of the Rio Colorado on the west, a
succession of streams, not yet so well explored as
the others, but still known to open and make ac-
cessible an auriferous and argentiferous region of
bewildering extent. In latitude 38° 30' a huge spur
branches off to the south-east, forming the eastern
rim of the Park of San Luis ; parting, first, the
waters of the Arkansas and Del Norte, and then,
as the Raton Chain, reaching far into Texas, the
divide between the Arkansas and Canadian Rivers.
Where this spur is thrown off, the Range begins
to bear a little west of south, and just below the
38th parallel it bends another ox-bow to the west,
two hundred miles in length and hardly twenty
across, round the head of the Del Norte. Thence
it resumes its general course southward, soon passes
beyond the southern boundary of Colorado, be-
comes the Sierra Mimbres, and in about one thou-
sand miles, plunges into the Mexican Andes, in
latitude 23° 30', in the Mexican State of Durango.
We have traced its huge folds an estimated dis-
tance of five hundred miles within the confines of
Colorado. Its great lateral spurs—those termi-
nating in Pike's Peak and the Spanish Peaks and
Raton Mountains on the east, and the Elk and
Uncompagre Mountains on the west—make an
aggregate length of mountain range for Colorado
of ten or twelve hundred miles.
The Foot-hills are the advanced works of the
THE FOOT-HILLS. 39.
Range. They rise abruptly from the Plains to the
hight of a thousand feet, which hight is generally
increased by about two thousand feet in a width of
fifty miles, where they lap on the Range. It is
along this jointure of the Foot-hills and the Range
that the great mineral belt of the Territory ex-
tends in a north-east and south-west direction from
Long's Peak to the head of the Del Norte, having
an average width of twenty miles. In the Foot-
hills of St. Vrain's Creek, the Boulders, and Clear
Creek, occur the larger moiety of the improved
mines and mining towns. At the heads of the
upper south fork of Clear Creek, a right-angle or
fold of the Range is laid partly across this belt,
leaving paying mines on about twenty-five miles of
the upper Blue River. Otherwise it does not reach
the Range until, crossing the root of the Mont-
gomery Spur and the Arkansas River, it arrives on
the heads of Lake and Clear Creeks, in the vicinity
of the Twin Lakes and Red Mountains.
Let us note some of the more prominent char-
acteristics of the Foot-hills before particularizing .
about the mines. We will take the liberty of sup-
posing you to be a “pilgrim,” just from the be-
nighted East. As you approach the great barrier
which forms the shore line you discover that it has
a serious look. It is cloven from top to bottom by
numerous escaping mountain streams, but you can
see no chance of ingress. At last, when you get
within less than ten rods of the wall, you distin-
guish the mouth of a deep cut opening shortly to
the left instead of before you. You enter and cross
4O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
a little stream fifty-eight* times in the course of
eight miles. Sometimes you travel in the bed of it
for rods together. Then you climb and descend a
sharp ridge, and striking a small brook, follow it up
four miles to the top of another ridge. Down,
across, and up a third stream five or six miles to
the top of ridge the third. Down a pretty steep
hill four miles, across a dashing creek and up a
gulch that rises four hundred feet in a mile. Such
was the old road to Central City, Nevada and Mis-
souri Cities being each a mile further up the forks
of the gulch, with an ascent of eight or ten hundred
feet. You can go west of Central City ten to fifteen
miles before coming to the wings of the Range.
You might have followed up one of half a dozen
creeks, and curiously noted how it gradually lost
itself in many tributaries, and how the rocky walls
and irregular slopes of its lower course had fallen
back, and its kanyon become a smooth, sunny,
grassy valley; itself overarched with willows, alders,
and birches, its banks lovely with primroses and
, buttercups, violets and anemones, daisies and colum-
bines, and many new and delicately-tinted flowers.
But away from the brooks and moist places it can-
not escape your notice that the aridity of the Plains
has not deserted you. Stunted, snarled, and un-
sightly shrubbery strikes its roots in the rifted
*This may sound strange to those who roll over the road now in
the handsome coaches of Wells, Fargo & Co. But on the 7th of
June, 1860, the writer first toiled up Eightsmile Kanyon, and he
happend to count the number of times the road crossed the run. It
was fifty-eight. • e
THE FOOT-HILLS. 4. I
rocks; thick tufted plants send tap-roots deep into
the hard, gravelly soil in search of moisture; and
the absence of deciduous-leaved trees gives to the
woods a most cheerless aspect. The pines are
neither thick nor thin on the ground, are rarely of
large growth, but are symmetrical in outline and
tastily grouped. But little animal life disturbs your
meditations; the feathered tribes are few and far
between, and their shrill cries make you wish they
were fewer and further. No reptile glides noise-
lessly from under your foot; a tiny, striped-backed
squirrel alone attracts your eye as he jerks himself
across your path and with a “chitter” vanishes up
a tree. Silence and solitude are the inheritance of
&
these forest wilds, where even the loudest explosions
rouse only a faint, short echo, and where the song
of the winds is an eternal and subdued sigh.
Doubtless you will experience, too, the effects of
a rarefied air. Upon moving about you will be
“filled plumb full of short wind,” as the Hoosiers
say; persist in violent exercise and bleeding at the
nose will result. You will observe an involuntary
tendency to prolonged inspiration and forcible ex-
pansion of the chest, a seeking to make up for di-
minished density by increase of bulk. But be not
alarmed; be careful; remember that good men are
scarce; if your lungs are made of well-tanned
leather they will soon learn by use to take in a
larger bulk of air; your muscles will harden by
exercise and give tone to the circulating vessels;
while the purity, dryness, and most refreshing cool-
ness of the atmosphere and that exhilaration which
42 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
comes only of life in the woods or on the wave will
make you feel like a new man—or woman. In a
seven years' steady residence in Colorado the writer
can scarcely recall a case of death by consumption,
that fell scourge of the North and East. “During
our protracted absence of fourteen months,” says
‘Fremont, at the close of his second exploring expe-
dition, “in the course of which we had necessarily
been exposed to great varieties of weather and of
climate, no one case of sickness had ever occurred
among us.” Even persons predisposed to pulmo-
nary complaints will experience benefit from the
light air and pure water of the Foot-hills, if their
lungs are yet strong enough to stand the extra ex-
ertion of the expanding process. But where .the
lungs are permanently disorganized, our advice
would be such as we once heard a drunkard give.
himself—“hold up your head and die tough.” Do
not go to the Rocky Mountains in such case. The
light air and extra exertion in breathing will but
hasten the coming of the end. The prevalent dis-
eases are fevers, rheumatism, and erysipelas, most
of them due to improper food, exposure, privation,
hardship or excess. But many a man has here found
that relief from the nasty agues of the prairies
which nothing else but death could give.
The climate “can't most always be told from
where you sit.” In June, July, and August, from
one to three thunder showers, but very few of them
violent, may be expected every day. Umbrellas
are unknown, however. A stock of them was once
taken to Central City, but no one wanted them,
tº-
CLIMATE OF THE FOOT-HILLS. 43
{}
and they were finally thrown away. Everybody
wears a rubber coat, on his shoulders, his arm, or
the croup of his saddle. For the rest of the year
it never rains. The early and late snows are the
heaviest. About the middle of October a soft
snow of twelve to thirty inches may be expected.
These are the nicest snows of the whole world.
They fall silently perhaps for sixty hours, spread
the most spotless mantle over everything, decorate
the pines with fantastic feathers beside which those
of the ostrich pale. Suddenly the clouds vanish,
and a heaven of perfect purity, blue as the ocean,
appears. The sun rises in imperial splendor, and
the high hills seem to hold up and offer to Heaven
in sacrifice the purest gift their mother Earth can
bring. As if she, too, had been partaker in the
fall, and must in atonement bring sacrifice. And
Heaven usually accepts this offering. In a day or
two it will all have been licked up, save some trifling
patches shaded by the sacrificial altars. This Octo-
ber snow ushers in the Indian Summer, which,
during the first four Winters spent in the mines,
lasted with few and short interruptions, until Spring.
Those Winters are looked back to by old settlers
as men look back upon the days of their youth.
They were Italian, a little dash of snow and a cold
snap once in two months or so, may be ; but most
of the time the softest air and brightest sun that
ever wandered forth from the Elysian Fields. The
last four Winters have not been unlike those of the
same latitude in the East. That of 1863–4 was
very severe. In the Foot-hills the tops of the
44 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
dº
ridges are generally unpleasant during the Winter
months; but the gulches, in which are the towns
and mining works, are like the great cities, unmind-
ful of the weather, unless, indeed, locomotion is
absolutely blocked, which occurs ten times in New
York where it does once in Central City. During
the regular Winter the snows are completely worn
out, consumed, by the winds. The southern slopes
of hills and ridges round Central City are never
covered with snow three days together. It melts,
or is blown away. In the Spring, from the middle
of April to the middle of May, two or three snows,
from twelve to twenty or thirty inches deep, may
be expected.* These melt off at once, carrying the
old snows with them, starting vegetation and the
brooks, replenishing the springs, which are numer-
ous and good, and putting the ground in fine con-
dition to receive seeds of crops. High winds pre-
vail throughout the Winter. They come from the
Range, and many old houses have to lean so hard
and so long against them that when they cease
blowing in the Spring they fall forward flat on the
ground.
On this elevated plateau, as high as 9,000 feet,
*The town of Nevada is a mile from Central City, nearly a thou-
sand feet higher, and between 9,000 and Io,000 feet above sea.
From September 4th, 1859, to April 5th, 1860, there fell at Nevada
sixty-nine inches of snow. The mercury fell to fifteen degrees below
zero on the 13th of November, and to the same figure again about
the first of December, remaining there two days. Thence to April
30th, it sank below but once—on December 31st, two degrees—and
averaged for the one hundred and forty-five days at seven o'clock
in the morning, 20 I-2° above zero.
AGRICULTURE OF THE FOOT-HILLS. 45
fair crops of vegetables are made, two hundred
bushels per acre of potatoes or turnips being no
uncommon crop, the mountain tops also condensing
and sending down sufficient moisture to satisfy the
wants of the growing plants. Attempts have been
made to raise the small grains, but so far they have
not succeeded. Killing frosts may always be ex-
pected by the 5th of September, so that it must be
winter wheat if anything that would have time to
mature. Last Summer the writer saw a piece of
barley, put in on the 9th of June and handsomely
headed out August 20th. The whole region fur-
nishes unequaled pasturage; the well-worn paths
of the larger game cut the tops of portions of the
Range itself in all directions ; and there are thou-
sands of little parks, swales, and creek bottoms
where hay can be made to advantage.
. But mining is the great interest of the plateau.
Job tells us that “there is a vein for the silver, and
a place for the gold where they find it.” Doubtless
there should have been a comma after gold, but
there is not. So that this Scripture is true. The
place for gold is literally, “where they find it.” New
ideas are slowly gaining ground among book men,
as to where gold may reasonably be looked for. By
science, it should only be found in metamorphosed
rocks, in the immediate neighborhood of eruptive
masses, and in surface deposits derived from them.
The fact is, it occurs where no igneous rocks come
to the surface—in sedimentary rocks but slightly if
at all metamorphosed. The largest surface deposit
or placer of gold-bearing gravel in Colorado is on a
46 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
stream that nowhere cuts down through stratified
rocks of comparatively recent formation to the erup-
tive granite or trap, nor can the strata from which
the gold evidently came be said to be metamor-
phosed at all in the sense in which that word is used
by geologists. It could not have come, either, sim-
ply from the abrasion of veins, because there is no
group of veins in the vicinity large and numerous
enough to have furnished a tithe of it. And then,
after the surface detritus is carried away by the gold-
digger's hydraulic, the solid bed-rock, a micaceous
or schistose slate, is dug up, assayed, or brayed in
a mortar and panned, and found to contain coarse
gold to the tune of three or four ounces a ton.
But leaving this interesting question to the sa-
vans, let us hasten to say that in the early settle-
ment of Colorado, the Foot-hills furnished many
gulch, placer, and bar mines, that is, surface depos-
its containing gold which could be got out by wash-
ing. These placers were limited in extent compared
with those of California, which fact is explained by
Colorado's greater distance from the sea. She has
about an inch of rain where California has a foot.
Her mountains are approached by inclined planes
six hundred miles long from which they rise only
about six thousand feet, while the Snowy Andes of
California rise almost from the sea-coast to a hight
of twelve thousand to fifteen thousand. Where
there is little water there will be slight wash, and
where there is little wash there will be few surface
gold mines. But placer gold-mining is so epheme-
ral a business that it hardly deserves mention.
s,
CHARACTERISTICS OF METALLIFEROUS VEINS. 47
Quartz or vein mining, on the contrary, is among
the most permanent pursuits of man.
By a vein, as a geological or mining term, in
general, is understood an aggregation of mineral
matter of indefinite length and breadth and com-
paratively slight thickness, differing in character
from, and posterior in formation to, the rocks which
enclose it.*
Wiessenbach, in a paper published in Cotta's
“Contributions to the Knowledge of Mineral
Veins,” which is especially devoted to the subject
of the metalliferous veins or lodes of Saxony, gives
the following general classification: I. Veins of
sedimentary origin. 2. Veins of attrition. 3. Veins
of infiltration, or stalactitic veins. 4. Plutonic
veins. 5. Segregated veins. 6. Metalliferous veins,
proper. The two latter classes are included in the
class of regular, unstratified mineral deposits, and
are the only ones of importance in the considera-
tion of metalliferous veins.
Segregated veins are what their name implies.
They are supposed to have been formed by the
segregation of particles of similar nature from the
gneissoid and schistose rocks in which they occur,
while the mass was cooling down from a molten
state. In other words, they are crystals on a large
scale, and instead of occupying any pre-existing
fissure in the country rock, make way and room for
themselves by force of chemical affinity.
*We condense from Whitney’s “Metallic Wealth of the United
States,” a rare and valuable work, our brief dissertation on the na-
ture of veins, the geological occurrence of auriferous quartz, and
the mineralogical occurrence of gold.
48 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The auriferous quartz veins of most gold regions
belong to this class of deposits. They consist of
belts of quartzose matter, with sulphuret of iron,
which near the surface is decomposed into a hy-
drated oxide, and contain gold disseminated through
these substances, and sometimes in the adjoining
rock in fine particles, or, occasionally, large lumps.
These belts run with the strata and dip with them,
and in other respects exhibit the phenomena of
segregated rather than of fissure veins.
Practically, the most important feature of this
class of deposits is that they cannot be depended
on in depth as true veins, as they seem always to
be richest near the surface, and frequently terminate
altogether at no very considerable depth. Nor is
the ore or metallic matter distributed through them
with as much regularity as in the true veins, form-
ing often a series of nests and pockets ranged in a
general linear direction, and connected by mere
threads of ore or barren vein-stone.*
*This opinion was published in 1854, before the auriferous quartz
veins of Colorado had been discovered—before those of Australia
and California had been much developed. In the latter country
they have been wrought to a depth of 1,200 feet, and so far from
being exhausted, are one hundred per cent. better in every respect
than they were on the surface. We never were in Australia but
have been told that the mines are already worked to a depth of
1,800 feet. What the opinion could have been based on unless
upon the deep workings of Europe, which make against it quite as
much as experience in California and Australia would seem to, we
are at a loss to conjecture. We may be permitted to add that so
far as we have gone down in Colorado, our experience is the same
as that met with in California, and we are working at a depth of 500
feet.
TRUE METALLIFEROUS VEINS. 49
Gash veins hold an intermediate position between
segregated and true veins. Like the latter, they
occupy pre-existing fissures, but they are of limited
extent and not connected with any extensive move-
ment of the rocky masses. They occur in sedi-
mentary rocks but slightly metamorphosed, and
owe their origin to unequal contraction of the
strata by shrinkage. They may have been filled
with mineral matter either by sedimentary deposit,
or segregation, or both. They are still less reliable
than the segregated veins, but sometimes their
great number makes up for the want of continuous
extent, and they are worked with profit.
A true vein is a fissure in the solid crust of the
earth, of indefinite length and depth, which has
been filled more or less perfectly with mineral sub-
stances; or, in other words, an aggregation of
mineral matter, accompanied by metalliferous ores,
within a crevice or fissure which had its origin in
some deep-seated cause, and may be presumed to
extend for an indefinite distance downwards. True
veins sometimes attain a length of several miles.
They vary much in thickness, and nobody has ever
yet seen the under edge of one. They are the
principal repositories of the ores of the useful met-
als, and their exploitation is a matter of lasting im-
portance, involving the employment of both skill
and capital. They are rarely found singly, but
rather in groups, often in a complicated net-work
crowded into a narrow space. This is so true of
Cornwall and Saxony that centuries have not fully
developed even the more important facts concern-
3
5O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ing them. Usually but a small proportion of the
matter in the fissure is valuable ore. The earthy
or non-metallic portion is called “gangue” or “vein-
stone,” and is most commonly composed of quartz,
next of carbonate of lime in the form of calcareous
spar, lastly of fluorspar and heavy spar. Different
districts have vein-stones as well as ores peculiar to
themselves, and the locality of an ore may often be
determined by examining a fragment of its gangue.
Sometimes pieces of the wall or country rock are
recognized in the vein-matter. These are called
“horses.” The fissure itself is frequently of a com-
plex character, forming parallel branches, and send-
ing out ramifications from the main line of fracture,
until it seemingly becomes lost. The branches that
leave the main lode are called “droppers;” and
when they concentrate and lead into it again, they
are called “feeders.” The walls of veins are often
smoothed and striated, as if there had been motion
of the lode against them accompanied by pressure;
these polished surfaces are called “slickensides.”
The barren rock removed in excavating a vein is
called “deads,” “attle,” “rubble.” Fissures may be
of different geological ages, and where this is the
case, the phenomena attending them become doubly
complicated. A system may be heaved out of
place, or given a new direction by a newer one, and
a younger system may heave both out of place,
change their direction, and mix things up generally.
Some of the quartz-lodes of Colorado have been
pronounced true veins by the best authority. Prof.
Alfred Du Bois, for three years exploring and min-
THE COLORADO LODES ARE TRUE VEINS. 51
ing in the South Park for a Philadelphia Company,
says, in one of his reports: “The veins are all of
good width—all will measure five feet or more, and
some are very much wider, and well-defined, true,
fissure, metalliferous veins.” William H. Stevens,
of Philadelphia, a man who commenced life twenty-
five years ago in a Lake Superior mine, and who
has studied the books and the rocks together on
mining and kindred subjects through all the inter-
vening time, gives his opinion to the same effect.
Our judgment would be worth little, because our
observation has been confinad to the veins of Color-
ado, none of which is yet developed beyond a
depth of 500 feet. But we have had many oppor-
tunities of consulting mining, geological, and met-
allurgical experts from all parts of the world, and
their uniform verdict is, that the best-known gold-
veins of Colorado belong, not to the class of segre-
gated, but to the class of true veins.
In point of fact it is true that our veins are of
larger and more uniform size, and that they yield
more and finer gold the deeper they are wrought.
This is also the case with the gold quartz veins of .
California, which are similar to those of Colorado
in many respects, and have been worked to a depth
of twelve hundred feet. The veins of Colorado.
occur in groups, like those of Cornwall and Sax-
ony, often presenting the most complicated net-
work on the surface, which is not much untangled
as they are worked. They exhibit phenomena
which can only be explained by referring their ori-
gin to different geological epochs, show displace-
52 THE MINES OF COLORADO. ,
ment, cross and intersect each other at all conceiv-
able angles, but still preserve the general course of
the main belt, which is also the true course of fis-
sure metalliferous veins the world over—north-east
and south-west. These groups are usually a mile
or two in width and two or three in length, and
there may be two or three quite distinct groups
abreast of each other in what we have termed the
Mineral Belt. Perhaps they have one huge trunk
vein running lengthwise through the group, having
numerous branches of various size like those of a
tree, and cross-courses answering to roots. We
say perhaps, because enough has not been done yet
to justify even the baldest theory concerning their
mode of occurrence. If they have not fully arrived
at the leading facts with regard to the veins of
Cornwall and Saxony in centuries of work, as we
are told by high authority, how should we have done
so in Colorado, which is less than ten years old,
whose lode-mining proper is indeed not more than
five years of age 2
With regard to the filling of true veins there
are various theories, the most popular one among
miners being that they were filled by injection from
below. This theory finds no countenance among
scientific men, however, who find it impossible to
reconcile it with the actual conditions presented by
the veins and vein matter. Among the explana-
tions they offer are the following:
I. That of sublimation, or the volatilization of
metallic matter from the great center of chemical
action beneath—the ignited interior of the earth.
HOW METALLIFEROUS VEINs werE FILLED. 53
In contact deposits, and some other irregular forms
of occurrence, where the mass of a bed seems
equally permeated throughout with metallic parti-
cles, as in the mercury mines of Almaden, no
theory better accounts for such diffusion than that
of sublimation. But it does not account for varia-
tion in the character of lodes upon passing from
one kind of rock to another; nor for the presence
in them of substances not volatile in their nature;
nor for any of the complicated phenomena exhibited
by veins in their intersections with each other. So
that we are constrained to regard sublimation as
of secondary importance as an agency in the for-
mation of regular, metalliferous veins.
2. The theory proposed by Werner, which may
be called aqueous deposition. It presupposes a
chemical solution covering the regions in which the
veins are found, from which solution, by chemical
precipitation from above, downwards, the vein mat-
ter was accumulated in the fissures of the rocks
below. But if any such fluid, holding metalliferous
substances in solution, had actually covered the
surface, why should it have deposited its contents
in the fissures rather than on the adjacent surface?
A little reflection will convince any one that this
theory is nonsense.
3. Lateral secretion. The views which are at
present most generally adopted, assume a some-
what complicated series of phenomena as concur-
ring in the formation of mineral veins. It cannot
be doubted that the process has been a complex
one, requiring a long period of time for its develop-
54 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ment. No one simple cause can be considered suffi-
cient to account for all the facts, but the main idea
is that of lateral secretion, or segregation of the
mineral and metalliferous particles from the adjoin-
ing rocks in a state of chemical solution, and their
deposition upon the sides of a previously-formed
fissure under the influence of electro-chemical
forces. This is the only theory that will account
for the often-noticed fact of the change in character
of a lode in passing from one geological or mineral-
ogical formation to another of a different character;
and it seems to be more in accordance with the
other phenomena of veins than any other yet pro-
posed. Such is Whitney's conclusion, and we are
sorry that the scope and design of our work excludes
the facts and reasoning he brings together to sus-
tain it. It is a subject of great interest to miners,
well worthy their closest study both in books and
in the veins themselves where they pass their lives.
The gold-bearing rocks, or rather the rocks in
which auriferous quartz veins occur, are marked on
geological charts as confined to the oldest sedimen-
tary groups, the palaeozoic and azoic. While the
strata of these formations have been so metamor-
phosed by the action of fire and broken and tum-
bled up by Plutonic throes as to render it all but
impossible to distinguish between them, there is
ground for the belief that the great gold deposits
of the world originated exclusively in the palaeozoic
or lower series of all. They are termed metamor-
phosed rocks; are most commonly slaty, generally
talcose although occasionally chloritic and argilla-
GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE OF GOLD. 55
ceous; through a long series of similar geological
events they have the same leading mineralogical
characteristics, the world over, whatever their orig-
inal composition or structure; and it is only in them
that auriferous quartz veins are found. The pro-
ductiveness of this quartz, nearly always the gangue
of gold, seems to be in proportion to the thorough-
ness of the change wrought in the character of the
accompanying or country rocks by heat. Where
they are but slightly altered from the condition in
which they were deposited, they are found to con-
tain only traces of gold. Where, on the contrary,
they have been invaded by igneous masses from be-
low, broken, tilted up on their edges, and rendered
crystalline in structure by being heated to the fus-
ing point and afterwards allowed to cool, there is
reason to expect the presence of gold as it is found
in workable lodes. Veins which occur in the erup-
tive rocks are seldom of much value.
In general the quartz veins may be presumed to
have originated at the time of the metamorphic ac-
tion on the strata themselves; and when there are
igneous rocks in the immediate vicinity, the develop-
ment of the metallic contents of the adjacent veins
is usually ascribed to their presence; since it is so
often found that the metalliferous deposits are inti-
mately associated with eruptive masses. It does
not follow, however, that these phenomena through-
out the world were confined to any particular geo-
logical epoch. There may have been a repetition
of similar conditions at periods very remote from
each other. One of the most striking facts devel-
56 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
oped by Murchison in his great work on Russia is
that the impregnation of the rocks of the Ural with
gold took place as late as the drift epoch. In the
Southern United States no great change appears
to have taken place since the epoch of the new red
sandstone; and the date of the gold-bearing veins
may with probability be placed between that forma-
tion and the carboniferous. In Australia the eleva-
tion of the auriferous strata and their impregnation
with gold seem to have been later than the epoch
of the coal. In California it is probable that the
auriferous masses are included in slates of palaeozoic
age, highly metamorphosed; but of the period of
the igneous action which may be supposed to have
been the cause of their impregnation with gold,
little can be predicated with certainty. In the
Cordilleras of South America the period of metal-
liferous emanations seems to have been after the
deposition of the cretaceous strata; and disturb-
ances of the rocks which may have been attended
with phenomena of this character have evidently
continued down to a very recent geological period,
both there and in California.
It must be plain to the reader by this time that
very little is known as to how or when the lower
sedimentary rocks were metamorphosed, the vein
fissures made, filled with quartz or other vein-stone;
or how or when the quartz or the whole rock strata
in which it occurs, as the case may be, was impreg-
nated, as the savans have it, with gold. We at least
are most positively ignorant of the whole matter
and confess to very little desire of being impreg-
MINERALOGICAL OCCURRENCE OF GOLD. 57
nated with a knowledge of it. In the blaze of uni-
versal ignorance on the subject the Colorado rocks
are likely to fare as well as any other rocks, and
meanwhile it is of more interest to us how and when
we shall get the gold out than how and when it was
put in.
Gold and platina form an exception in their mode
of occurrence to all the other metals in common
use. While silver, tin, copper, lead, zinc, iron, are
obtained almost exclusively in the form of ores,
that is to say, in combination with a mineralizer,
of which the most common one is sulphur, gold is
found, all over the world, in the native state, its
combination with tellurium, an exceedingly rare
substance, being confined to one or two localities,
and therefore of no particular economical impor-
tance. What is termed native gold, is an alloy—
not an atomic union — of gold and silver—the lat-
ter forming from one-half to less than one-hun-
dredth of the mass — with traces of iron, copper,
and other metals. It is the form in which nearly
all the gold in use in the world has been obtained.
Gold and iron are almost as intimately associated
as gold and silver. There is hardly a specimen of
sulphuret of iron (iron pyrites — called ore in the
vernacular of Colorado) in which a trace of gold
might not be found by sufficiently delicate manipu-
lation. When the iron pyrites has undergone de-
composition and become converted into a hydrated
oxide, from exposure to the atmosphere or other
cause, the gold may often be separated with advan-
tage; but in the attempt to separate gold from
~. 3*
58 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
wndecomposed iron or copper pyrites, there is a
considerable loss in amalgamating ; so much so as
to almost uniformly prevent, up to the present time,
its being profitably done. The efforts perseveringly
made by different parties in Colorado to overcome
this difficulty will receive attention in a subsequent
part of this book.
It is not from workings in the solid rock that the
gold of commerce has been chiefly derived, how-
ever, or at least not from the workings of man.
Nature herself has been in the field for countless
ages, separating it from the rock, washing, concen-
trating, and accumulating it in the superficial de-
tritus lying on the rock in place, and included by
geologists in the drift and alluvial deposits. All
that man has had to do, is, by various simple,
mechanical contrivances, to separate the precious
metal—in the form of round, flattened, and (rarely)
crystalline particles, varying in weight from mere
nothing to thirteen hundred and nineteen ounces—
from the dirt. This is called “placer mining,” and
as we have remarked before, is the most ephemeral
at the same time that it is the most fascinating pur-
suit in the world. No doubt the ancients derived
their gold from such deposits, but who can now tell
where they were 2 So we are fast arriving at the
exhaustion of them in a new world, and the far
future will perhaps find it equally hard to point out
their locality.
CHA PTER III.
Discoveries of Gold in the Mountains—John H. Gregory and the
Gregory Lode—History of Discovery Claim on the Gregory—
Placer and Bar Diggings—First Mining Laws—Russell Gulch—
Quartz Mining—Gregory District Organized and Code of Laws
Adopted.
VERY early in the year 1859 the citizens of Au-
raria, in Arapahoe County, Pike's Peak, began to
scatter out to hunt for gold. After a pretty thorough
prospecting of all the neighboring streams, they
settled upon Clear Creek, or the Vasquez Fork of
the South Platte, as being the richest. Diggings
were opened on that stream, three or four miles
from the edge of the Mountains, and a town soon
sprang up, called “Arapahoe.” At one time there
must have been fifty houses in this town ; to-day,
not one remains on the spot to mark its site.
Another town was soon commenced, a little higher
up the stream, just where it fairly escapes from the
Foot-hills. This was called “Golden City,” and in
the latter part of the year was built up very rapidly,
reaching, during the next Summer, the highest
point of prosperity it has yet attained. On Ralston
Creek, a small tributary of Clear Creek, diggings
were opened and worked with considerable success.
6o THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The creek bars were a mass of boulders of all sizes,
and it was soon observed that the gold always oc-
curred in scales, like flattened shot. From this it
was inferred that it and the boulders came from a
long distance in the Mountains, and from the same
place.
Gold had already been struck in the Mountains,
too, at that time. It was about the end of January
that B. F. Langley lighted upon some placer or
bar-diggings in a gulch on South Boulder Creek,
which was full of fallen timber. Hence the name
“Deadwood Diggings.” By the end of March,
quite a number of men were engaged at Deadwood,
and considerable gold was being taken out.
About the first of April, George Jackson, with a
party of men from Chicago, struck gold at the
mouth of a branch of South Clear Creek, near
what is now Idaho, which branch they named
“Chicago Creek,” after their home. The diggings
were called “Jackson Diggings.”
And now we have arrived at the discovery which
at once settled the fortunes of the Pike's Peak
community in the minds of everybody in it capable
of reasoning from facts. The discovery of the lode
called after himself, by John H. Gregory, would
seem to rank among those great events whereby
the race at large have profited. That in a section
of broken mountains, extending the whole length
and one-third the width of the United States, a
man, en route for a distant country, should have
been diverted in the midst of his journey two hun-
dred miles to the south, should have proceeded di-
JOHN H. GREGORY. 6 I
rectly to the spot—a ravine two or three miles in
length—and in it and on its bordering hills have
struck the heart of as rich and extensive gold,
silver, and copper mines as are known in the world,
is indeed marvelous. But there was method in the
madness that led to this magnificent result. Of
John H. Gregory, little is known. He was from
Gordon County, Georgia, and left home in 1857 for
Frazier River, on the Pacific, some four thousand
miles distant from where he started. He drove a
Government team from Leavenworth to Fort Lara-
mie in 1858, where, by a succession of accidents,
he was detained until the Spring of 1859. Mean-
while he heard of the discoveries of gold on the
South Platte, and started on a prospecting tour
along the base of the Mountains, south, early in
January. He found nothing satisfactory until he
arrived at the Vasquez Fork of the South Platte,
which he followed up alone, his plan being to pros-
pect thoroughly wherever the Creek forked, and to
follow the branch which gave most promise. In
this way he toiled up the Kanyon, perhaps the first
white , man who had ever invaded its solitude, to
the main forks of the Creek, fourteen miles above
Golden City; then up the north branch to the
gulch that bears his name, seven miles, beyond
which he could obtain nothing of consequence.
Here he left the Creek, and took up the gulch.
Where the little ravine, immediately south-east of
the Gregory Lode, comes in, he again prospected,
and finding it the richest of the two, he turned
aside into it; but as he approached its head the
62 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
“color” ” grew less, and finally entirely failed.
Gregory now felt certain that he had found the
gold; but before he could satisfy himself a heavy
snow-storm occurred, during which he nearly per-
ished. Upon its clearing up, he was obliged to
return to the Valley for provisions, and leave his
discovery unperfected.
After considerable effort he prevailed on Wilkes
Defrees, of South Bend, Indiana, to accompany him
back into the Mountains. They reached the spot
in a tedious journey of three days over the hills
and ridges. This little party is hardly less an ob-
ject of interest than Magellan seeking with a will
of iron, with an intelligence in advance of his age,
and with faith “as a grain of mustard-seed,” to
circumnavigate the globe; or than Columbus, after
eighteen years of painful effort, sailing from the
Roads of Saltez through unknown seas to discover
a new world. His attention turned thither by fly-
ing reports, Gregory had sought the unbroken wil-
derness on the heads of the South Platte; alone
and penniless but with a ripe intelligence, the fruit
of years of experience, he had commenced opera-
tions, and now, through the assistance of a stranger,
is about to realize the bright dreams that have
haunted him for months. We confess to a strong
sympathy with the enterprising and energetic pio-
neer, and shall share in his joy if he shall be suc-
cessful. He was confident he had found the iden-
tical spot where the gold lay; and, climbing the
*A word used by prospectors for gold, meaning, literally, gold, in
finer or coarser particles and in greater or less quantity.
DISCOVERY OF THE GREGORY LODE. 63
hill about where the wash would naturally come
from, he scraped away the grass and leaves, and
filled his gold-pan with dirt. Upon panning it
down, his wildest anticipations were more than
realized. There was four dollars' worth of gold
in it! He dropped the pan, and immediately sum-
moned the gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Indians,
Persians, and even, it is said, of the Hebrews and
Christians, to witness his astounding triumph.
That night he did not close his eyes. Defrees
dropped asleep about three o'clock in the morning,
and left him talking ; Defrees awoke at daybreak,
and he was still talking. They washed out forty
pans of dirt, and obtained forty dollars. Then
they returned to the Valley to get their friends.
The discovery was made on what is now Claim
No. Five, on the 6th of May, 1859. A heavy storm
prevented anything being done for ten days. From
the 16th to the 23d, Gregory worked five hands on
the claim, and with a sluice got out $972. He soon
after sold Nos. Five and Six to Henderson & Grid-
ley for twenty-one thousand dollars, and commenced
prospecting for other parties at two hundred dol-
lars per day. It may not be out of place to add
here that on the 8th of September following, Greg-
ory left Denver for home with thirty thousand dol-
lars' worth of dust.
Let us briefly trace the history of these two
claims, since it is not widely different from that of
all others. Gregory advanced Henderson & Grid-
ley two hundred dollars with which to commence
operations, and their first four days’ labor, with a
64 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
sluice returned them six hundred and seven dollars.
During the summer they took out seventeen thou-
sand dollars. They had a large pile of quartz and
sluice headings and tailings beside, which they
sold to Gregory & Reese, then running a rude
quartz-mill on North Clear Creek, for seven thou-
sand dollars.
In 1860 the east half of Discovery Claim was
leased to an association called “The American
Mining Company.” Forty feet from the surface
they struck on the “cap,”* and instead of sinking
a shaft through it, continued to work out the whole
length of the mine. The quartz and cap or wall-
rock together paid them tolerably well for a few
weeks. One day, upon cleaning up, their amalgam
was very large and heavy, and they thought they
had a “big thing.” Retorting it, they discovered
that their gold had escaped, and that their mercury
or “quick” had united with anything else than gold.
What they had left it would be hard to tell, only it
was not gold. This was the first experience of
difficulty in amalgamating, caused by the presence
of antimony, arsenic, galena, iron, copper, bismuth,
sulphur, etc., in the gangue or vein-stone of the
gold. Heretofore they had been operating on de-
composed pyrites, quartz, dirt, gossan ; now they
had sunk further than water and other atmospheric
elements had penetrated, the iron and copper
pyrites were undecomposed, and for some reason,
* Properly, a narrowing of the vein, and not a complete capping
over, or closing of it, as would seem to be implied. In Colorado,
“cap” has come to be almost perfectly synonymous with “obstacle.”
DISCOVERY CLAIM ON GREGORY. 65
not to this day satisfactorily explained, their mer-
cury would only unite with a small proportion of
the gold. The mine soon ceased to pay these men,
consequently they failed to make their payments,
and the original owners took the property back.
It was then leased to another party on the same
terms, and with the same result. The west half of
No. Five and east half of No. Six were then sold
to Walter Lull. He soon found that he had bought
an elephant, and gladly transferred his bargain to
Lyon & Pullman. This firm also failed to make it
pay, and the matter was compromised by the origi-
nal owners again taking possession of the west
half of No. Five. All this time the mine was in
cap, and was worked the entire length.
Gridley finally sold his interest to Henderson.
In June, 1862, Henderson put on a force, which
worked night and day, up to February, 1863, when
the cap was “raised,” or pierced ; in other words,
the vein opened out again. The cap was one hun-
dred and thirty feet deep in one end of the mine,
one hundred and eighty in the other. During these
last seven or eight months the rock taken out a
little more than paid expenses, yielding eight or
ten dollars a ton. From February to August, 1863,
when the work ceased to allow the erecting of a
hoisting apparatus, sixty thousand dollars were
taken out. A thirty-horse engine was set up, forty
hands put on, and up to the close of 1863, twenty
thousand dollars additional were taken out. Ne-
gotiations had then commenced for the sale of the
property, in connection with other on the Gregory,
66 THE MINES OF COLORADo.
to parties in the East, and in the succeeding Spring it
passed into the hands of the Consolidated Gregory
Company, for the cash price of one thousand dol-
lars per lineal foot, and a heavy consideration in the
stock of the Company. It laid idle for a year. In
the beginning of 1865, the brothers Rule, experi-
enced mine-captains, commenced cutting down and
timbering a working-shaft, putting in a pump, and
opening levels for stopes. Their work has been
thoroughly done, and rock can now be economically
produced from the mine in almost unlimited quan-
tity. - -
The above, as we said before, is not a bad illus-
tration of the general movement of the Colorado
quartz-veins. Nor from their nature is it strange.
At first we find them yielding enormously in a sim-
ple sluice. It was not unusual for four or five men
to wash out from the Gregory, Bates, Bobtail, Mam-
moth, Hunter, and many other lodes, then newly
discovered, one hundred and fifty dollars a day for
weeks together. Single pans of dirt could be taken
up carefully from any of a dozen lodes that would
yield five dollars. Zeigler, Spain & Co., ran a sluice
three weeks on the Gregory, and cleaned up 3,OOO
pennyweights,” their highest day's work yielding
$495, their lowest $2 I. Sopris, Henderson & Co.
took out $607 in four days, and on a subsequent
day, $280. Shears & Co., two days, $853,-all taken
from within three feet of the surface. Brown & Co.,
one and a half days, $260; John H. Gregory, five
days, $942; Casto, Kendall & Co., one day, $225;
*A pennyweight of gold is worth about eighty cents, coin.
GOLD YIELD OF GOSSAN IN SLUICES. 67 .
S. G. Jones & Co., two days, $450 ; Bates & Co.,
one and a half days, $135 ; Colman, King & Co.,
one-half day, $75; Defrees & Co., twelve days, with
one sluice, $2,080. In one day Leper, Gridley & Co.
obtained $1,009 from three sluices. One sluice
washed out in one day $5 IO. Foote & Simmons
realized $300 in three days. The Illinois Company
obtained $175 in their first day's sluicing from the
Brown Lode in Russell District.* Walden & Co.
took in one day, from a lode in the same district,
$125. Jacob Pogue took $500 from a lode in the
same district in three days. Three men took from
the Kansas Lode, in two days, $500. Kehler, Pat-
ton & Fletcher averaged with five hands on the
Bates Lode $100 a day for two months. Day &
Crane; on the same lode, with seven or eight hands,
sluiced for ten weeks, their smallest weekly run
being $18O, their largest, $357. J. C. Ross & Co.,
with four hands, averaged $100 a day on the Fisk
Lode for four months. F. M. Cobb & Co., on the
Bobtail Lode, with four men, averaged from $75 to
$100 a day for two months. Heffner, McLain &
Cooper worked four men at a sluice on the Clay
County Lode, averaging $100 a day for ten weeks.
Shoog & Co. averaged $100 a day for three months,
sluicing with five men on the Maryland Lode.
These facts are well authenticated, and are in-
serted here because they are actual proof of the
great richness of the Colorado lodes. Is it sup-
posable, because such results can rarely if ever be
achieved now, that the fault is in the veins 2 It is
*Adjoining Gregory District on the south-west.
68 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
in accordance with experience in California that
gold quartz veins increase in size, richness, and
uniformity as they descend into the earth. They
have already gone to a sufficient depth on many
lodes, not only to prove so much, but to demon-
strate that their auriferous veins at least do not be-
long to the class of segregated veins, but are true
fissures. So far as we have gone down in Color-
ado, we have developed the same vein characteris-
tics as in California. The idea is that the Colorado
lodes are true fissures, therefore extending down-
ward indefinitely, and growing better in every
respect the deeper they are worked. The facts
stated in the last paragraph give the best idea in
the world of what they were on the surface. If we
are correct in our premises, it follows that if, by any
process that should be cheap and therefore practi.
cable, we could perform the same chemical changes
in these deep vein-stones which the action of the
elements had effected in those near and on the sur-
face, the above figures, showing the yield of the
surface-quartz in the sluice, fall short of the con-
stant result which might fairly be expected.
By the 1st of July, 1859, there were one hundred
of these sluices running within a short distance of
Gregory Point. A year later their owners were
generally lost in cap and sulphurets, their gold
nearly all running off in the water used on the
plates, leaving them a worthless mixture, not much
superior to cold lead-pipe.
Meanwhile other diggings had been discovered,
and were employing hundreds of men. We have
GULCH, PLACER, AND BAR MINING. 69
spoken of the early discovery of gold in Deadwood
Gulch, on the South Boulder. They were consid-
ered about five-dollar diggings, and four or five
months after their discovery employed three hun-
dred men. Later in the season, the Boulder was
flumed in several places, to allow the working out
of its bed. The prospectors scattered out, and
mining operations were quite extensively carried
on in Twelve-Mile Diggings (head of North Clear
Creek,) on Left-Hand Creek and smaller tributaries
of the Boulders. Quartz-veins of exceeding rich-
ness were struck at Gold Hill, twelve miles west of
Boulder City, and about the Ist of October a rude
quartz-mill was started there. All the Boulder uig-
gings paid from three to five dollars a hand per day.
Bar-mining was also prosecuted quite energetic-
ally on the Platte above Denver, on Clear Creek
near Arapahoe and Golden City, and on Ralston
Creek near its mouth. Various contrivances were
used to bring water into the mines. Wheels were
put into the creeks to raise it out on the banks, and
ditches from three to ten miles long were dug.
Towne & Patterson washed out on the Platte, with
a rocker, in fifteen days, one hundred and seventeen
dollars. The Georgia Company, having brought
water in a ditch three miles to the same diggings,
washed out fifty-four dollars in four days with a
tom. But mining on the streams in the Valley was
eclipsed by the successes in the Mountains before
the end of the season, and it was abandoned, never,
probably, to be resumed.
On South Clear Creek, exploration and mining
7o THE MINES OF COLORADo.
were prosecuted from Grass Valley Bar, about
twenty miles above Golden City, to the forks of the
south branch of the Creek, fifteen miles higher.
On the 9th of May the following laws were adopted
at a miners' meeting in the Jackson Diggings, three
miles above Grass Valley Bar:
“I. Each claim shall be fifty feet front by two
hundred and fifty feet deep.
“2. Every claim shall be marked and staked
with at least two stakes, and shall be improved
within ten days after taking.
“3. The discoverers of new diggings shall be
entitled to one extra claim each.”
By the end of May these diggings contained
three hundred men, who were supposed to be mak-
ing from three to five dollars a day per hand, with
very indifferent mining facilities. Later, however,
companies were organized for the purpose of flum-
ing the creek and getting at its bed, thought to be
very rich. A great deal of expensive and hard la-
bor was performed, to little purpose on the whole,
it must be confessed. At one time there were fifty
sluices running on Spanish Bar, two miles above
the Jackson Diggings, alone. But the creek was
very rapid, the valley narrow and rough, the bars
were masses of boulders of all sizes, the gold very
deep and below the bed of the creek, and the pits
were constantly flooded with water. The sluicing
of lode-dirt at Gregory Diggings, with so little
trouble and such rich results, doubtless diverted
the miners somewhat from this hard contest with
almost insurmountable obstacles.
DISCOVERY OF RUSSELL GULCH. 71
About the middle of June a destructive fire broke
out and raged in the woods above the Jackson Dig-
gings, which burned three men. Their remains
were subsequently found, but they were never iden-
tified. People have since been so shy of these
'woods-fires that destruction of life has not occurred
by them.
Near the 1st of August, George Griffith struck a
lode on the mountain overhanging the junction of
the upper considerable forks of the south branch
of South Clear Creek, from which he sluiced out
one hundred dollars in two days. Other discover-
ies were made in the vicinity, but richer diggings
elsewhere drew the miners away from this locality.
On Fall River, a considerable tributary of South
Clear Creek, coming in from the north-west just
above Spanish Bar, lodes were struck, ditches dug,
slides for letting down the quartz from the hill-sides
made, and much work of a preparatory nature for
mining, done. Lodes were struck in the hills all
along Clear Creek, prospects from which were very
large, although these were generally taken from
narrow crevices. In the Fall these mines were
mostly deserted, their owners going to the Gregory
Diggings, to Denver, or to the States.
In the first days of June, Green Russell had dis-
covered and commenced operations in the gulch
that bears his name, a tributary of North Clear
Creek, a little south of, and parallel with, Gregory
Gulch. A week's work with six men amounted to
seventy-six ounces” of gold. Others had taken
* Worth $16 to $18, coin, according to its purity and fineness.
&
72 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
claims above and below him, and toward the end
of September there were eight hundred and ninety-
one men at work in the gulch, producing an average
weekly amount of thirty-five thousand dollars.
There were in Nevada Gulch, in Illinois Gulch,
and on Missouri Flats, upper tributaries of Gregory
and Russell Gulches, at the same time, two hun-
dred and thirteen men, producing nine thousand
dollars a week, on an average. Because water, both
for the gulches and lodes, became scarce, two
ditches of considerable magnitude were projected,
to bring it" from the head of Fall River. These
eventually became “The Consolidated Ditch,” ten
or twelve miles long, taking in at its head three
hundred inches of water, and delivering on Quartz-
Hill one hundred and fifty inches, which was com-
pleted during the Fall, Winter and Spring. It cost
one hundred thousand dollars, and for the soft
gristle of the young community was a big under-
taking and quite a triumph.
In July the prospectors had found their way into
the South Park. Two or three small parties were
set upon by the Indians, and murdered and muti-
lated in the most approved Indian style. J. L.
Shank and J. L. Kennedy were the first victims.
Soon thereafter the bodies of six killed and scalped
white men, and one dead Indian, were found. They
were never identified. It is hard to say what put
a comparative stop to these atrocities, except it
were more care against exposure in small parties
on the part of the whites. They did not retaliate,
and this, with an insignificant exception or two,
ſº
*
DISCOVERY OF GOLD IN THE SOUTH PARK. 73
was the last of Indian troubles up to the year 1864.
It was in August that extravagant stories came
of the richness of the new discoveries in the South
Park, and also far in the mountains on the Cache-
a-la-Poudre. The consequence was a stampede
from Gregory in both directions. Of the latter,
little has ever been heard, and the inference is, they
amounted to nothing, or could not be made availa-
ble at that time. In the Park, however, gulch and
bar-mining were carried on with reasonable success
on all the affluents of the Platte; and finally rich
lodes were discovered where these streams issued
from the Montgomery Spur of the Snowy Range,
and the towns of Montgomery, Buckskin, Musquito,
Fairplay, Tarryall, Hamilton, and Jefferson, sprang
into being. At Tarryall, in September, the Rocky
Mountain Union Company took out in one week,
with four hands, four hundred and twenty dollars.
Bowers & Co. took out fifty-seven ounces in a week,
with three hands. W. J. Holman took out six hun-
dred and eighty-six dollars in a week with five
hands.
Many immigrants, arriving in the latter part of
the season, via the Arkansas River, proceeded
straight by the northern or southern base of Pike's
Peak into the South Park mines, through a succes-
sion of delightful parks, furnishing a natural and
easy road. Hence arose Colorado and Canon Cities
—the latter on the Arkansas, at the entrance to
the Mountains, the former on the Fountain, forty
miles north of the Arkansas, and in the immediate
evening shadow of Pike's Peak. Here is a lovely
4.
74 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
f
section, and with its farms in the valley of the
Arkansas and its tributary streams—with its mines
in the Mountains, in the South and Arkansas Parks,
is a complete, self-sustaining little world of itself,
just as is the Platte, with its farms and mines.
About two hundred men wintered in the Sout
Park. *
During August and September, parties crossed
into the Middle Park from Montgomery and Ham-
ilton, and discovered both placer and quartz-mines
yielding gold on the upper Blue and its tributaries.
Here, hidden by the huge folds of the primary
Range, occurs a basin or cove, twenty to thirty
miles in extent, abundantly watered, timbered, and
supplied with pasturage, rich in the precious and
many of the baser metals. On many of its streams
gulch mining is still successfully carried on during
the warm season of the year. In all the gulch and
bar-diggings, in the South Park, on South Clear
Creek, on the Boulders and on North Clear Creek,
including Russell, Illinois and Nevada Gulches;
on main Clear Creek below Golden City, on Ral-
ston, and on the Platte above Denver, it was esti-
mated that the miners at work were making from
three to five dollars a day to the hand. Men were
prospecting from the head of the Del Norte to the
head of the Big Laramie, ranging west as far as the
mouth of White River.
In the Gregory District, several rude quartz-mills
and some arastras, worked by water or teams, were
in operation, returning handsome profits. Water
began to be scarce, however, and work ceased on
ORIGIN OF THE MINERS’ LAWS AND COURTS. 75
many paying claims—probably not more on that
account than because the owners were elated at
their good luck, and wished to go home and show
it, never dreaming that they could ever want again
or would need to work more themselves. That was
before the era of sulphurets had well set in, and
men to whom money was a new sensation, and who
were making a cool thousand a week with little
trouble, may perhaps be pardoned for extravagance
and improvidence. -
The pattern after which the mining districts and
miners' laws were fashioned, had been roughly out-
lined and adopted at a miners' meeting in Gregory
Diggings, June 8th, 1859. The Gregory Lode was
discovered in May. For a few days the small party
which went to the spot with Gregory on his second
visit, had a monopoly of the discovering and work-
ing of lodes. Many of the best ones in the Gregory
Diggings were found and claimed before the end of
May, 1859. The Gregory Lode was taken in claims
of a hundred feet each, allowing Gregory, as the
discoverer, two claims. All this was easy and nat-
ural, since there were just about enough men in
the party to own the whole lode, divided in that
way. Subsequently, Dr. Casto was elected and
acted as Secretary, some record being absolutely
necessary; and he and Gregory penciled down a
few rules for the claiming and holding of lodes on
an accidental page of foolscap—not extant—and
this arrangement answered every purpose for the
time being. g
But by the 1st of June, Gregory Gulch, from
76 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
North Clear Creek to the confluence of Eureka,
Nevada, and Spring Gulches, was crowded with
canvas tents, log shanties, and bough houses, as
thick as they could stand, and there was a great
deal more room then than now. William N. Byers
had pitched his tent about on the corner of Main
and Lawrence Streets, Central City, and had sug-
gested the name for the city, to be there, which it
now bears. The gulch below was swampy, and
overgrown with alders and willows. It was esti-
mated that there were five thousand people in the
gulch. -
The more recent arrivals began to murmur about
the first comers—none of them had been here a
month yet—monopolizing everything; and con-
tended for a re-distribution of claims on the Greg-
ory, Mammoth, Hunter, Bates, Bobtail, Gregory
Second, &c., cutting them down to twenty-five feet
each. In consequence of this feeling a great meet-
ing convened at Gregory Point, numbering some
three thousand men. The chances of the first
comers seemed small in this state of affairs, but by
boldness, vigor, and address, they not only man-
aged to extricate themselves but to come out
stronger than they went in. W. G. Russell had
just returned from Georgia with one hundred and
seventy men who would do as he said, and having
been a pioneer of the previous year, he naturally
joined the pioneers of this year. The first move
made was to get control of the meeting by nomi-
nating one of their number, Wilkes Defrees, for
chairman. The meeting elected him of course.
FIRST DRAFT OF MINERS’ LAws. 77
They then proposed a committee of twelve men,
one each from different States, to draft a code of
laws that should once for all settle affairs. The
meeting approved this proposition too. The pio-
neers then dexterously scattered through the crowd
and nominated each other to such committee, the
meeting approving in every instance. As the com-
mittee retired the strangers began to suspect some-
thing, but they had not been in the mines long
enough to know that it was no place to hesitate.
. The committee brought in the following report,
which was read and adopted by sections, without
giving time for discussion :
1. Resolved, That this mining district shall be bounded as follows:
Commencing at the mouth of the North Fork of Clear Creek, fol-
lowing the divide between said stream and Ralston Creek, running
seven miles up the last named stream to a point known as “Miners’
Camp;” thence south-west to the divide between the North Fork
of Clear Creek and the South Fork of the same to the place of be-
ginning. - -
2. Resolved, That no miner shall hold more than one claim ex-
cept by purchase or discovery; and in any case of purchase, the
same shall be attested by at least two disinterested witnesses, and
shall be recorded by the Secretary, who shall receive in compensa-
tion a fee of one dollar.
3. Resolved, That no claim, which has or may be made, shall be
good and valid unless it be staked off with the owner's name, giving
the direction, length and breadth, also the date when said claim
was made ; and when held by a company the name of each mem-
ber shall appear plainly. -
4. Resolved, That each miner shall be entitled to hold one moun-
tain claim, one gulch claim, and one creek claim for the purpose of
washing : the first to be one hundred feet long and fifty wide; the
second one hundred feet up and down the river or gulch, and ex-
tending from bank to bank.
5. Resolved, That mountain claims shall be worked within ten
days from the time they are staked off, otherwise forfeited.
78 THE MINES OF COLORADo.
6. Resolved, That when members of a company, constituted of
two or more, shall be at work on one claim of the company, the rest
shall be considered as worked by putting a notice of the same on
the claim. - §§
7. Resolved, That each discovery claim shall be marked as such,
and shall be safely held, whether worked or not.
8. Resolved, That in all cases, priority of claim, when honestly
carried out, shall be respected.
9. Resolved, That when two parties wish to use water on the
same stream or ravine for quartz-washing, it shall be equally divided
between them. -
Io. Resolved, That when disputes shall arise between parties in
regard to claims, the party aggrieved shall call upon the Secretary,
who shall designate nine miners, being disinterested persons, from
which number the parties shall alternately strike out one until the
names of but three remain, who shall at once proceed to hear and
try the case; and should any miner refuse to obey their decision,
the Secretary shall call a meeting of the miners, and if their decision
is the same, the party refusing to obey shall not be entitled to hold
another claim in this district; and the party against whom the de-
cision is given shall pay to the Secretary and referees the sum of
fifteen dollars each for their services.
On the 9th of July, 1859, another mass meeting
was held at Gregory Point, at which it was— -
Fesolved, That for the settlement of difficulties and the purpose
of preventing disputes, the miners of this district hereby enact:
That there shall be elected in this district, by ballot, a President, a
Recorder of Claims, and a Sheriff, for the term of one year from
this date. That the President, Secretary, and one assistant, to be
chosen by the people, be tellers of said election, and that it take
place immediately. -
The election took place, and Richard Sopris was
chosen President, C. A. Roberts, Recorder, and
Charles Peck, Sheriff. A committee was appointed
to codify the laws of the district, and on the 16th
of July, 1859, that committee reported to the ad-
journed miners' meeting the following laws and
SEconD DRAFT OF MINERS’ LAWS. 79
regulations, recommending the retaining of the
original code with these additions, to wit:
1. It shall be the duty of the Recorder to take charge of and
safely keep all records heretofore made by the Secretary, and all
records made necessary by law shall hereafter be made by him.
2. All claims may be recorded if the owners see fit, but no claim
that is being worked shall be obliged to be recorded.
3. When any miner has a lode claim which it is impossible to
work to advantage this season, either from want of water or machin-
ery, he may hold the same until the first of June next, by filing a
statement of the reasons with the Recorder. -
4. All water claims not used shall be recorded within ten days of
the claim date, or they shall be considered forfeited.
5. All bills of sale or conveyances of claims shall be witnessed
by at least two disinterested witnesses and recorded.
6. The books of the Recorder shall be always open to the inspec-
tion of the public, and shall never be taken from the Recorder's
hands ; but any person shall be entitled to copy any record at any
reasonable time.
7. All laws relating to trials of disputed claims are hereby re-
pealed.
8. When any person is aggrieved with regard to a claim, he shall
file with any commissioned Justice of the Peace, or in his absence,
with the President of the Miners’ Association, a statement of his
grounds of complaint, which shall also have the names of the par-
ties complained of, and a prayer that they be summoned to appear
and answer. Thereupon, the Justice (or President,) shall issue a
summons to the adverse party to appear and answer within three
days. If he fail to do so, the complaint shall be taken as true and
execution issue. If he appear and answer, the Justice (or Presi-
dent) shall summon a venire of nine persons from which each party
shall strike off one until there remain but three, who shall proceed
to hear the evidence of the parties with or without counsel, and try
their case. Any juror may be challenged for cause shown either
by his own evidence or that of others. Should the party losing,
feel aggrieved by the decision, he may appeal to a jury of twelve
men, by paying cost already accrued, which jury shall be selected
by the Justice (or President), and their decision shall be final.
9. The Sheriff shall have power to serve notices and executions,
and he shall have power to summon parties, put parties in posses-
8o THE MINEs of coloraDo.
#.
sion of property decided to be theirs by law, summon juries and do
such service as a Sheriff in any other place may do, and shall be
entitled to receive double the legal fees provided by the Statutes of
Kansas. -
Io. The fee of the Recorder shall be one dollar for each claim
Tecorded. * Af
11. The Justice (or President) shall be entitled to five dollars for
presiding at each trial and making out the papers.
12. The jury shall be entitled to one dollar each per day.
13. The defeated party in each suit shall be liable for all costs of
the suit, and the Justice (or President) shall issue execution for the
same, which shall be collected from any property the party so liable
may have, excepting tools, bedding, clothing, and necessary provis-
ions for three months.
14. In any case either party may call upon the other to give se-
curity for costs ; the suit shall be dismissed if plaintiff, or defeated
if defendant [shall fail to give such security.]
15. Any person may take up by recording, forty feet front and
one hundred deep, for a building lot, but shall not secure the same
against being used for mining if found rich. Should any person
work out the ground on which a house stands, he shall secure the
house against damages. *
16. Any person or company intending to erect a quartz mill, may
select or locate two hundred and fifty feet square, which shall be
recorded. He may also claim the right to cut a race from any river
to bring water to the same, and shall hold the water, not interfering
with any vested rights.
17. The pre-emption laws established by the citizens of this coun-
ty shall be recognized in the mines but shall not conflict with
miners’ rights. .
18. Gulch claims shall be one hundred feet up and down and fifty
wide, following the meandering of the stream, and shall be worked
within ten days if water can be obtained ; if water is wanting, they
may be recorded and held until water can be obtained. Any time
after the 1st of September any miner may record his gulch claim
and hold it till the first of June.
19. When any miner holds both a gulch and lode claim, if one be
worked, the other may be held without working by recording the
Sarſle.
20. When water companies are engaged in bringing water into
any portion of the mines, they shall have the right of way secured
MINERS’ Courts. 8 I
to them and may pass over any claim, road, or other ditch ; but
shall so guard themselves in passing as not to injure the party over
whose ground they pass.
21. When any company is formed for the purpose of discovery,
[by tunneling, the parties engaged may stake off, record, and place
notices on ground two hundred and fifty feet each way from the
tunnel and running as the tunnel is intended to run. After that, all
new lodes discovered by the company in tunneling, belong to the
company to that extent; claims already taken are to be respected,
but claims cannot be taken within the limits staked off, if work be
progressing on the tunnel. If work on the tunnel be stopped for
one week at any time, the original claim shall be forfeited and shall
be again open to claimants.
The committee's report was unanimously adopt-
ed by the meeting July 16, 1859.
These resolutions show very well the inchoate
state of mine tenure and jurisprudence, or rather
equity, for the first year of the new mining com-
munity.
On the 11th of February, 1860, a meeting of the
citizens of Gregory District was held at Mountain
City, a committee was appointed to codify and
amend the laws of said district, and report to an
adjourned meeting to be held on the 18th of Feb-
ruary, inst. Such portions of that report as retain
any interest at the present day, will be found in
Chapter XV. of this work.
The Justices of the Peace mentioned in these
laws were elected, or commissioned by authority of
Ransas, or of the Territory of Jefferson, usually
the former. Under the operation of these laws,
the rude tribunals of justice in them provided for,
developed into an institution, full in their machin-
ery, and universally regarded with as much defer-
ence as any courts of justice are among men. At
{ }
4*
82 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
first they were only occasionally convened ; but as
business increased and grew important, judges of
the miners' courts were added to the elective offi-
cers of the mining districts, and these judges held
regular terms, at which cognizance was taken of
open offences against the peace or the common law
as well as of disputed title, trespass, or other in-
fringements of miners' rights, or laws.
Many new mining districts were formed in 1859
and 1860 out of Gregory District, the country ad-
joining, and throughout the mountains wherever
mines were discovered, all of which copied their
laws and customs from those of the parent district,
though often modifying them in important particu-
lars. It is impossible to get complete copies of
these laws now, some of them having been lost, to-
gether with the boundaries of the districts. Colo-
rado should take steps to collect and publish, au-
thoritatively, what remains of them, as upon them
must depend the settlement of important questions
of title in the future. The mining districts and
miners' courts lost their importance when the Ter-
ritory was organized into counties, superseding the
districts, and provided with regular courts in place of
the miners' courts. Not so with the laws, however.
Our object is, and must be from the nature of our
work, not to preserve as many as we can of these
laws, but to give an idea of their nature, their ori-
gin, and development.
CHA PTER IV.
Visit of Horace Greeley and Party—Establishment of Newspapers
Attempted Organization of Government—Jefferson Territory—
Mail, Passenger, and Express Facilities—Overland Mail—First
Winter in the Mines—Quartz Mills—Wagon Roads.
NOT the least interesting of the incidents of the
Summer, was the visit of Horace Greeley, Albert
D. Richardson, and Henry Villard, of the New
York Tribune, the Bostone journal, and Cincinnat:
Commercial, respectively. They were handsomely
received on their arrival in Denver, although the
stylish barber Murat charged Horace five dollars
for a shave. They visited the Gregory Diggings
in the first days of June, and, strange as it may
seem, upon a few hours' verbal notice, between two
and three thousand people gathered, American
fashion, to hear them, or rather to make them, talk.
We find Mr. Greeley's remarks, condensed as fol-
lows, in the Rocky Mountain News of June 18th :
“The Hon. Horace Greeley, the first speaker,
was received with three cheers. He alluded to the
cheering indications he had seen during the day
(8th inst.) in examining the mines and sluices.
He had always had a suspicion—from which he
84 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
was not yet entirely free—that these mines would
not prove equal in richness to those of California;
but in view of the great discoveries of the last five
weeks, there was evidently a vast future before this
region. It was by no means probable that all the
gold of the eastern slope was confined to this little
area of seven or eight miles. He advocated the
formation of a new State (a ‘State movement’ was
already under way,) and trusted that one might be
made and brought into the Union, without going
through the troublesome and undemocratic form
of a Territorial organization. He spoke at length
of the peculiar temptations to drinking, gaming,
etc., to which the miners were exposed, urging a
steadfast resistance and avoidance ; exhorting his
hearers to look to untiring industry instead of
speculation for their gains ; to maintain good order,
to live as the loved they had left—the brothers, sis-
ters, fathers, mothers, wives and children—would
wish ; that when they returned they might carry
with them the reward of their labors. If a gam-
bler, after being warned not to do so, should persist
in coming among them, he advised putting him on
a good mule, headed out of the Mountains, and
asking him if he would not like to ride. He should
in a few days go hence to Salt Lake and California,
and it was one purpose of this trip to do what he
could to hasten the construction of the Pacific Rail-
road, which ought to have been built long ago. He
was rousingly cheered on retiring.”
The meeting was also addressed by B. D. Wil-
liams, H. P. A. Smith, A. D. Richardson, and Dr.
REPORT OF THE MINES IN THE STATES. 85
Casto. It must have been quite a grief as well as
surprise to the bears and lions which had hereto-
fore reigned sole monarchs of these wilds. At the
request of B. D. Williams, then agent for Jones &
Russell’s “Pike's Peak Express,” which furnished
the miners their letters from home at twenty-five
cents each, Greeley, Richardson and Villard united
in a published statement of the result of their ex-
amination of the mines, giving the sluice-yields of
various companies then at work, as reported to
them, and a general view of the principal features
of the new mining region ; ending by earnestly
warning the people in the States against another
rush to the mines like that of the early Spring just
passed.
It may be observed that the States were full of
the wildest rumors concerning the Pike's Peak
mines, favorable and unfavorable. There had been
a tremendous rush to them, and as great a stam-
pede back. The Davenport Gazette alluded as fol-
lows to the subject:
“The Cherry Creek Rocky Mountain News comes
to us printed on brown wrapping paper. The edi-
tor has evidently lied his paper black in the face.
This number teems with glorious news about new
discoveries of gold, and says the town is half de-
serted. So we heard, but not from that cause.
It is all humbug, and Byers is evidently bought and
sold,” etc., etc.
As a burlesque on the really rich discoveries in
various parts of Colorado, such squibs as the fol-
lowing were written and published:
86 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
“It is said that a man takes a frame-work of
heavy timber, built like a stone-boat, the bottom of
which is composed of iron rasps. The frame-work
is hoisted to the top of Pike's Peak, and a man gets
on and slides down the mountain. As he goes
down swiftly, the rasps on the bottom of the frame-
work scrape off the gold in immense shavings,
which curl up on to the machine ; and by the time
the man gets to the bottom, a ton of gold, more or
less, is following him. This is the common manner
of gathering it.”
Stories of starvation on the way out, and over
west of the Range, of the burning of Auraria and
Mountain Cities, and the hanging of the pioneers of
Pike's Peak, were carried back to thousands of
homes in the States, by the emigrants who out-
numbered, as early as April Ist, the immigrants.
The trouble was, mining proved to be hard work;
and if that was all there was of it, most of these
unseasoned adventurers preferred doing it at home.
So stories were told, published and circulated about
claims and sluices and pans having been “salted”
on Greeley and party; but several of the most re-
liable men in Gregory District united in a pub-
lished statement, showing that such could not have
been the case, because of the very short notice the
miners had of Greeley's arrival. Toward the latter
part of Summer the stampede had not only ceased,
but men were arriving in great numbers, proceed-
* That is, that gold dust had been emptied into the sluices or fired
from a shot gun into the dirt he was expected to examine.
FIRST NEWSPAPERS. 87
ing into the Mountains, and only returning for pro-
visions. Colorado has never recovered, however,
from the effects of the stampedes of 1859 and '60,
the latter worse than the former.
We should not fail to mention the establishment
at Gregory Point, August 6th, 1859, of a newspa-
per by Thomas Gibson, called “The Rocky Moun-
tain Gold Reporter and Mountain City Herald.” It
was a four-column, four-page sheet, filled, of course,
with mining news. From the first number, now
before us, it appears that a convention of one hund-
red and sixty-seven delegates had met in Denver
to frame a constitution for the new State of Jeffer-
son, that was to be. This will receive a separate
notice by and by. A union church had been organ-
ized, the communion service celebrated, preaching
on Sundays and prayer-meetings on Wednesday
evenings provided for, at the mouth of Gregory
Gulch, now Black Hawk. Golden City had then
been surveyed a month, contained fifty houses,
nineteen hundred and thirty men, and seventy
women. Golden Gate, two miles north of Golden
City, where the Denver and Gregory road entered
and still enters the Mountains, was also flourish-
ing, and indulging great expectations. Davenport
had been laid out at the mouth of Left-Hand, a
town as completely passed away as those of the
Abo Desert in New Mexico. Twelve-Mile Dig-
gings, Left-Hand Creek, Boulder Creek, Jackson
and Jefferson Diggings, Tarryall, and Blue River
mines were each receiving due attention ; while
under the windows of the Reporter's log office, a
88 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
hundred sluices were running out gold to the merry
tune of twenty dollars a day to the hand. Men
could scarcely believe in their good fortune. They
were as much surprised at the astonishing richness
of the lodes as they were to find the Rocky Moun-
tains, that mysterious, romantic dream-land of their
school days, a country of as much beauty, all still
and solemn and ancient and grand, as any in the
world. To glance abroad, a great war convulsed
the most famous of the historic peninsulas of the
South of Europe. In the telegraphic columns oc-
curred frequently the names of the Po and Mincio,
of Solferino and Malegnano, of the Emperors Fran-
cis Joseph and Louis Napoleon, of King Victor
Emanuel, of Hess, Neil, and Schlick. Cherbourg
was alive and quivering with excitement, and one
hundred and seventy-five thousand Austrian troops
were en route for Italy. A State was arising here
in the wilderness of nature ; a nation was creating
there in the wilderness caused by the wreck of two
civilizations, inextricably mingled. With the twelve
inches of snow that appeared on the hills the morn
of the 29th September, and scared the miners in-
continently out of the Mountains, this little journal-
istic enterprise seemingly failed. The next Spring
it was started again in Denver, however, where it
finally became the Denver Commonwealth, and, after
exercising a large influence on the early fortunes
of the country, was merged into the Rocky Moun-
tain News, that paper having been not only sub-
merged, but washed away by the great Cherry
Creek flood of May, 1864.
ORGANIZING GOVERNMENT. 89
Nor should the inception of the Rocky Mountain
Mews pass unnoticed here, especially since its files
are the chief source whence this portion of this
work is derived. On the 21st of April, 1859, at
seven o'clock, P. M., its press arrived in Auraria,
now West Denver. It was set up, and in twenty-
seven hours began printing the first side of the first
newspaper ever issued in the Rocky Mountains.
William N. Byers and Thomas Gibson were the
editors and proprietors. From the first number,
dated April 23d, 1859, the journal has always pre-
served a creditable appearance, has ever been the
able, intelligent and dauntless champion of the in-
terests of the Territory against all opposers. From
the six-column sheet first issued, it has grown, not-
withstanding serious accidents by flood and field, to
an eight-column, as handsomely got up and ably
conducted as any journal in the West. All old set-
tlers must rejoice in this, and younger ones ought
not to begrudge it, for its success has been hardly
WOIl.
We have before referred to the attempt in 1858
to get the Pike's Peak Region set off from Kansas.
as a separate Territory. A sketch of it, and of
successive efforts at organizing local government,
is due not only to the wonderful genius of our peo-
ple, but to a proper understanding of the general
status of affairs prior to the regular Territorial or-
ganization by Act of Congress. On the 6th of
November, 1858, H. J. Graham was elected with-
out opposition, and by about thirty-five votes, to
proceed to Washington and endeavor to have the
90 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Gold Region set off from Kansas as a separate Ter-
ritory. He repaired to the Federal Capital and
exerted himself throughout the session to accom-
plish the wish of his constituents, but without suc-,
cess. Honor was his only reward, for he served at
his own expense.
On the 11th of April, 1859, at a public meeting
in Auraria, it was
“Resolved, That the different precincts be requested to appoint
delegates to meet in convention on the 15th of April, inst., to take into
consideration the propriety of organizing a new State or Territory.”
The Pike's Peak country had been preliminarily
organized the preceding Winter into a county of
Kansas Territory, called Arapahoe, county officers
elected, a Probate Court established, and, we sup-
pose, voting precincts blocked out. Twenty-three
precincts are mentioned in the proceedings of this
meeting as already existing. A central committee
was appointed, among whose duties was the desig-
nation of such additional precincts as the rapidly
filling country should require. -
After concluding that their discussions should
have but one object—“the formation of a new and
independent State of the Union"—and recommend-
ing a general election of delegates on the second
Monday in May, to meet in convention on the first
Monday in June, to execute their purpose, the
meeting adjourned. - -
Fifty delegates, representing thirteen precincts,
met on the first Monday in June. After organizing,
eight committees were appointed to draft a consti-
tution, to be submitted to a fuller convention called
STATE constitution REJECTED. 9I
for the first Monday in August. A further com-
mittee was appointed to form new voting precincts,
and the convention adjourned, to meet in August.
In the August convention forty-six precints were
represented by one hundred and sixty-seven dele-
gates. There was a considerable effort to postpone
action for a time, but it was unavailing. A consti-
tution was prepared, and its submission to the
people provided for on the first Monday in Septem-
ber. In case the people should reject the constitu-
tion, it was resolved by the convention that, on the
first Monday in October, a Delegate should be elec-
ted from the Territory, which they decided to call
“Jefferson,” to proceed to Congress and again en-
deavor to have the Gold Region set off from Kan-
sas. The constitution and the movement to form
a State were rejected by the people, two thousand .
and seven, to six hundred and forty-nine—consid-
ered a very light vote.
The election of a Delegate to Congress was next
on the tapis. Eight candidates appeared in the
field, of whom B. D. Williams received a plurality
of votes. There was terrible ballot-box stuffing,
and there were not wanting parties who contested
the validity of the return of the Board of Canvassers.
Meanwhile, a scheme for a Provisional Territorial
Government had been concocted. A mass meeting
was held in Auraria on the 24th cf September, and
an address prepared requesting the people, on the
day they voted for Delegate to Congress, the first
Monday in October, to elect delegates to meet on
the succeeding Monday for the purpose of form-
92 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ing this new, independent government. On the
day of election, the county of Arapahoe, Kansas
Territory, had its ticket in the field, its organiza-
tion and the Miners' Laws having furnished all the
government enjoyed so far. Right after the elec-
tion the Æocky Mountain News talked as follows:
“Here we go, a regular triple-headed government
machine. South of 40 (parallel) we hang on, the
skirts of Kansas; north of 40, on those of Nebraska.
Straddling the line, we have just elected a Delegate
to Congress from the Territory of Jefferson; and
ere long we shall have in full blast a Provisional
Government of Rocky Mountain growth and man-
ufacture.”
Eighty-six delegates appeared at the appointed
time. They made and adopted a new constitution,
which had the unusual merit of brevity, and which
they called “The Organic. Act of the Territory of
Jefferson;” apportioned the Territory into Legisla-
tive districts; nominated a full State ticket, includ-
ing a Marshal, and provided for an election on the
fourth Monday of October, inst.
Candidates for Legislative honors were not want-
ing. The Provisional Government was adopted,
and the regularly nominated ticket elected with
one unimportant exception, the vote being about
eighteen hundred to three hundred. The Legisla-
tive Assembly convened on the 7th of November;
received Governor R. W. Steele's Message, which
was a creditable document; enacted many general
and special laws, among the latter a charter for the
City of Denver, under which an election was held
TERRITORY OF JEFFERSON. 93
December 19th ; organized nine counties, for which
the Governor appointed Probate Judges until the
regular county election, first Monday in January,
1860; levied a poll-tax of one dollar per capita to
defray expenses; and appointed committees to re-
port to an adjourned session, 23d of January, full
civil and criminal codes.
While this was doing, the regular Kansas Terri-
torial election had not been suffered to lapse in
Arapahoe. A full set of county officers and Mem-
bers of the Kansas Legislature had been elected.
Opposition immediately arose to the Provisional
Government. A remonstrance against the pro-
posed tax was signed by six or seven hundred
miners, and sent down from the Mountains. On
the 3d of January an election was held in Mountain
County (the name of Gregory District under the
Provisional Government-regime) as to whether there
should be a county organization or not. The vote
stood, ninety-five for, to three hundred and ninety-
five against. In Arapahoe the county election un-
der the Provisional Government occurred at the
appointed time. A Denver city government was
also organized under the charter and put in opera-
tion, and thenceforth Kansas and the Provisional
Government held divided sway in the Valley, while
the Miners' Clubs and Courts and the Provisional
Government did the same in the Mountains. That
is to say, such as felt friendly to one patronized it
with their business, and so of the other. Some-
times changes of venue were taken from one to the .
other, and between them litigants were well fleeced
94 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
at least. The Legislative Assembly of Jefferson
met pursuant to adjournment, in January, held a
long session, and enacted or adopted full civil and
criminal codes, which were published in the news-
papers, but were never enforced to any alarming
extent.
Yet a fair degree of order and decorum ob-
tained in the somewhat heterogeneous society of
the country. Only one or two cases of violence are
recorded as having occurred anywhere in the mines
up to the regular organization of government in
1861, more than two years after the discovery of
the Gregory Lode. The people were sober and in-
dustrious as a rule, and there were never any very
remarkable criminal cases brought before the Mi-
ners' Courts. In Denver it was not so quiet, al-
though the worst days of that town would not begin
to justify the hideous and altogether fictitious pic-
ture given of it by William Hepworth Dixon, A. D.
1866, to justify his absurd theory that boorishness
is peculiarly a Western product. Up to the end of
March, 1860, three homicides and two duels had
occurred in Denver one of the latter resulting in
the death of Dr. J. S. Stone, the challenging party.”
Of the homicides, one had escaped, one been tried
before Probate Judge Smith, found guilty, sen-
*Dr. J. S. Stone was Member of the Provisional Legislature from
Gregory District, where he was also Judge of the Miners’ Court.
Hon. L. W. Bliss, his antagonist, was Secretary, and at the time,
acting Governor of the Territory. At a public dinner in Denver
the Governor made some offensive personal allusion to the Doctor
in proposing a toast. An incident which tells as much of the state
of society at the time as any other that occurs to us.
REIGN OF TERROR IN DENVER. 95
tenced and hanged, and the other tried before Jus-
tice Hieatt and acquitted. Subsequently, ruffians,
gamblers, and thieves overran the town, and no
man's life or property was safe. One party set up
baseless claims to a portion of the town-site, at-
tempting to defend their action by force of arms.
Another called themselves “bummers,” and the
best that can be said of them is, that they were
bummers. They made a business of petty thiev-
ing, and also attempted to defend themselves by
force of arms. The Postmaster assaulted a citizen
with intent to kill, and successfully resisted arrest
for it on the part of the city authorities. There
was a man, or fiend, named Charley Harrison, who
boasted that he had a jury in Hell, sent there by
his own hand. He was the king of the despera-
does. One day he deliberately shot to death a negro,
we suppose, for being a negro. For denouncing
this, the editor of the Rocky Mountain Wews, Wil-
liam N. Byers, was forcibly taken from his office
by Harrison's pals and conveyed to their den on
Larimer Street—the Criterion Saloon—where they
were going to murder him. But Harrison, experi-
encing a sudden shock of magnanimity or fear,
probably the latter, spirited him away through a
back door. The fiest-fiends had smelt blood, how-
ever, and were determined to taste it. So they lay
in wait round the News office to assassinate Byers.
Finally, one of them, named Steele, mounted a
horse, and riding up in front of the office, fired two
shots into it in hopes of hitting their victim. Two
shots came from the office in response, one of which
96 THE MINES OF color ADO.
caught Steele under the arm and passed through
his person. He did not fall from his horse, but, a
crowd having collected, rode for dear life toward
the open country. He was followed by men as
well mounted and as determined as himself. Half
a mile or so from the office a charge of buckshot
brought him to the ground and he died. Steele's
confederates fled, and only one of them, Wood,
was taken. He was tried by a People's Court, and
given his life if he would at once leave the country,
which he did. It may interest the gentle reader
somewhat to know, that on the breaking out of the
civil war, these thugs ardently embraced the South-
ern cause. Returning from Richmond in the Spring
of 1863 with Confederate commissions in their
clothes, they were captured by a band of wild In-
dians in the Osage country, and their heads cut off.
They died. It is to be hoped that Harrison is hav-
ing a good time down below with his jury.
During the Summer of 1860 there were about a
dozen murders and homicides committed in Denver.
One man, named Gordon, seems to have taken
Harrison for his exemplar. No second-class ruf-
fianism would do for him. On Wednesday evening
he shot down a barkeeper named O'Neil. O'Neil
afterwards recovered. On Friday evening he shot
twice at another man, missing him. The same
evening he fell upon a barkeeper, named Gantz,
knocked him down, and holding him down by the
hair, succeeded in shooting him through the head,
after ineffectually Snapping his pistol four times.
Gantz died. Gordon ran away. Sheriff Middaugh
PEOPLE's courts. 97
followed him into the Cherokee country, more than
five hundred miles, caught him, and in spite of the
most frantic efforts of a mad Leavenworth mob to
release him, whether for the purpose of hanging or
letting him escape we have forgotten, brought him
back to Denver. He was tried by a People's
Court, found guilty, sentenced and hanged. This
case was remarkable in many respects. The un-
paralleled wantonness of the crimes committed ; the
every way admirable carriage of the tribunal of the
people and its officers in the pursuit, capture, de-
tention, and trial of the murderer; the extraordi-
nary sympathy which finally sprang up for him,
and which alternately entreated reprieve and threat-
ened rescue ; and the firmness with which the stern
decree of death was executed, fixed the attention of
the young community, heedless as it was disposed
to be. The citizens saw the grandeur of the human
Nemesis, or perhaps rather of the instinct of self-
preservation, and experienced a security in well
doing unfelt before. The ruffians comprehended
that their day had passed—that they must move on
to some more remote outwork of civilization to en-
joy longer their late impunity.
Besides the victims of justice already noticed,
improvised People's Courts, usually presided over
by a Probate Judge or a Justice of the Peace, tried
and acquitted four homicides, and tried and hanged
three murderers between the end of March and the
end of September, 1860. Their officers also settled
with one squad of horse thieves, as told by our
friend Wharton of the A'océy Mountain Mezws, in
5 -
98 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
his late “History of the City of Denver.” A party
in pursuit of Gordon came upon three of these
miscreants, one of whom made his escape. A
second was drowned in attempting to swim the .
Platte River; the third was captured, given twenty-
five lashes, and twenty-four hours in which to leave
the country. He left. To resume: It was not
until well along in the next year that the organiza-
tion of Colorado Territory was perfected under an
Organic Act of Congress.
This body, occupied with the “Impending Crisis,”
the “John Brown Raid,” the admission of Kansas,
and the making of a new President, although
favorably disposed toward the new community, did
nothing until the very close of the session,-26th of
February, when the Organic Act was passed,—but
take the preliminary steps to treating with the In-
dians for the gold lands. Through the efforts of
Williams, more post offices were established by the
Department. The Representatives to the Kansas
Legislature protested against the gold region being
regarded as a part of Kansas, but took care to get
through three or four special acts for charters.
The laws of the Provisional Government had been
published, but there was no effort to enforce them.
And so we leave this interesting subject for the
present, remarking that if the people did not have
a good government, it was not for want of effort in
that direction. -.
Up to May, 1859, the miners had depended on
the post offices at Forts Laramie and Kearney for
their mails. An occasional express was sent to
MAIL, PASSENGER, AND EXPRESS FACILITIES. 99
Laramie, but the delay was wearing—how terribly
so, none can know but those who have felt it. The
heart of the wanderer in the West goes ever back
to the home of his childhood. Thence the winds
bear him the perfume of the days that are no more
—all the fond memories of young life. It is he who
prizes letters from home. Often the want of them
is the sole cause of his falling into bad habits. It
leaves him sick at heart, and inclines him to reck-
lessness. The charges on letters, weeks old, were
fifty cents each ; newspapers were none est comeati-
bus.
On the 7th of May, two coaches of the “Leaven-
worth and Pike's Peak Express,” arrived in Den-
ver, in nineteen days from the States. The line
first ran via Fort Riley and the divide between
Soloman and Republican Forks, to the Republican
between the one hundred and first and one hundred
and second meridians. Thence up that stream to
near its source, thence across Beaver, Bijou and
Kiowa Creeks, through the pineries, to Cherry
Creek. A construction train accompanied these
coaches, stations were established at intervals of
twenty-five miles, and stock put on for a daily line.
As run, the road was six hundred and eighty-seven
miles long by odometer measurement. The Com-
pany had fifty-two new Concord coaches, and made
the first track on the route most of the way, under
the supervision of B. D. Williams. A money,
package, and letter express was added to the pas-
senger business.
Soon after, the Company, of which John S. Jones
IOO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and William H. Russell were the chief men, pur-
chased the stock, route, and contract of the Salt
Lake & California Mail Company, and removed
their stations, stock and force to the Platte River,
carrying the overland mail to South Platte cross-
ing, and thence branching to Denver and Fort
Laramie. Their charge on letters was twenty-five
cents each, papers in proportion. The Postmaster
at Leavenworth was directed to deliver all mail
matter for Pike's Peak to the Express Company, so
long as they would carry it free of expense to the
Government. There was a regularly constituted
post office at Auraria, but the Postmaster was
obliged to contract with the Express Company to
carry the mails tri-weekly to Fort Kearney at the
same rates the Company already charged—twenty-
five cents a letter and ten a paper—in addition to
the United States postage.
By the end of the year several postmasters had
been appointed, but no post routes established.
The Leavenworth & Pike's Peak Express Com-
pany had secured a charter from the Kansas Legis-
lature, and adopted a new name—“Central Over-
land California & Pike's Peak Express Company.”
In this were William H. Russell, John S. Jones,
William B. Waddell, Luther R. Smoot, Alexander
Majors, J. B. Simpson and others. In connection
with their regular mail, passenger and express busi-
ness, they started a pony express, carrying letters
for one dollar each, from Leavenworth, Kansas, to
Placerville, California, in ten days | The first pony
arrived in St. Joseph from San Francisco on the
FIRST WINTER IN THE MINES. IOI
13th of April, 1860, in ten days. This wonderful
enterprise made the Company very popular through-
out the West. The Butterfield Mail Route through
Arizona, all the rage a year before, passed out of
date. The entire attention of the country was con-
centrated on the central route. This, with the gold
discoveries at Pike's Peak and the silver at Washoe,
at length forced upon Congress the great advantage
of carrying the mails between the Atlantic and
Pacific States overland rather than by water. A
movement was immediately made toward establish-
ing three overland mail routes across the Continent.
But the nation has since had its energies absorbed
in a different and less pleasing task than discover-
ing and developing its unknown resources, and
to-day there is but one mail route. It is due to
justice to say that it is managed to perfection, and
transmits the mails by two thousand miles of
staging more regularly than they were transmitted
a few years ago between New York and Washing-
ton or Boston
As before stated, a foot of snow whitened the
hills and gulches infested by the miners on the
morn of the 29th September. The climate of the
region was then unknown ; there was but a slight
stock of provisions in the country and especially
in the Mountains, and it is no wonder, seeing such
a fall of snow so early in the Autumn, that the
miners stampeded, afraid of being snowed in and
starved out. Probably not more than fifteen hund-
red men wintered in all the mines in 1859. These
found the mildness of the weather an agreeable
IO2 THE MINEs of color ADO.
surprise. The first snow melted and ran off in a
few days, and was followed by as lovely an Indian
Summer as ever was enjoyed anywhere. This may
almost be said to have lasted throughout the Win-
ter, since there were but three or four falls of snow
accompanied by severe cold, and these spells were
comparatively short. A few men stuck to their
toms, and especially their hand-rockers, burrowing
immediately on some rich pay streak, in the gulches,
all Winter. In the three months ending January
31st, one man took out twenty-four hundred dollars
in Nevada Gulch with a rocker.
A “gold rocker” is a sort of cradle, with a coarse
iron screen for the first bottom. The operator sets
it beside a spring, brings to it his pay dirt, puts it
on the screen and pours on water from a cup with
one hand, rocking the cradle with the other. A
“tom” is the same principle enlarged. The dirt is
shoveled from the pit on the iron screen, and the
water conveyed to it in a stream. Two or three
sluice-boxes, with rifles for quicksilver, are attached.
A “sluice” is a square wooden box, open at the
top, of any desirable size or length—though the
longer the better—through which a heavy stream
of water runs constantly. A dozen or twenty or
fifty men shovel the dirt into it, or loosen it so that
the water will carry it in. There are quicksilver
rifles in the sluice to catch the gold. A man keeps
it clear of stones with a sluice-fork. Sometimes,
where the bed-rock is favorable, a trench is cut in
it, answering to sluice-boxes. The water is so led
as to carry into it all the dirt in the gulch ; and
FIRST QUARTZ CRUSHING. IO3
when that is done the sluice is cleaned up, The
quick and gold are apt to escape in the rock crevi-
ces, and this sort of a sluice is by no means com-
mended. The rocker was chiefly used in the Win-
ter, because of the scarcity and freezing of water
in the gulches.
As early as the middle of July, Lehmer, Laugh-
ton & Peck started a Spanish “arastra” for grind-
, ing quartz near the mouth of Gregory Gulch. An
arastra is a circular trough, generally ten or twelve
feet in diameter, made of stone, in which other and
heavier stones, called “mullers,” are dragged round
continuously, thus grinding up the quartz. They
are generally run by water, and do not do their
work so badly. The above-named firm started the
first one ever run in Colorado, thus pioneering a
business of which very remote times are not likely
to see the end.
On the 17th of September, Prosser, Conklin &
Co. got up steam in a steam quartz-mill the first
time in Colorado. Shortly their mill, which was
small, was in successful operation
By October Ist, there were five arastras running
on North Clear Creek, two small wooden stamp-
mills also, all by water, and four arastras building.
These were realizing about two hundred dollars
each per week, working on the headings of the
sluices—that is, such quartz as was too coarse to
pass through the screens used. The latter were
pierced with about half-inch holes.
On October 7th, Coleman, LeFevre & Co’s steam
mill started, but soon broke down. By the 4th of
IO4 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
November it had been repaired, again started, and
in the first seven days' run on Gunnell quartz, pro-
duced 1,442 pennyweights of gold. At this time
they were fifty-six feet down on the Gunnell, the
decomposed pyrites or gossan of the surface was
giving place to a more solid material, but it paid at
the rate of sixty dollars a ton, and grew richer the
deeper they went. At seventy-six feet from the
surface, they realized from fifteen tons, seventeen .
hundred dollars.
A rude quartz-mill had been in operation for
several months at Gold Hill—between Left-Hand
and North Boulder Creeks—and a large water-mill
was building in the Autumn. The owners of lodes
were busy getting out dirt and quartz for the ex-
pected mills in the Spring. The Cotton, Fisk,
Bobtail, Clay County, Gunnell, Maryland, Casto,
Kansas, Burroughs and other lodes had out and
piled up some three or four hundred tons each, the
success of the Coleman & Le Fevre mill with
Gunnell rock greatly encouraging the miners.
Tunnels were started—nine in Nevada alone
running under the Kansas and Burroughs Lodes,
and two elsewhere. These were pushed with
energy till toward Spring ; many of them being
driven from fifty to one hundred and more feet.
Having been somewhat injudiciously located—that
is, too near the surface, and any other location was
impracticable from want of capital to drive long,
deep tunnels—they were not of much if any prac-
tical use, and were generally abandoned toward
Spring for the gulches and the surface of the lodes.
CONSTRUCTION OF WAGON ROADS. IO5
Very fair roads had been made into the Moun-
tains—one via Golden Gate, one via Bradford.
They were not so perfect as now, but were a vast
improvement upon the first hill-road, over which in
places twenty yoke of oxen were required to climb,
without dragging anything worth mentioning, per-
haps a wagon containing a sack of flour. A road
from Denver to the South Park, via Mt. Vernon
and Bergen’s Ranch, had been projected and was
vigorously pushed through the Winter. So also
was the St. Vrain, Golden City and Colorado Wagon
Road, which avoided Denver entirely. A fair
wagon road ran from Canon City into the South
Park, also one from Colorado City. There were
trails from the South Park to the Middle Park, and
one from Gregory. On the 4th of March, 1860,
Kehler & Montgomery's express coach arrived in
the mines from Denver, the first ever run on the
line. z
C H A P T E R V.
Development of Mining through 1860-1-2-3—Opening Prospects—
Immigration and Emigration—Quartz-Mining and Milling—Dif-
ficulty in Saving the Gold—Placer Mining—Organization of the
Territory of Colorado by Congress—Mining Legislation—Mis-
cellaneous.
NEVER did Spring open on a more hopeful people
than the inhabitants of the Territory of Jefferson
in 1860. The richness and great extent of the new
gold fields were considered proven. The pioneers
had penetrated the previous season from Taylor's
Park, away south of the Arkansas and a hundred
miles in the Mountains, to the Cache-a-la-Poudre,
north-west of Long's Peak, and the Black Hills.
Between was a bewildering scope of country,
scratched indeed, but not prospected thoroughly ;
and in view of the unparalleled richness of the
lodes and gulches in the Gregory District, the most
sanguine expectations were not unreasonable.
Under the greatest disadvantages, mining had been
prosecuted there with the most gratifying success.
Now they were to have the benefit of experience;
of machinery, Saw-mills, cheap provisions, imple-
ments and supplies; of established laws and regu-
lations; of roads and means of transportation; of
THE IMMIGRATION OF I 86O. Io/
postal facilities; of a great influx of people, many
of them women, many of them bringing more or
less capital, and coming at least prepared for the
emergencies of the season. The agricultural ca-
pacities of the country had been found much greater
than was at first expected, and the settlers were
better prepared to make use of them. The Winter
had been chiefly spent in prospecting and many
rich discoveries had thence resulted.
It was not long after the opening of the year be-
fore the old miners began to seek the Mountains.
By the first of May immigrants were arriving from
the States at the rate of a hundred a day. It was
estimated that up to that time eleven thousand
wagons had passed Plum Creek, bound for Pike's
Peak. The Platte Route may be said to have con-
tained, for a full month, but a single train, extend-
ing from the Mountains to the Missouri River. A
great many came up the Arkansas, and went direct-
ly into the South Park. The Gregory District was
the especial destination of most of the new comers,
however. It is hardly necessary to say that the
general aspect of affairs appeared gloomy and for-
bidding to them. All the known claims were of
course occupied ; and there was such an almost uni-
versal willingness to sell at good figures as to justly
raise suspicion. There was little else to do but
work by the day in the poorly secured lodes, or the
deep, wet gulches, and wages were not much higher
than in the States in proportion to the nature of
the labor, and the expense of living. It does not
seem very strange, either, that the old settlers—
IO8 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
who had been in the mines a year!—were some-
what cold toward the immigrants. They felt that
they had earned what they had got, and that there
was chance enough for others to do likewise, Sure-
ly, they said, all these strangers cannot expect
employment here on our ground ; let them branch
out and find mines for themselves, or if not, go
back. So the dwellers in wagons, in tents, in
booths, prospected—which is a discouraging busi-
ness except to the prospector by nature, who must
have the faith of a martyr—made continual pur-
chases of claims which they knew not how to work,
gold washing being a nice business, and were ob-
liged to throw up; cut saw-logs or cord-wood, or
engaged in such other work incidental to mining, as
the case admitted ; or finally, laid round and con-
sumed the grub they had brought with them. The
whole district was full of tents and camp-wagons;
it was overrun with people. An amusing story is
told of a party that had concluded the Pike's Peak
mines did not amount to much, and were about to
return to the States. They had heard that the lode
dirt in the Maryland would wash out four dollars to
the pan. They went there as a last resort before
leaving, and asked permission to try it for them-
selves. They were let down into the shaft, and
shown where to fill a pan of dirt, which they did.
They closely watched its washing, and were, we
suppose, painfully surprised to have all their con-
clusions upset by finding $8.68 in the pan. They
thought they would look round a little more before
they left.
EMIGRATION OF I86O. IO9
A heavy snow storm about the first of May was
also well calculated to dampen the spirits of the
new men. The Consolidated Ditch had not been
finished, and water was scarce. Buildings, it is
true, were springing up as if by magic, and opera-
tions were extending ; “big things” there were,
too, in old and new discoveries ; – one man in
Russell Gulch rocked out ninety pennyweights in
a day —but wages were quite low ; it seemed
there were no more big things to strike ; it was
hard to get letters from home ; and is it wonderful
they felt discouraged 2 Still they poured in. Sowers
& Co. started a line of coaches between Denver
and the Mountains. In June the Western Stage
Company put on a line; the two could not begin to
accommodate the travel. The Russells came in
from Georgia via the Smoky Hill Route, on which
they made a favorable report. Gregory came in
with a party and a quartz-mill, which he erected in
a few days, ran awhile, taking out two hundred dol-
lars a day, and sold for six times its cost. John H.
Gregory not only knew how to find mines, but it
appears he knew how to sell out at the right
moment.
The discovery of California Gulch, very rich and
five or six miles long, and of a half dozen other
less considerable gulches on the Arkansas, Blue
and Swan Rivers, drew attention from the Gregory
Mines; and of the unexplored fields the Middle
Park and the Arkansas Park absorbed thousands ;
but by the first of June men might be seen facing
homeward with a dejected air, as if under convic-
I IO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
tion for sin, or convinced that gold mining was very
hard work. Still, the incoming tide was vastly the
strongest. For perhaps two months not less than
five thousand a week came in, and as they generally
brought grub enough to live on for a few months,
they wandered around, joined every stampede—of
which there were many—in short, didn't think of
returning to the States till Fall. Ere that time
quartz-mills had sprung up like mushrooms in every
gulch in the Gregory District, and a vast deal of
labor was called for to keep them running—for run
they would, pay or no pay, to keep up appearances.
The year before had witnessed the starting of
two or three steam and several water quartz-mills ;
these were good seed sown in rich soil, as the crop
of this year was destined to show. In June a new
steam mill of six stamps was got into operation in
Nevada, the first day's run producing five hundred
dollars. Another started up in Lake Gulch, and a
steam saw-mill in Eureka Gulch. An eight-
stamper was located at the foot of the Bates Lode,
and a twelve-stamper just below the Burroughs.
The first trials in some of these mills met with dif-
ficulty in the adulteration of the quicksilver. By
the end of June, it was said one hundred and sixty
quartz-mills had left the Missouri River for Pike's
Peak; but this was doubtless an exaggeration. As
high as six arrived in one day, however. On the
1st of July there were sixty mills in the Gregory
District, and some thirty arastras. The latter were
generally more successful than the former. A
writer of the time says:
FIRST TROUBLE IN SAVING GOLD. III
. “Somehow the mills as a general thing do. not
save the gold ; why, it is hard to tell. There must
be some difficulty beyond the mills—doubtless the
want of experience in the men who run them.
Crushing quartz is a new business to them ; and
as it is a very nice one, requiring skill, and as all
of us as yet lack this skill, we fail in almost every
attempt, just as any one does in a new vocation,
about which he knows nothing. Some of the mills
have tried quartz from the Bates, and pronounced
it worthless, while the arastras get two hundred
dollars a cord from the same stuff.”
And again :
“There is not attention enough given to mining.
Every one seems to think there is an easier way to
make money than by digging, so that all other en-
terprises than mining are being overcrowded. I
think they will find out to their sorrow that the
gold has to be dug out of the ground before it can
get into their pockets.”
Thus it will be seen that the difficulty of saving
the gold from Colorado rock is not of recent
origin, but was encountered at the beginning,
though there were then more instances of success
than latterly. The inclination to neglect mining,
and trade, speculate, do anything but mine, is also
an evil as old as the country, and doubtless destined
to outlast it.
Loveland, Link & Co's six-stamp mill in Nevada
started about the first of July, and its first run of
eight hours on Burroughs quartz produced $321.55.
Another run of twelve hours on Missouri quartz
II 2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
produced $400. In Eureka, the Enterprise Com-
pany, with ten stamps, in ten days took from 156
tons of Burroughs quartz $4,400. The St. Louis
mill, eight stamps, took $1.78.75 from Fisk quartz
in twenty-four hours; another time they took from
twenty tons of the same quartz, $375. Wimple &
Co., in Nevada, crushing for other parties at seven
dollars per ton, took out in five and a half days
from Forks quartz, $3,930. Cheney & Co., of Lake
Gulch, cleaned up $1,250 from a five days' run on
the Justice. The Milwaukee Mill, eighteen stamps,
running on Mammoth quartz, took out in four
weeks, $5,250. But these were exceptional cases.
Of those in which the product only about paid ex-
penses, we have no record.
After a while, the flush times caused by the erec-
tion of so many mills and a thousand other build-
ings besides, died out, and mill men began to take
their bearings. It was found that while a few of
the best lodes would yield thirty to ninety dollars
a ton, excepting these the great bulk of quartz
could only be made to yield about the average cost
of crushing—seven dollars. Hence there were at
once idle mills—a sort of intermittent disease with
which Colorado is still troubled. It was hoped that
larger mills and purer quicksilver would supply the
defect in the business. But a little circumstance
soon dissipated that fond hope.
The park of the South Boulder and Left-Hand
had always been an interesting spot. At Gold
Hill there were as many mills running in propor-
tion to the extent of the discovered mines as in
DIFFICULTY IN AMALG AMATING GOLD. II.3
Gregory, and paying reasonably well. During the
Spring the Gold Dirt Lode had been struck, and
very rich it was. By the end of the year six quartz-
mills were running from it. One sluice took out,
in seventeen days, $2,227. Hurlbut & Co’s six-
stamp mill started October Ist, and up to January
5th, 1861, had taken out $ II,526.94, and had been
idle four weeks of the time Between June and
November two men realized from the lode, over
and above all expenses, $35,000. Hollister & Co.
struck pyrites on the lode seventy feet from the
surface. Before that they had been working sixty
hands, and their weekly yield of gold was from
$1,500 to $2,OOO Upon striking the pyrites, a run
of eighteen hours gave but one dollar and forty
cents. They commenced experimenting. A pan of
“tailings” ” was boiled in quicksilver. The amal-
gam therefrom yielded $9.70. The same material
was exposed to the frost two nights, and boiled
again in quicksilver, yielding this time $4.8O. The
process was repeated with the following results:
$3.67, $6.34, $2.73, $1.O4, $1.06, $0.33, making a
total of $29.67 from the pan of tailings. Then it
was seen that the stamp mills were very deficient;
and from that day to this the problem has been,
how to separate the largest percentage of bullion
from the rock. While this has been a difficult,
perplexing, expensive, and most discouraging labor,
the fact of the exceeding richness of the gangue-
rock has ever remained present with experimenters
to encourage effort.
* Crushed ore as it comes from the mill.
II.4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
All this year prospecting for lodes was vigorously
carried on in Clear Creek County. On Spanish
Bar a mill was started during the next January
which got $300 from its first run of fifteen tons.
There were Spanish Bar, Morris, Montana, Downie-
ville and Union Districts on the main creek, and
Iowa, Fall River, Lincoln, Cumberland and Upper
Fall River, on that stream. In these, numerous
lodes, some real, others not so real, were discovered
and regorded, and a few of them considerably im-
proved. Preparations were making in all of them
for building mills, when Winter came, and none of
them got into operation till the next Spring.
We have space but for a glance at the placer
mining of the season. In the old Gregory District
it was prosecuted in every gulch with the greatest
vigor, though it is impossible to ascertain with what
success. There were few claims that could not be
bought at more or less reasonable figures; and to
buy and sell seemed to be a more. general object
than to work. Russell, Gregory, Nevada, Pureka
and Spring Gulches, also Illinois and Leavenworth,
Missouri Flats and Quartz Hill, were lined and
covered with men busy tearing up the ground. It
is probable the average production amounted to
very good wages, and that was about all. In the
Boulder mines, as well as in those of Clear Creek
County, placer mining had been chiefly abandoned
ere the season was half gone, and all the energies
of the people bestowed on quartz-vein discoveries
and development. The South Park mines showed
the same tendency in a less degree. On the head
TIMES AND BUSINESS IN 1861. II 5
of the Arkansas, west of the South Park, early in
the Summer was discovered a gulch well calculated
to attract a stampede of the wildest description.
It was called California Gulch, and was taken up
for ten miles in length, and supported a population
throughout the season of four or five thousand.
For a mile below the discovery shaft it paid extra-
ordinarily and regularly. Above and below it was
spotted and streaked, and on the whole did not
more than pay expenses. ' The discovery of Mc-
Nulty Gulch, a few miles off, drew five hundred
loose-footed men in a single day. In this there was
a vast amount of stripping; it was quite spotted,
but all things considered, turned out very well.
There were a dozen gulches discovered and worked
on the Arkansas, Blue, Swan and Snake Rivers.
Five dollars a day to the hand would doubtless be
a large estimate of the yield of all the gulch, bar
and patch diggings worked during the season, or
indeed ever in the country.
The design of our work compels us to hasten on
over the succeeding three years. There was but a
slight immigration in 1861, and the fore part of the
season was very dull in the quartz mines. Still,
everything steadily improved. New towns in all
the mining districts sprang into being, and the old
ones replaced log houses with stone or brick, or
substantial frames, and extended their area. There
has never been wanting to Colorado the cry of
“hard times,” nor has her improvement in every
respect ever ceased for a moment. It should be
borne in mind that dull times in a mining country
II6 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
would be considered flush times anywhere else. If
a thousand people are not coming and going every
day; if towns of tents and booths and cabins do
not spring up in a night; if mining does not pay
one hundred dollars a day to the hand, and if this
money is not in vigorous circulation, it is called
“hard times.” Such things go by comparison. At
the time we are considering, a mill occasionally
made a successful run; new lodes, such as the
Perigo, Phillips, or Orphan Boy, that were really
“big things,” were found once in a while; but the
mill men were all new to the business, and only a
few could make it pay. For a few months quartz-
mining was regarded as almost a complete failure—
and this, although the mines were not yet “hogged
out,” and although supplies, provisions, and labor
were very cheap. The best St. Louis flour sold in
Denver for $4.50, and in Central City for $7.50. It
was simply that they did not yet know how to treat
the rock. They kept trying, however; and by the
end of 1861 things had assumed a great deal better
look. A majority of the mills contrived to run
steadily and make it pay. New districts were
opened up. Trail Run, Mammoth, Buckskin, Mos-
quito, Montgomery and other places furnished a
demand for mills that could not get paying quartz
in Gregory District. A regiment of volunteers had
been raised for the war, and Salmon River had be-
gun to draw away the adventurers who had no
luck; so that idlers grew scarce and wages became
firm, with an upward tendency. The Bobtail,
Gregory, Mammoth, Bates, Gunnell, Burroughs,
QUARTZ MINING IN I&6I. I 17
American Flag, Forks, Flack, Rhoderick Dhu,
Horse-fall, German, Perigo, Clay County, Gold Dirt,
Fisk, Cotton, Grégory Second, Gregory Extension,
and a few other lodes whose names do not now occur
to us, produced such rock as could be made to pay in
the mills. From a little pocket struck on Quartz
Hill and called “Lone Star,” one hundred pounds
of quartz were taken, pounded up in a hard mortar,
and panned down, yielding $3,000. Thousands of
dollars' worth of gold specimens came from the
pocket, but it was finally emptied. From one hun-
dred and thirty tons of rock out of the Horsefall
Lode (Gold Hill), the Union Company got $5,341.50.
Edgar De Peyster cleaned up, from ninety tons of
Gold Dirt rock, $3,115.89. J. Q. A. Rollins took
$3,000 from the same quantity of the same rock.
The Laclede mill took $1,873.95 from twenty tons
of Bobtail rock. Lee, Judd & Lee, got $1,299.20
from five tons of Bobtail rock, carefully selected
and run. E. J. Sweet selected twenty feet of
cupriferous rock from Field's claim on the Bobtail,
and got by a stamp mill, more than $700 from it—
at the rate of $600 to $700 a ton. This was done
on a wager of $100, between Sweet and Field, as
to what was the best quality of rock, each selecting
twenty feet of the kindshe considered the best. It
was the biggest yield ever obtained in the Territory.
As an indication of the energy with which pros-
pecting was everywhere pushed, we may state that
during the year ending June 1st, 1861, the Recorder
of Spanish Bar District recorded twelve thousand
five hundred and thirty lode claims, three hundred
118 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and three bar, twenty-five gulch, and three hundred
water-mill sites. On November, 4, 1861, Nevada
was almost destroyed by fire—fifty houses and
property in all worth sixty thousand dollars being
burned –but it soon rose from its ashes more sub-
stantial and prosperous than before. During all the
time we have gone over, enterprising men were
studying out improvements, particularly in treating
the rock,--the same as now. Novel crushing ma-
chinery was tried and abandoned ; there were plans
for pulverizing the ore" by chemical baths, by the
use of steam and fire ; and one man—Dr. Burdsall—
experimented long and patiently with smelting.
His furnace was destroyed in the Nevada fire ; and
though he seemed to get encouraging results, and
still struggled on after that for a time, yet the public
soon heard no more of him. In another place we
shall endeavor to group together such items of in-
terest in connection with processes for treating
ores, as the recorded history of the country pre-
sents. There were great improvements made,
however, in the construction of the batteries and
plates, the manner of feeding the stamps, the use
of copper plating, and the preparation and purifica-
tion of mercury. -
All through the year 1882, there was no special
complaint of difficulty in quartz mining or milling.
At the end of that period many mills were doing
*Although there is no strictly gold ore, or at least very little, that
of which we are treating having become a complication of gold,
silver and copper, and frequently of some other metals and minerals,
may properly enough be termed ore. -
QUARTZ MINING IN I&62. II9
very well. Perhaps a few instances of yields would
not be out of place. Lee, Judd & Lee, with forty-
seven stamps, were averaging about $4,000 a week
from Gregory and Bobtail ores. Sykes & Whitney
took from II 2 tons of American Flag, $2,092.
Hayes & Kinkead took from thirty-five tons of
Gregory, $1,980.2O. The same firm took from
sixty tons of Bates, $1,306.80, and from eighty-five
tons of Gregory Extension, $3,256.60. Laflin &
Smith, from Caledonia (Wide Awake), forty tons,
$1,500 ; Sabin & Grover, from forty tons Flack,
$1,348; Vore & Allen, from Tenth Legion (Em-
pire), at the rate of $35 a ton, surface quartz;
the Western Mill, from thirty-eight tons Illinois,
$1,062.2O ; Holman & Co., from thirty-eight tons
Tennel (Trail Run), $1,500, and from Freeland,
forty tons, $1,032 ; Williams & Co., from seventy
tons Orphan Boy (Mosquito), $4,512; D. D. White,
from twenty-three tons of the same, $1,862. The
Kansas, Gunnell, Topeka, Dyke, American Flag
and Flack were from one hundred to one hundred
and fifty feet deep, and were averaging about $2O a
ton.* e
In the commencement of this work we gave a
sketch of the history of the discovery claim on the
* We are aware that these disjointed statements are not statistics
in any legitimate sense of that term ; they are given the same as
the yields of sluices were before to show something the richness of
the ore when and where it could be demonstrated. Colorado
mining has not yet been reduced to an art. There is not a miner
in it for instance who can give more than an estimate of the quartz
he crushes in a year, of its yield and cost per ton. The numerous
disadvantages under which the business has been carried on have
this to answer for.
I2O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Gregory as an illustration of that of all the lodes.
Here is a similar sketch of a claim on the Bobtail
up to the beginning of 1863. The first pay was
decomposed quartz, struck six feet from the sur-
face, and extending downward thirty-nine feet, the
crevice four feet wide, and averaging forty-one dol-
lars per ton. Here a cap was struck, which proved
to be twenty-six feet thick, yielding an average of
twelve dollars per ton. Then the crevice was again
struck, three and a half feet in width, and extend-
ing seventy feet downward, yielding an average
per ton of thirty-eight dollars. A second cap was
here struck, which proved to be thirty-five feet
thick, and which averaged fifteen dollars per ton.
Then came a three-foot crevice for forty feet, yield-
ing sixty dollars per ton. Up to date the operator
had been in the third cap for forty feet, the ore
paying forty-two dollars per ton. The claim was
No. Two, east, and we now have it sunk to a depth
of two hundred and sixty feet, it having produced
in all $2O4,OOO. It will be observed that it in-
creased in richness as it was sunk upon. The first
crevice yielded forty-one, and the first cap twelve
dollars per ton. The last crevice yielded sixty, and
the last cap forty-two. We have said that the gold
quartz veins of California are found richer and
wider as they are mined to greater depths. Is it
not safe to assert the same of the Colorado lodes,
in view of such facts as the above 2
It was about the beginning of 1863 that Behr &
Reith arrived in Colorado, and commenced experi-
menting with ores, an account of which we reserve
FIRST EASTERN MINING company. 121
to another time. We do not find much change in
the business of quartz-mining during that year.
The lodes exhibited the same characteristics of
open and pinched crevice; of ore in which the gold
was comparatively coarse and free, and in which it
was so contaminated by the baser metals and poi-
sonous substances as to be impossible of amalgama-
tion, or so fine as to nearly all run off in the water.
The mills were removed from Lake and Russell
Gulches and Missouri City, into Gregory and its
tributaries. The towns concentrated and became
Nevada, Central, and Black Hawk. All through
the Summer business of every description was
prosecuted with great energy. But the mines were
growing deeper, and accumulating more water.
Owing to the careless manner in which they had
been worked, they were unsafe, and required im-
provements; and generally, from two hundred and
fifty to three hundred feet from the surface, a stra-
tum of ore was struck, with which the mills could
do nothing to profit. Still, there is no positive evi-
dence that there existed a necessity for a general
transfer of the mines to capitalists. It was not
until one or two sales of mining property had been
made in the East at large figures, that it was dis-
covered that mining in Colorado could not be car-
ried on without capital. So far it had been done,
although about the end of 1862 an Eastern Com-
pany had brought in a fifty stamp mill, and located
it in Mammoth, (head of South Boulder.) But a
year's operations of that Company should have
been sufficient to warn the miners against the ap-
6
I22 THE MINES OF COLORADO. .
proaching change. That it did not, was perhaps
due to the fact of its out-of-the-way location. There
is no necessity for a history in detail of the transfer
of the quartz-mines of Colorado to Eastern men.
It is sufficient to say that a mania for Colorado
mining property was created in New York and Bos-
ton about the end of 1863, and fabulous prices,
in several cases a thousand dollars a foot, were given
for improved mines. Surely that was temptation
enough : we need look no further for the causes of
the mania for selling out which responded in Colo-
rado to the mania for buying, in the East. We
must glance at the condition of placer-mining
meanwhile. • .
During the years 1861 and '62, placer-mining in
Colorado saw its palmiest days. It was gone about
systematically and not feverishly, and with more
experience, generally paid better than it had pre-
viously. From a calculation made on a great many
returns from sluices and toms, we estimate the yield,
not only in Gregory District, but in the South,
Middle, and Arkansas Parks at five dollars a day to
the hand. In 1863 the business gradually died
away, because the gulches, most of them worked
over three or four times, had become completely
exhausted. In some few of them in Gregory Dis-
trict, and in more in Summit County, a great num-
ber of claims were bought up by associations, and
with long ground sluices and large heads of water,
; made to pay. But gulch, bar, and placer-mining, as
a business of any importance, had died out in Ara-
pahoe in 1859, in Boulder and Clear Creek counties
º,
COLORADO TERRITORY. I23
in 1860, in the Parks in 1861, and in Gilpin County
in 1863.”
We have before spoken of the Provisional Gov-
ernment of Jefferson Territory, of the Sovereignty
of Kansas, of the People's Courts, and of the
Miners' Laws and Courts. There were still other
attempts at organizing government, but they hardly
deserve mention. Gov. Steele's Provisional Legis-
lature met again late in the Fall of 1860, but no
attention was paid to it, and on the 7th of December
it adjourned without day. Honor might well have
been the subject of its story for it never got any
other pay.
On the 26th of February, 1861, a bill organizing
the Territory of Colorado with its present bounda-
ries was passed by Congress, and the following
Federal officers appointed by the Government:
Wm. Gilpin, Governor; Lewis L. Weld, Secretary;
B. F. Hall, Chief-Justice; S. N. Pettis, and Charles
Lee Armor, Associate-justices; Copeland Town-
send, Marshal; Wm. L. Stoughton, Attorney-Gen-
eral, and F. M. Case, Surveyor-General. Gov.
Gilpin arrived out on the 29th of May. He first
visited the settlements in the Territory, and then
had a census taken by the Marshal, according to
the returns of which there was a population of
25,329; white males over age, 18, 136; under age,
*In the Parks it now shows signs of reviving. It is to be put
upon a different basis from what it has formerly been. Instead of
working in Ioo-feet claims, great tracts of country are being secured
by incorporated companies sufficient to justify considerable outlay
for bed-rock flume and for steam machinery to handle the dirt. A
full account of this will be given hereafter.
I24 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
2,622; females, 4,484; negroes, 89. On the IOth
of July he assigned the Judges, the Judicial Dis-
tricts having been constituted before as well as
they could be, and the Supreme Court immediately
organized. Next day he declared by proclamation
the Territory one Congressional District, divided
it into nine Council and thirteen Representative
Districts, and ordered the election of a Delegate to
Congress and of a Legislative Assembly. This
body convened on the 9th of September, was very
respectable in point of ability, adopted full civil and
criminal codes for the Territory, and enacted some
wise mining legislation, which is given in Chapter
XV. of this work. It fully and distinctly recog-
nized the miners as the source of all authority with
regard to the mines, re-enacted their laws, legalized
their courts, confirmed their decisions, and provided
for the transfer of cases from them to the regular
courts, so that the transition of business from the
old, imperfect organizations to the regular and com-
plete one now in existence was easy, smooth, and
natural. Hiram P. Bennett was elected Delegate
to Congress.
On the 1st of May, 1860, the Rocky Mountain
Herald commenced the issue of a daily edition, and
three months later the Rocky Mountain News fol-
lowed suit. The overland telegraph reached Fort
Kearney toward the end of October, and Julesburg
the next year, but was not built up in to Colorado
until near the end of 1863. The Consolidated
Ditch was finished and water let in on the Ioth of
July, 1860. About the same time the mint of Clark,
wAR of THE BABES AND THE LAMBS. 125
Gruber & Co., of Denver, began to coin money.
This was afterwards bought by the Government, in
pursuance of an act of Congress of 16th April, 1862,
providing for the establishment of a U. S. Branch
Mint at Denver. In the early part of 1863, Gen.
Geo. W. Lane arrived in Denver, and entered on
his duties as Superintendent of the Mint. It has
never been allowed to coin, only to melt and assay,
and within a year, to purchase and give draft on
U. S. Treasury or sub-treasuries in the East, the
Government of course assuming the cost and risk
of transportation of its bullion across the Plains. In
August, 1860, the first regular U. S. mail service
was extended to the Mountains. This was also the
date of the enlistment of the First Colorado Volun-
teers, afterward transformed into the First Colorado
Cavalry, known in Colorado as the “Pet Lambs,”
of which Jno. P. Slough, now Chief-Justice of New
Mexico, was appointed Colonel. There was some
irregularity about the raising and especially the
equipping and subsisting of this regiment, so that
they were not recognized and paid as United States
troops until eight months after their enlistment. It
is perhaps doubtful whether or no they would then
have been recognised had they not marched nearly
a thousand miles, and in one hard fought battle,
and two brisk skirmishes, broken and driven from
New Mexico all those lean and hungry Texans, who
called themselves with a délightful humor, “Baylor's
Babes”; who had left San Antonio for the Pike's
Peak gold region about three thousand strong, swal-
lowed Fort Fillmore without winking, rather beaten
I26 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Canby at Val Verde, and had since that event been
coming northward, covering the Country as the frogs
did Egypt, and wearing it out. They had got twen-
ty-five miles north of Santa Fe when they were met
by the Pet Lambs. The Babes and the Lambs
each rebounded some five miles from the first shock,
which was more like the shock of lightning than
of battalions. The reserves of both sides having
come up the next day, the Babes and Lambs each
went forth to mortal combat again. The ground
was not unlike the roof of a house ; the Babes
reached the ridge-pole first, and by the weight of
numbers and the advantage in position, during a
seven hours' fight, forced the Lambs back, off the
roof. Night fell upon the scene and the Babes and
the Lambs each sought their own corner. The
Lambs found theirs all right, but the Babes did not.
It appeared that a part of the Lambs had been
there during the fight and destroyed their commis-
sary and transportation, totally. There being no
grub in New Mexico in general way, there certainly
was none now since armies had been sustained by
her during the Winter, so that the Babes had to go
home to get something to eat. The Lambs accom-
panied them to the door and wished them a safe
journey. And so ended the war of the Babes and
the Lambs in the Rocky Mountains. All this oc-
curred in March and April, 1862, when Logan was
storming Donelson, and Grant, or Sherman, or
Buell, or somebody, was winning, or losing, or draw-
ing the bloody game of Shiloh. Gov. Gilpin always
insists that his “Pet Lambs” broke the far left
THE CITY OF DENVER. 127
wing of the Rebellion—that they led off in the
march of victory organized by the great War Min-
ister. . - ©
It would seem that this regiment was most op-
portunely raised, and that it saved Colorado from
Texan invasion. But there was great dissatisfac-
tion with the way in which it had been done, both
in Colorado and in Washington. So that between
April and May, 1862, Gov. Gilpin was superseded
by Dr. John Evans; Secretary Weld by Samuel
H. Elbert; Attorney-General Dalliba, who had .
previously superseded Stoughton, by Samuel E.
Browne; Marshal Townsend by A. C. Hunt; and
not long afterward, Surveyor-General Case by John
Pierce. -
A second regiment of volunteers, of which James
H. Ford was commissioned Colonel, was enlisted
along in 1862, and ordered to Missouri. They were
joined there, in May, 1863, by a third regiment
raised in Colorado. The two were consolidated,
mounted, led by Col. Ford, and to the end of the
war, especially in the movements against Price on
the occasion of his last invasion of Missouri, were:
conspicuous where danger was to be met and glory
WOI). -
The City of Denver was again incorporated in
November, 1861, and this time it included Auraria
and Highland, and the charter was made to stick.
The town had always had a common school. A
second one had been established early in 1861. The
M. E. Church, South, and the Catholics had each a
place of worship, built for that purpose, before the
I28 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
town was two years of age. The Methodists and
the Episcopalians had each an organization, place of
pmeeting, Sunday schools, and regular services. In
course of time the M. E. Church, South, seemed to
fade away and the Episcopalians bought their
church building, enlarged and named it “St. John's
in the Wilderness.” The Methodists built a church
edifice on the sandy banks of Cherry Creek. The
rains descended and the floods came in 1864, and
washed it away, doubtless that the Scripture might
be fulfilled. Then they went up town and erected
a noble structure, the handsomest in the City, and
not on the sand. So that it stands to this day. A
large, brick Seminary was built in 1863-4, which is
now self-sustaining if not flourishing. The Moun-
tains were not behind the Valley in establishing
anew the religious and educational institutions of
the civilization left behind but not abandoned.
There were day and evening schools in every clus-
ter of shanties, and all the leading Christian sects
had organizations, places of worship, and regu-
lar services before the Territory of Colorado was
created. -
In the second Congressional election, September,
1862, there were three candidates in the field—
Hiram P. Bennett, ex-Gov. Wm. Gilpin, and Col.
J. M. Francisco. The first represented the Doug-
las Democracy, indifferent to the fate of the negro
but true to the Union; the second was supported
by the Abolitionists proper; and the last by the
Breckenridge Democracy. Bennett was elected by
a large plurality. Early in 1861 a treaty was effect-
º
SAN JUAN MINES. I29
ed with the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, some of the
Chiefs, however, refusing to sign it, by which the
United States acquired nearly all the land in the
Territory. The Chiefs who refused to sign this
treaty have always been sulky, and in 1864, went
to war to drive the whites off their land. They
need killing. In April, 1863, the heart of Denver
was burnt out by a terrible fire, but by the end of
the year it had risen from its ashes so much better
than before that good citizens audibly wished the
balance of the town might be burned over once.
Their wish was and was not granted, for in the
Spring of 1864, Cherry Creek, which is normally a
wide bed of dry, hot sand, rose suddenly one eve-
ning about twenty feet, and washed a good portion
of the town clear of all incumbrances, goods and
chattels, houses and lands, legal fictions and law-
suits; SO that, as Gen. Bowen remarked in a pen-
sive manner, “it flowed unvexed to the sea.” Since
that no buildings have been built in its bed or on
its banks, and people cross it even with fear and
trembling.
During the Winter of 1860 a great stampede oc-
curred to the San Juan Mountains, in south-western
Colorado. Immense masses of quartz and ore are
said to exist there, but the country was almost in-
accessible, was very high in altitude, and the
gulches had no gold in them to speak of. The con-
sequence was much suffering and some wisdom
gained. Not a man was left in the San Juan mines
six months after they were first heard of and rush-
ed for. silve; discoveries made a great excitement
I3O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
also all through 1860. But nothing was ever done
besides the making of a few assays and the shedding
of great quantities of ink in their behalf. We have
now approached the period of the great change in
mining—when capitalists bought up the quartz
mines and proceeded to try their hand. We shall
endeavor to give a clear view of the affair and the
results in the succeeding chapter.
C H A P T E R V I.
Condition of the Mines at the End of 1863—Transferred to East-
ern Capitalists—The April, (1864) Panic in Stocks—Temptation
to Speculation in Gold Mining—Why the Miners were generally
embarrassed at the End of 1863—Why the Eastern Mining
Companies have been comparatively unsuccessful.
DURING the Summer of 1863 a mine or mining
interest had occasionally passed from the hands of a
Coloradan into those of Eastern capitalists. It was
not hard, because Eastern bankers had been in con-
stant receipt of the gold produced by certain mines;
and when from a variety of causes the owners
of those mines had become considerably involved,
they were glad to have their property taken off their
hands, indebtedness and all, leaving them a small
or large consideration clear. As to the capitalists,
they expected, by having the use of money and by
working on a harge scale so as to economize labor
in every branch of the business, to throw all the
profits of former mining completely in the shade.
The pioneers were generally men of no capital but
their muscle and their courage. The mines worked
easy on the surface ; windlasses and horse-whims
answered for hoisting ; there was but a slight accu-
mulation of water to be drawn off; the gold was
coarse and free in the quartz, from long exposure
I32 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
to the elements ; fuel was cheap ; there were con-
siderable placer mines, which made money plenty
and times easy, and everything therefore went on
swimmingly. But as the mines grew deeper and
filled with water, increasing the labor of hoisting and
compelling the use of steam for that purpose; as
fuel and timber became scarce and dear, and the
ores more difficult of treatment—in short, as the
curtailing of facilities and the increase of expense
incident to the necessary expansion of the business
were beyond both the means and ability of mine
operators as a class, they become badly involved and
embarrassed. Observe how natural and unavoida-
ble was all this.
Well, bankers who had shipped the gold produced
by the mines, and who therefore knew their capacity,
advanced money on them, and eventually came to
own them. It was easy for them, through parties
in the East who were also aware of the extent and
richness of the veins from gold shipments, to Or-
ganize stock companies for the purchase and work-
ing of them. The effect was to arrest mining
generally, and set everybody to establishing title, pro-
curing certificates of yield, and selling out. A small
army corps of sharp fellows soon created quite an
excitement on the subject in the East, which was
the more easy that greenbacks were plentiful and
terribly depreciated ; and this raged five or six
months ere it flattened out, which it did suddenly
on the 18th of April, 1864. '
In the bubble-burst, however, Colorado stocks
fared no worse than others; and as soon as the panic
MINES SOLD IN THE EAST. I33
had subsided a little, the business was re-com-
menced both in Colorado and the East. All the
mines not sold were bonded, in which condition, of
course, they could not be worked. The men who
had discovered and steadily developed the country
became the most inveterate speculators in the world.
This evil still hangs over mining industry like an
eclipse, crippling it perhaps more than all else com-
bined. It would seem from past experience that
gold mining derives as much of its fascination from
the chances it offers for successful speculation, as
from its delightfully painful uncertainties of all de-
scriptions, or its honest advantages as a legitimate
business. "So long as there is a market for mining
property, it is incontestable that people will sell
rather than work it. It is only when the market is
glutted or dull from paucity of returns that any real,
earnest effort to make the mines pay is ever thought
of. It is pleaded in defence of those who first sold
out the mines, and of those who are keeping up the
same worthy practice, that quartz mining is impos-
sible without capital. To a great extent it has been
so in Colorado ; but the time is coming when, if
mining will not pay without drawing assessments
from the pockets of stockholders continually, it will
be abandoned.
The reasons why capital has been required in
Colorado are, that the expense of living and of
mining, and the loss in value from the inadequate
treatment of the refractory ores, were so great as
to exhaust the profits of surface mining, instead of
leaving them to be used in furnishing the more
I34. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
costly apparatus required for deeper mining. The
great reason that the companies organized with
ample capital in 1864, have made out so poorly, and
now, ere they have had any dividends, are called on
for more capital, is that the cost of living and of
work advanced immediately upon the inauguration
of their operations one hundred per cent, and noth-
ing until very lately could in the least make it re-
cede. But let us be a little more detailed in state-
ment.
In California quartz mining has generally been
conducted by individuals or partnerships instead of
by incorporated companies. This is a great advan-
tage to begin with, since people will be more careful
in using their own than others' money. They first
find out what had best be done, then do it them-
selves as economically as possible. When gold
veins in California have been quartz to a great
depth, not sulphurets, as those of Colorado uni-
versally are a short distance from the surface,—they
have been worked with the most gratifying success.
All improvements have been made with what was
taken from the mines, leaving still very large profits,
and all the time enhancing the value of the prop-
erty, because gold veins grow richer and larger as
they go down into the ground. But it must be
borne in mind that labor, mining supplies, and pro-
visions have been as cheap in California as in the
Atlantic States. Neither, in these cases, had they
refractory ores to contend with, of which the stamp
mill cannot be made to save more than one-half,
one-fourth, or one-tenth the value.
why THE COMPANIES DID NOT SUCCEED. I35
Had Colorado been equally as favorably situated
in these respects, she never would have carried her
mines to an Eastern market,_never would have
needed a dollar of foreign capital for their develop-
ment; but on the contrary would have furnished
the ways and means for their working, and paid
regular and fat dividends besides, until they were
sunk beyond the reach of profitable mining from
£his side. Colorado was not so situated, however.
Located in the midst of the Continent, equi-distant
from either ocean ; five hundred to a thousand miles
from civilization in any direction—from any source of
supplies; her climate a novelty, making agriculture
an entirely new business; afflicted with the pests
which always destroy the first few crops of a new
country; all she consumed, all her implements and
supplies for farming and mining, have been subject
to an average tariff of ten cents a pound. This
proportionately enhanced the price of labor. At
first the mines were worked with little or no ex-
pense, and with the richest results. The miners
supposed it would always be so, and the money was
spent or thrown away as a rule. This is a repeti-
tion, but we wish to clear up this, point, so must
trace the course of mining connectedly. The de-
composed quartz of the surface was exhausted the
first year, and for the next four the difficulties of
caps, pinches, and sulphurets were encountered with
varying success, only that the miners seemed to
come out second best in the end. It was owing
somewhat to inexperience and extravagance; more
to the unusual expense of mining as compared with
I36 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the same in California or other countries; most of
all to the refractory character of the ores, that at
the end of 1863 the miners found themselves pretty
generally tied up with a short string. The mines
were sold in the East; and now that we had capital,
why did we not succeed 2 Conceding, for the sake
of argument, that we did not, let us answer in all
sincerity.
The civil war in the States had drained the
Springs of Western progress ; a nation of producers
had become a destroying and consuming army ; the
labor withdrawn from every field of production, and
the increased consumption incident to a continental
war, had greatly advanced the rates of raw material.
Added to this, and having the same tendency, was
the depreciation in the currency which naturally
followed the failure of the Government to provide
for any considerable portion of current expenses by
taxation. The war had swallowed up the young
men, the horses, the stock, the transportation of the
great Plains—all that had before contributed to
people, develop and enrich the West. Under such
auspices opened the season of 1863. Things grew
worse. That Summer was remarkable through the
West for an extensive and protracted drouth. Near-
ly all the tributaries of the Upper Missouri ran out.
The Platte dried up. Boats could not ascend the
Missouri above the mouth of the Kaw. Stocks
grew light on the Missouri River. The feed was
burnt up by the sun on the Plains, and stocks of
provisions and groceries, of clothing, hardware and
general merchandise, grew lighter in Colorado to-
ADVANCE IN PRICES, END OF 1863. 137
ward Fall, especially as there was quite a drain to
supply the new mines of Montana. About the
20th of October Winter set in—a worse season
than all the previous Colorado Winters together.
Stock froze by the hundred on the Plains. Sup-
plies going forward were corraled up by the snow
and cold, and many of them lost; more did not
arrive out till the next year—indeed it is hardly too
much to say that machinery, started early in 1864,
is not yet done arriving. Prices in Colorado ad-
vanced accordingly. Hay and grain were steady
for months at from fifteen to twenty cents a pound.
Fuel advanced one hundred per cent. in price, and
has there maintained itself ever since. The weather
was so cold as to force the almost entire suspension
of mining. It was during this Winter the develop-
ed mines of Colorado changed hands. It was
thought—indeed it was figured out a hundred
times—that by an extension of the business ex-
pense might be curtailed, and with improved appa-
ratus and enlarged experience an increased yield
secured. Nearly all the companies immediately in-
vested in tremendous quartz machinery, several of
them purchasing stamp mills with all accompany-
ing machinery equal to crushing from fifty to
one hundred tons of ore per day—huge establish-
ments with boilers weighing fifteen thousand
pounds, I 50-horse engines, and from fifty to one
hundred stamps weighing eight hundred pounds
each, besides any amount of cast-iron pans of various
patterns, the whole extravagantly disproportioned
to the mines they were intended for. The foun-
t
I38 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
dries and machine shops in the States were gener.
ally making war materiel for the Government—
and this was the first delay. The few that went to
work in the mines were nonplussed in the Spring
by a heavy wet spell. Floods descended and car-
ried away towns ; high water changed the channels
of streams, destroyed ranches and crops, and ren-
dered the Plains impassable till late in the season.
Surface water united with the currents from below
in the mines and drove out the miners. Transpor-
tation was scarce and high, but it was going forward
at some rate when the Indians on the Plains de-
clared war, destroyed trains, attacked coaches, and
cut off all communication for two months in the
very best of the season. Colorado had already fur-
nished two full regiments of volunteers, and in the
heart of 1864 twelve hundred three months' men
were called out to chastise the Indians. This regi-
ment was permitted to strike a single blow on the
eve of its disbandment, and the rebound from that
struck the Platte Route again in the succeeding
mid-Winter, desolating it for two hundred and fifty
miles, and again cutting off all communication for
two months. Freights kept rising, and so did pro-
visions, supplies and wages. The result was that
by the time the mammoth mills and machinery had
arrived out and been set up, the treasuries of /the
companies were completely drained ; and the long
abandonment of the mines having allowed the
walls to soften and fall in-they never having been
half supported in the early mining—there was no
resource at hand but the pockets of the stockhold-
STAMP MILLS A MISTAKE. I39
ers. But few of them had exercised the commonest
prudence or sagacity. They had not counted on
time as an element of success, had not taken ac-
count of the actual or possible obstacles to even
eventual success. Some of the companies had been
organized on ridiculous bases, with watered capitals,
on fragments of mines scattered over a township,
under the excitement of false hopes, dishonestly
raised ; others for speculation solely. Not content
with sending men to Colorado to represent their in-
terests who were in many cases most unfit for it,
they insisted on managing mining by telegraph
from New York and Boston. Many invested in new
and novel machinery on the strength of some petty
test made in the East. e
But above and worse than all else among the
causes of the comparative failure of the Colorado
mining companies, was the fact that they started
out on a wrong system. It is given up that the
best stamp mills save only about one-fourth of the
gold in the ores, wasting all the copper and silver,
which together in many cases are worth nearly if
not quite as much as the gold in value. Then was
a stamp mill the worst investment that could have
been made for the purpose sought. This was not
so well known then as now. Calculations were
based on the yields of the mills the preceding Sum-
mer, which were good. Neither could any one fore-
see the extraordinary rise in prices, the severe
Winters, wet Springs, and Indian troubles which
then occurred for the first time.
These are some of the reasons why the compa-
I4O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
nies have not been able to realize dividends. Of
their actual condition a view will be given in another
place. With the close of the war, and the conse-
quent return of the enterprise of the country to its
natural channels ; with peace on the Plains, good
crops, cheap freights, and general low prices, in-
cluding wages; and especially with an improved
treatment for the ores in connection with recent sil-
ver discoveries, a considerable degree of prosperity
and improvement may not unreasonably be looked
for in the immediate future. With the advent of
a railroad from the States, which will have been
finished to near Denver during the coming Sum-
mer, and the introduction of a metallurgical treat-
ment that shall extract all the value from the ores,
the success of Colorado mining will doubtless sur-
pass the utmost that even enthusiasts have dared
to hope. *
But in stating why the companies of 1864 have
not realized dividends, we have really given the his-
tory of the past two years—1864–5—and indeed of
1866 to a great extent, and perhaps we may here
as appropriately as anywhere close this chapter.
C H A P T E R V II.
Gilpin County—Present Condition of the Improved Lodes—Names
of Mining Companies—Amount of Development—Condition of
Mines and Mills—Machinery—Processes, &c.
Gilpin is the smallest as it is the richest county
of Colorado. It embraces North Clear Creek and
its tributary gulches,” Gregory, with its feeders,
Eureka, Nevada, and Spring ; Russell, with its
branches, Lake, Willis, Elkhorn, Missouri Flats,
Illinois, Leavenworth, Sawpit, Graham, Davenport;
Chase, widening soon into Quartz Valley, again
narrowing and called, Peck ; and Missouri, the lat-
ter the only one of the group which is not of the
group, coming, as it does, from the ridge that divides
North Clear from South Boulder Creek, while the
others come from the one that divides North from
South Clear Creek. North Clear Creek is not far
from twenty miles in length, and is formed by the
natural intersection of half a dozen little brooks,
which used to constitute what was called Twelve-
Mile Diggings. It is a roaring torrent when the
* Gulch is the distinctive appellation among miners of those tribu-
taries of the creeks which convey into them the melting snows, but
for the greater part of the year, are dry. Where they are washed
for gold, water has to be brought to them in canals for that purpose.
I42 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
snows are melting and running out, and for about
three months of each year, furnishes unlimited
water-power; carrying in the Winter, however, no
more than two hundred inches. Its course is south-
eastward and it empties into South Clear Creek
fourteen miles above Golden City, so that it and all
that is connected with it, are well within the Foot-
hills. 4
About half way from its mouth to its source,
Gregory Gulch comes down to it from the west,
flanked at slight distance by Russell on the south
and Chase on the north. We say comes down, for
in the course of two miles it falls more than a thou-
sand feet. At its head is the town of Nevada; half
way down, marking the confluence of Eureka and
Spring Gulches, is Central City, the county seat
and the metropolis of the mines; at its mouth,
Black Hawk, noted for its quartz mills, crowds the
assembled hills. These towns are all one in reality,
being joined together by nearly continuously built-
up main gulch streets. Central City and Black
Hawk each sustain separate municipal govern-
ments, however. The population of the county
is nearly ten thousand, and is mostly confined to
Gregory and Nevada, Spring and Eureka Gulches—
the first two the same gulch under different names.
The bordering and wedging hills were densely
wooded when the mines were discovered, but the
trees were small, and few now remain within five
or six miles around. This, with the pock-marks
made by prospectors on every hill-side, and the
fierceness and thoroughness with which the gulches
SUBSTITUTES FOR WOOD FUEL. I43
have been turned inside out, gives the country
about Central anything but an inviting look. Water
was early brought here from Fall River, a stream
west of, parallel with, and rising higher in the
Range than North Clear Creek, in what is called
the Consolidated Ditch, which delivered on Quartz
Hill, between Nevada and Russell Gulches, one hun-
dred and fifty inches of water. This was to run
the toms and sluices in the gulches. The mills
have generally used steam power from the first. The
rapid consumption of the wood within reach has
already caused search for a substitute. There are
two ways of meeting the wants of the future in
this respect. Hydraulic may in great measure be
substituted for steam power by the construction
of a reservoir at the head of Fall River—which
locality almost seems to have been made for such
purpose so well adapted is it—and the requis-
ite enlargement of the Consolidated Ditch. Upon
full and careful examination of the ground, it has
been estimated that the expenditure of $100,000
would bring enough water to the top of Quartz Hill,
so that, by dividing it into three channels thence to
Black Hawk, it would pass over all the principal
lodes, giving I2O powers of 33 I-3 feet head and
300 cubic inches volume, equal to forty horses, and
from Black Hawk to the mouth of North Clear
Creek, thirty more of the same head and greater
volume. This canal to be covered and a railway
laid on it, so as to make the large tract of woodland
between Central City and the Range tributary to
the mines. The reservoir would be filled every
I44. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Spring while the snows are melting and there is an
inmeasurable surplus of water, thus not robbing the
lower Fall River cousntry of its natural stream.
Then, if mining should become a separate branch
of business from the treatment of the ores, as it no
doubt ought and will, these powers to be used for
hoisting, crushing, and dressing, the ore to be taken
to the coal-beds at the base of the Mountains for
treatment, or the coal to be brought up, either of
which would nearly dispense with the use of wood-
fuel. But it would necessitate the construction of
a railway from Black Hawk via Clear Creek Kan-
yon to Golden City. A careful survey has demon-
strated the entire practicability of this project, the
grade, with three tunnels—aggregate length, 3OOO
feet—averaging about IOO feet per mile for the dis-
tance, twenty-one miles. In view of the benefits
that would result from their completion, these great
enterprises are the most feasible of any we know of
The .prospect is that the consumption of fuel will
go on increasing until there will be no escape from
one or the other or both of them.
It is within a radius of one and a half miles from
Central City that all the lodes and improvements
mentioned hereafter in this chapter, occur. Tum-
bled headlong into so small a compass are Bobtail,
Bates, Gregory, Mammoth, Quartz, Casto, and Gold
Hills, with their complicated net-work of rich veins,
to say nothing of as many more with no special
names. The outlying districts of the county, and
there are some, must be consigned to a separate
'chapter. For precise information with regard to
BLACK HAWK GOLD MINING COMPANY. I45
the boundaries, streams, towns, and topography of
the county, the reader is referred to an accurate
map on a large scale, delineated from careful sur-
veys by Messrs. Morse & Hill of Central City. The
examination of the mines of Gilpin County, a re-
port of which follows, was made in August 1866,
by the writer in person.
GREGORY LODE.
The Black Hawk Gold Mining Company have 500
feet on the Gregory, being No's 1, 2, 3, 16 and I7
west; 200 on the Foot & Simmons, 250 on the
Gregory Extension, 76 on the Bobtail, and a great
deal of less developed mining property. It is with
that which is productive we have to do. They are
working I, 2 and 3 on the Gregory, running a level
380 feet from the surface. The first level is the
bottom of the old mine, and is about 300 feet from the
surface. Above that there is still much virgin ground.
The lower level will soon be finished, exposing
ground nearly IOO feet deep by 300 long, and in all
probability two crevices, the entire length, from five
to fifteen feet apart. These will doubtless come
together at a greater depth. The Gregory main
crevice varies in width from two to four feet; the
other crevice is perhaps half as large. The work-
ing shaft is on No. 2, and is strongly timbered. A
six-inch pump removes the water from the entire
mine. On No. I there is also a shaft, now 330 feet
deep, opening on the surface in a 20-stamp mill.
The hoisting and pumping are done by a 150-horse
7
I46 . THE MINES OF COLORADO.
engine, which also furnishes motive power for the
mill. The Foot & Simmons mine shows an aver-
age crevice a foot in width, is run by the Consoli-
dated Gregory engine adjoining, and is in very good
shape, worked by regular levels, the first two of
which are exhausted ; the third, at a depth of 260
feet, now furnishing stoping ground. The main
shaft is being carried down in time for the fourth
level. Dump cars convey the ore to the shaft on
tramways, there is little or no water in the mine,
and it is worked very economically,” In the Bob-
tail mine, operations are suspended for want of a
pump. The last work done was excavating a level
4OO feet from the surface, and taking out the back.
In the floor a crevice is exposed for 64 feet, three
feet wide—nearly half of it pure ore. There is a
large engine-house, with a 40-horse engine, on the
Bobtail mine. On Gregory 16 and 17, there are
shafts 60 and 90 feet deep respectively, both of
them on good veins of ore. Nothing has been
done on them for two or three years. On the
Gregory Extension a shaft has been sunk 285 feet,
and a level run near the bottom in either direction
40 or 50 feet. The crevice is yet rather pinched,
the ore badly mixed with poor rock.f. The mine
furnishes just enough water to run the hoisting en-
gine. A wooden railway and car convey the ore
300 yards to the mill in Black Hawk. The Com-
* It has since been abandoned for the present; cause, the crevice
is too narrow to make its working a paying business.
f Work has since been stopped on this mine and the hoisting
engine sold.
CONSOLIDATED GREGORY COMPANY. I47
pany have a large, frame, stamp-mill in the heart of
Black Hawk—sixty 880-lb. stamps. The crushed
material runs over short stationary copper plates
on to shaking tables of the Keith pattern, whence
it passes into Cornish buddles for concentration.
The engine is I 50-horse, and is supplied with water
from North Clear Creek, which passes between the
engine-house and mill. A steam pump and suffi-
cient hose provide reasonable guarantee against
accidents by fire. This mill and that on the
Gregory have produced during the Summer not far
from $3,000 a week. The Company have twenty
stamps not yet set up, and a large amount of min-
ing supplies. It is at present under the manage-
ment, in Colorado, of W. L. Lee, one of the original
owners, still a very large stockholder, and an in-
comparable business man.
The Consolidated Gregory Gold Mining Company
have 500 feet on the Gregory Lode, adjoining that
of the Black Hawk Company on the west, being
Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The main shaft is on the
west end of 5, is six by eleven feet in the clear,
very securely timbered with eight and ten inch
timbers, and is 315 feet deep. The shaft contains
a nine-inch pump, which easily drains the mine.
There is a hoisting shaft on 7, 280 feet deep, and
between 5 and 7 a winze for ventilation. There is
also a shaft on 4, the bottom of which is expected
to be intersected by level No. 2, the latter, under
the main shaft, 290 feet from the surface. All these
shafts enter permanently into the plan of mining,
5 and 7 for working the mine, 4 and 6, winzes for
I48 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ventilating. Level No. 1 is 230 feet from the sur-
face, and has ground above it only west of the shaft.
It is now run 220 feet, and is to be pushed to the
west end of the mine. The ground above this
level, westward from the shaft, will average 50 feet
in depth, and from two to three in width. Level
No. 2 is 290 feet from the surface, and is now in
about 55 feet west and 66 east, to be driven to the
ends of the mine, the back stoped out, the main
shaft always sunk in advance, levels run, and the
process repeated every ten fathoms forever. Forty
men are drifting and sinking shafts, and enough ore
is being taken out to run a 60-stamp mill. Worked
on the system inaugurated, there is practically no
limit to the amount of ore that may be raised, and
at the least possible expense. The mine was for-
merly owned by half a dozen men, who gouged it out
as came handiest, and it has taken much time and
labor to get it into working shape. The brothers
Rule are the present managers—old mine Captains
of long experience in England and Mexico. What
they have done may well serve as a model for others.
On the surface there is a shaft and engine-house
over No. 5, 30 by 70 feet in dimensions, containing
a 45-horse engine, and machinery for pumping and
hoisting. A line of shafting 183 feet long runs the
shaft on 7, which has a house over it 30 by 60. All
the machinery is well put up, and answers its pur-
pose. The Company, like nearly all other Colorado
companies, purchased a IOO-stamp mill in 1864,
which was never brought further than the Missouri
River. They are now looking to matting, as the
NARRAGANSETT COMPANY. I49
treatment for their ores. The smelting works of
James E. Lyon & Co. will be described elsewhere.
They are now manufacturing most of the ore taken
out by the Company.” James E. Lyon is Manag-
ing Director. M. B. Hayes has personal supervision
in Colorado. *. .
The AWarragansett Gold Mining Company own 4oo
feet on the Gregory, adjoining that described above
on the west, being Nos. 9, IO, II and I2. Two
shafts, located about centrally on the mine, are
sunk to a depth of 360 feet. Two hundred and
eighty feet from the surface occurs level No. 1,
driven nearly or quite the whole length of the
mine, and disclosing a 20-inch ore crevice all the
way; 80 feet lower, level No. 2 has been driven
nearly or quite the whole length of the mine, also
disclosing an average ore crevice as above. One
hundred feet west of the main hoisting and pump
shaft, a winze has been excavated between the levels
for ventilation. Above the upper level most of the
ground is considered worked out. A seven-inch
pump drains the mine, which produces an immense
quantity of water. A large stone mill is built on
the property, into which the ore is hoisted from the
main shaft. The mine furnishes the necessary
water, the mill contains forty 880-lb. stamps and a
few iron pans, and is driven by an 84-horse engine.
The Company ceased operations in June, 1866, with
the view of adopting a better treatment for their
ores. Eben Smith has had the supervision of the
*They have since been consolidated with the Consolidated Greg-
ory Company's other property.
I 50 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
affairs of the Company in Colorado; and supposing
a stamp mill to be the best treatment for the ores,
which it is not, there are no better works in the
country.
The . Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Company
come next, and own I 3 and I4. They have two
shafts on 13, one more than 200 feet deep, usual
size and well timbered, exposing an ore vein from
eight to eighteen inches wide for the lower 75 feet,
and having a 20-inch ore crevice in the bottom.
Another shaft on 13, 66 feet west, has been sunk
to 160 feet in depth, developing an ore vein in the
bottom of ten inches; 16o feet from the surface a
level, driven 35 feet west, lays bare an average ore
vein of twelve inches. There is a whim-house on
the surface 30 by 60, horse power used for hoisting ;
crevice barely struck on 14, seventy tons of ore out.
The Company own a 20-stamp mill in Black Hawk,
which has been closed since 1863. Nothing has
been done on the mine since June, 1865, no agent
having been in Colorado since that time.
No. 15 is owned by , and is not much im-
proved. Nos. 16 and 17 belong to the Black Hawk
Company, and have been noticed. They carry the
vein from Gregory Gulch to within forty feet of
Packard Gulch.
The Benton Gold Mining Company here take the
vein, though under another name—that of “The
Michigan Tunnel Property” —and run 600 feet,
crossing the Mammoth Lode near the top of Mam-
moth Hill, and extending 100 feet beyond. This
Company, under the management of Jonathan Cox,
GREGORY LODE. I5 I
a mine captain of great experience, are sinking a
shaft in Packard Gulch, about 40 feet from the east
end of the mine—now down 60 feet, and so over-
flown with water from cross-courses as to necessi-
tate the putting in of a six-inch pump, with a large
engine, 60-horse—to drive it, which is being done.”
The shaft shows a vein of ore 14 inches wide, which
yielded $108 a ton by actual test in Lyon's smelt-
ing works. Here the lode, going west, seems to
fork, or rather a spur puts out to the right, diverg-
ing from the main vein 40 feet in IOO of lineal con-
tinuation. There are two feet of ore in the floor
of the adit on this vein all the way, but it has not
yet proved rich, assaying about $30 a ton only.
The adit on the main vein has been driven 220 feet
west, intersecting there the main shaft, and con-
tinuing 20 feet beyond. In the floor of this adit
the regular ore vein appears, but there is none in
the back. The main shaft is continued 37 feet
below the adit, being I2O feet deep in all. It is
twelve feet between walls, but shows as yet an ore
vein of only six inches. The Company have ma-
chinery for a mill of fifteen stamps and six pans at
Atchison.
The Bissell Gold Mining Company are working a
vein called Bissell, next west, and no doubt an ex-
tension of the Gregory. They own 300 feet, and
are down 40, with a three-foot crevice, ore just
coming in. The Company also own 300 feet on
the Haman Lode, Casto Hill; have a shaft 105
feet deep, the vein a mixture of ore, quartz, and
*It has since been completed, and works to perfection.
I52 THE MINES OF COLORADo.
country rock, five feet wide ; also 300 feet on the
Wolverine Lode, in Illinois Central District; shaft
50 feet deep, twelve feet between walls, the crevice
ore, quartz and country rock. They are operating
only on the Bissell and Wolverine, and have no
mill nor machinery. This is as far west as the
Gregory vein is worked. Dr. Bissell, of Central,
is agent for the Bissell Company.
The Briggs Gold Mining Company adjoin the
Black Hawk Company on the east, are located in
Gregory Gulch, and own and work 250 feet on the
Gregory and the same on the Briggs, a parallel vein,
from twelve to forty feet distant from the Gregory.
Both crevices have been generally worked out to a
depth of 150 feet. There are two shafts, the east
one the usual size for pump, ladder, and bucket
ways, sunk and admirably timbered 230 feet deep.
There is a mine at each end of this, much deeper,
and each supplied with a pump; hence there is
little trouble from water in the Briggs mine. The
west shaft is sunk and curbed 120 feet deep. Both
of them open in the mill, which is a large frame,
filled in with brick, containing fifty 880-lb. stamps,
two large buddles, two Dodge crackers, a IOO-horse
engine, tanks, drums, and other machinery. The
material runs over thick copper plates and into
Cornish buddles, is concentrated, and the rock
thrown away, the mineral being placed aside for
future use, Since the new mill started—February,
1866—the mine has been in the poorest stratum of
ore ever known in it. There has been ore on the
south crevice for 80 feet of the east end, and on the
LP
GREGORY LODE. I53
north crevice for a little distance in the west end.
From the east shaft west, on the north crevice,
there was also some pay 100 feet deeper than that
on the west end. The last clean-up showed a de-
eided improvement. The mine has always paid so
well and uniformly that the necessity of sinking
down and back-stoping has not been felt. This
pinch in the crevice, together with the difficulty of
fully supplying the large mill, will compel it. So
far the new mill has only about paid expenses; but
a good deal of poor stuff had to be used to keep it
going. It took sometime to get the plates in order,
and there have been construction expenses to meet.
They are working forty hands, at an average week-
ly expense of about $1,2OO. The Briggs mine has
been one of the most, if not the most successful of
the Colorado quartz mines. During the first year
of the present Company's existence, its published
financial statement showed $100,000 profits. Mr.
Reynolds of Central is the Colorado agent of the
Company. -
The Smith & Parmelee Gold Company join the
Briggs on the east, have 300 feet on the north,
or Gregory Extension crevice, (so called) and 800
on the south or Briggs crevice (so called). They
have much other valuable mining property, but
it is with this chiefly we have to do. On the sur-
face the two crevices run nearly together at one
end, and are 24 feet apart at the other ; as sunk
upon, they diverge from each other. The north
crevice is worked out perhaps I40 feet deep and 200
long, and has a shaft 160 feet deep. It has been
7*
I54. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
nearly full of water for three years. The south crev-
ice is worked out perhaps 200 feet long, in the west
end 250 feet deep, in the east 31O. The east shaft
is now 360 feet deep, the west 305, both being sunk
to a depth of 400 feet. The west shaft has a six-
inch pump, and a cross-cut is being run from it to
the north crevice 250 feet from the surface ; this is
now in 42 feet, and is supposed to be nearly through.
Both shafts in the south crevice being 400 feet
deep, a level will be excavated connecting them, and
a cross-cut will then be run through into the north
crevice, and that undermined by driving a level
the entire length of it if practicable, without a
shaft for ventilation, when an immense body of ore
will be exposed. The ore is hoisted out of the east
shaft which is run by a line of shafting from the
mill. The west shaft opens directly in the mill in
front of the batteries. The average width of these
crevices is 30 inches, which is of course an esti-
mate—only exploitation can determine the width
of any crevice definitely. The mill has twenty-five
500-lb. stamps driven by a 25-horse engine, and
supplied with water by Gregory Run. The old sta-
tionary copper plates are used. During the seven
months next prior to February 17th, 1866, the mill
produced 3,61 I ounces of gold, coin value $59,580.
It was shut down to look up a better process for
treatment, but the opening of the mine was con-
tinued. On the Ist of August enough stamps were
started again to pay expenses. The first three
weeks' clean up from ten stamps was 130 ounces.
Subsequently the company were running four mills
NEW YORK GOLD MINING COMPANY. I55
very successfully. D. D. Belden, is the agent in
Colorado. -
The Wew York Gold Mining Company join the
Smith & Parmelee on the Gregory Extension, east;
they have 250 feet in length, a shaft 208 feet in depth,
developing in the bottom a handsome ore vein.
The property is in dispute with the Smith & Par-
melee Company, and nothing has been done on it
since early in 1865. Next east are the 250 feet of
the Black Hawk Company, then some territory
owned by private parties, 250 feet belonging to the
United States Gold Mining Company, and 400 feet
belonging to the Manhattan and Gregory Compa-
nies. Thus we have given a sketch of the Gregory
vein under different names for about 4,000 feet in
length, and the Bissell Company are no doubt
working the continuation of it west under still an-
other name. Judged by its production, the Gregory
stands at the head of all the Colorado lodes. The
New York Company also have 150 feet on the Fisk,
No. 5 and half of No. 6 east ; a shaft perhaps I 30
feet deep, with a considerable level and very large
vein of ore ; also a mill in Black Hawk of 35
stamps, steam and water power, a 1,400 foot flume
and a 34 I-2-foot overshot wheel. The mill is leased
to the Gunnell Company, the New York Company
not being at work. J. B. Fitzpatrick, of Black
Hawk, represents the Company in Colorado.
THE MAMMOTH LODE.
Commencing at the west end of development, on
the east bank of Spring Gulch, Harley B. Morse,
y
I56 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of Central City, owns 1,282 feet; has eight shafts,
from fifteen to fifty feet deep each, disclosing a dirt
and quartz crevice all the way.
Jerome Riggs & Company, of New York, own
the next 200 feet, and have two shafts, one 130,
and one 90 feet deep ; have a good show, but being
on the top of Mammoth Hill, must go deeper for
the ore.
The National Gold Mining Company own the
next 233 feet east ; shaft 280 feet deep, two crevi-
ces, each six feet wide—key-rock or horse between,
eight feet wide. The Company were organized in
I864, but never have done anything.
The Gold Rock Mining Company own the next
260 feet east; shaft on the east end of the mine,
IOO feet deep, usual size, five by eleven in the clear;
seven feet between walls, five-foot dirt and quartz
crevice. They are now sinking ten feet a week.
They have a mill on the lode 30 by 70, with Dodge
crackers and Cornish rollers for crushing ; also a
30-horse engine and machinery, not yet set up.
They expect to dress and smelt the ores. The
hoisting is now done with a windlass. They will
get water for the mill from the Lake and Packard
Gulch, both near by. The surface dirt used to
yield $20 a ton. The Company also own 1,000 feet
on the Pendleton Lode, in Russell Gulch, and have
a shaft on it fifty feet deep, with a six-foot crevice
of galena and iron pyrites. They are not working
it now, but will soon do so. The next 600 feet on
the Mammoth are owned by three or four different
parties, and are not much improved ; shafts twenty
THE BOBTAIL LODE. I57
or thirty feet deep along, and the crevice generally
struck. r
The Mammoth Gold Mining Company own th
next 300 feet, on which is a shaft I32 feet deep, six
feet in width of ore in the bottom, copper and iron
pyrites and sulphurets, which pays in the Keith
furnace $50 to $60 a ton. The next and last 400
feet are owned by the Black Hawk Company and
Riggs & Co., who have on it three shafts, 90, IOO,
and 183 feet deep respectively.
The Mammoth is thus seen to be opened for
3,275 feet on the surface, and it is thought not im-
probable that the Bobtail is a continuation of the
same vein, displaced laterally about IOO feet. It
discloses the largest crevice generally and the long-
est, indicating that it is the strongest vein in this
locality, and it is appropriately named “Mammoth.”
It is not unlikely that it crosses Spring Gulch west,
and as the Illinois Lode is finally lost in the cap of
Quartz Hill.
THE BOBTAIL LODE.
The Boötail Gold Mining Company own 433 1-3
feet running east from the little ravine which divides
Gregory and Bobtail Hills. They have a shaft
house on the west end of the mine 30 by 50, ex-
clusive of a stone engine-room 18 by 30, containing
a 50-horse engine and complete hoisting apparatus.
A level has been run the whole length of the mine,
135 feet from the surface at the west end and 245
feet at the east. Above this, in the west end, is
virgin ground, IOO by 160 feet, rather pinched vein,
158 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
but it is believed will pay for taking out. Sixty-six
feet below, another level has been started from the
east shaft each way, and run 20 feet west and 54
feet east, showing a good ore vein throughout. An
incline has been driven from the shaft-house to the
east shaft, striking the latter 17 I feet from the sur-
face. They expect to bring out the ore from the
eastern portion of the mine through this incline.
Two shafts are to be worked in connection with the
incline, one 54 feet from the east end of the mine,
320 feet deep, and one in the center of the mine,
195 feet deep ; there is another shaft I70 feet deep,
under the shaft-house, through which ore from the
west end of the mine will be raised directly into
the shaft-house. The east shaft has been in cap
for IOO feet, but the crevice is now opening out.
The centre shaft has never yet been worked by the
Company, and the bottom is full of water. The
west shaft has been in cap 40 feet, but is also opening
out. All the shafts are to be sunk, and the mine
worked by levels and back-stoping. The mine was
formerly owned and gouged out by Tom, Dick and
Harry, and the Company have been at work since
November, 1864, getting it in shape. Six or seven
hundred tons of ore have been taken out, and run.
by custom mills, with not very satisfactory results,
being refractory. The Bobtail, Sterling, Black
Hawk, Brastow and Sensenderfer Companies, and
Mr. Field, together owning 767 feet on the Bobtail,
are putting in a six-inch pump,” which is expected to
*Aher much bother this pump was got well going about New
Years. - s
THE BOBTAIL LODE. I59
drain the whole lode. The Bobtail Company have
been badly troubled with gulch and surface water,
and have obviated the difficulty by a bed-rock tun-
nel in the gulch 130 feet long, conveying off the
surface water before it can seep into the mine. The
Company have no mill nor treating machinery. A.
N. Rogers of Central, is superintendent. This
Company have not shown the confidence and
energy which the great value of their property
would seem to warrant; they have either never had
a sufficient capital, or else have been unwilling to
use it liberally. -
The Sterling Gold Mining Company own 66 2–3
feet on the Bobtail, next east of the property last
above described. The mine is worked out to a
depth of 365 feet, and has a 30-inch pay-vein its
entire length; 700 tons of ore out for which they
have been offered $70 a ton. They hoist with
power from the Black Hawk Company's engine, on
the territory next east of them. They have IOO
feet each on the Fisk and Bates Lodes; a shaft house
and shaft 185 feet deep on the first, well timbered
and supplied with ladders to the bottom; a shaft
thoroughly timbered on the last, IOO feet in depth.
They have a steam I5-stamp mill in Chase Gulch
in running order. E. C. Gould of Black Hawk is
the agent. The Black Hawk Company own the 76
feet adjoining the Sterling east, and it has been
noticed elsewhere.
The Brastow Mining Company own next east,
66 2–3 feet, having an old shaft 400 feet deep, not
now used, and a new shaft 400 feet deep, five by ten
I6O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
in the clear, and well timbered. The mine is gener-
ally worked out to a depth of 400 feet. The ore
vein in the bottom is 24 inches wide the whole
length, and the ore runs from $35 to $70 a ton,
under stamps. Sixty-eight tons were lately sold to
go to Swansea, Wales, for $100 a ton.* The Com-
pany expect to sell their best ores regularly to the
Swansea men. They have a shaft-house 40 by 45,
with an L covering the old shaft. The hoisting
power is got from the Black Hawk Company's
engine adjoining. There are now 350 tons of ore
out. In twelve weeks 420 tons were raised with
five drills, ten-hour day-shifts only. The Company
also own 926 feet on the Clay County Lode, in
Lake Gulch, with one shaft 75 feet deep, and one
2OO, both in cap. This lode paid as largely as any
in the country on the surface. The Company also
have 260 feet on the Nottaway Lode, in Russell
Gulch, shaft 60 feet deep ; also a mill in Lake
Gulch, frame, calculated for thirty 750-lb. stamps
§
and twenty Dodge pans, with a 50-horse engine,
machinery not put up. If Vivian & Sons do not
purchase the ores, they will put up a few stamps
and some dressing machinery and smelt. H. B.
Brastow of Lake Gulch is agent, and part owner.
The Sensenderfer Gold Mining Company own the
128 feet next east of the Brastow Company on the
Bobtail. Their mine is pretty much worked out to
a depth of 400 feet. The crevice seems to divide
*Twenty tons have arrived and been treated in Swansea, the re-
sult being about $300 in value per ton, according to the best author-
ity at our service.
THE GUNNELL LODE. - I6 I
near the center of the mine ; one fork is called
Branch, of which the Company have pre-empted 800
feet, and upon which they have drifted eighty. The
ore vein throughout the mine averages 24 inches in
width. There are two working shafts, with an en-
gine, hoisting machinery, house, etc. Seventy tons
of ore have been sold to James E. Lyon (of the
smelting or matting works), for $85 a ton. The
Company have a 20-stamp mill in the upper part
of Black Hawk, with steam and water power, in
good order, running and paying. The property has
not been worked more than half the time, but has
produced $100,000 in the last two or three years,
John Sensenderfer of Black Hawk is agent and
large owner. No pay has ever been struck east of
this mine on the Bobtail, although the effort has not
been wanting. The Clinton Gold Mining Com-
pany about a year ago sank a shaft IOO feet on
No. 9 east, but it is thought they were not on the
crevice. They became discouraged, and quit. H. B.
Brastow is the Clinton Company's representative.
The Bobtail is considered the richest of the Color-
ado gold lodes.
THE GUNNELL LODE.
The Gunnell Gold Mining Company, own 450 feet
on the Gunnell Lode, including No. 1 east of Dis-
covery and running thence, west. The main shaft,
163 feet from the east end of the mine, is 438 feet
deep and sinking, and underlies to the south about
100 feet in that distance; is well timbered, and con-
tains a six-inch pump, now worked successfully for
fifteen months. East of this shaft the ground is
I62 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
chiefly worked out to a depth of 300 feet. Sev-
enty feet lower is a level, east, 150 feet long, the
back worked out ; an ore vein of eighteen inches
in the floor the whole length. Sixty feet lower an-
other level is being driven east; the ore vein in the
back and floor averages eighteen inches in width.
In the shaft there are two feet of ore. West of the
main shaft the mine is generally worked out to a
depth of 400 feet and a length of 200 ; working
down on this territory now. 'Half the length there
is an ore vein of fifteen inches, the remainder in
cap. This mine has yielded 500 ounces of gold per
month for the past year. The west end of it has
been more or less worked out by former owners, but
has never been touched by the Company; one shaft
on it IOO feet deep, and one 280 ; both paid well on
the surface. On the mine are shaft houses, Smith-
shop, magazine, office, engine-house, with a 35-horse
engine, and hoisting and pumping machinery Com-
plete. The Company have an old mill of eighteen
stamps in Nevada Gulch, in running order, and
sometimes in use ; they lease the New York Com-
pany's mill in Black Hawk. In 1864 they purchasd
the machinery throughout for a IOO-stamp mill, and
built a stone building in Black Hawk 50 by 175.
The stamps and batteries are at this mill building,
but some portion of the machinery was sold to pay
freight charges on the Missouri River. The mill
is not likely ever to be completed, because the Com-
pany can get along without it until something bet-
ter shall have been eliminated. John B. Fitzpatrick,
of Black Hawk, is the agent of the Company.
CENTRAL GOLD MINING COMPANY. I63
The Central Gold Mining Company, own 200 feet
on the Gunnell, and have a shaft 180 feet deep, with
a crevice of fourteen inches of ore. The 'shaft is
in good order, except that the whim-house has been
blown off. The surface of the mine is pretty well
hogged out, and it has not been worked for two
years. The Company also own 200 feet on the
Prize Lode, Gold Hill, on which are three shafts,
90, 165, and 185 feet in depth respectively. The
vein of ore is generally from two to three feet wide,
but badly broken up and mixed ; the deepest shaft
shows it much betterfor the last ten feet. There are
shaft-houses on the mine, and a whim for hoisting.
Nothing has been done on it for fifteen months.
The Company also own 380 feet on the Rhoderick
Dhu, Quartz Hill ; three shafts, IOO, I2O, and 220
feet deep respectively. In about half the mine
there is a two-foot vein of ore, but of the most re-
fractory nature. Ninety feet from the surface is a
level 250 feet long, showing an average vein of ore
most of the way. On the mine are shaft-houses
and a small engine for hoisting. Work was stopped
in March, 1865. The Company have a 20-stamp
mill at the mouth of Nevada Gulch, in complete
working order, but idle ; also a pan mill, near by,
with twelve pans, engine and gearing complete—
has not been run for three years ; also complete
machinery for a new mill of forty stamps and twen-
ty pans, lying on Quartz Hill by the Rhoderick Dhu,
not set up. All this property is lying idle, but is
good, and probably will not long remain idle. J. B.
Fitzpatrick is the agent.
I64 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The University Gold Mining Company own 143
feet on the Gunnell. A shaft, now 276 feet deep,
in good shape, is being sunk, and there are about
600 tons of splendid ore out ; there is a two-foot
vein of ore in the shaft, a little irregular. A
I5-horse engine is being put up for hoisting. Two
hundred feet from the surface, a level was run the
whole length of the mine, showing an average ore
vein of eighteen inches, which has been mostly taken
out. The Company have IOO feet on the Fisk, and
IOO on the Foote & Simmons, neither of them much
improved ; also 200 feet on the Kansas Lode, in
Nevada, the surface of which has been hogged out
by former owners—not yet worked by the Com-
pany; also a 15-stamp mill in Black Hawk. The
Company will treat their ores by some of the im-
proved processes—probably Keith's. Robert W.
Mead, of Black Hawk, is the agent.
The Cook Gold Mining Company own 66 feet on
the Gunnell ; have a shaft 250 feet deep, and sink-
ing—in cap at present. The surface has been
worked put to a depth of 150 feet. The shaft is
doubtless on a pinch in the vein, as well as in cap.
There is on the mine an engine-house, with engine
and hoisting machinery—no mill. Charles Crosby
is the agent. The Company have some other
slightly developed mining property. #
The Gunnell Central Gold Mining Company have
195 feet on the Gunnell ; two shafts, 180 and 220
feet deep. The surface is worked out to a depth
of 180 feet. In the deep shaft there is a 12-inch
vein of ore, and a level has been started in the bot-
THE BURROUGHS LODE. I65
tom. There is an engine-house, with an 8-horse
engine and hoisting rig complete on the mine.
The Company also have 500 feet on the Casto—
Wright's discovery—with a shaft I22 feet deep;
three feet of pure ore exposed by the shaft for
80 feet in depth ; also 500 feet on the Western
Lode, between Prosser and Eureka Gulches—shaft
60 feet deep, showing a two-foot vein—the crevice
developed in two other places. The Company have
a mill at the mouth of Prosser Gulch, with 18-horse
engine, 24 stamps, in running order; there is room
in the mill for 24 Freiberg pans. Colonel James
Baxter, of Central, is the agent; not now at work.
The remainder of the Gunnell Lode, we believe,
is owned by individuals. Mr. Coleman has 155
feet, with a shaft 250 feet deep and in pay—also an
engine-house and engine ; has a 12-stamp mill,
with a large engine and boiler, in Eureka Gulch,
near the mine. Not at work now. No other par-
ties are at work on the Gunnell save those men-
tioned.
THE BURROUGHS LODE.
The Ophir Gold Mining Company have 462 feet
together on the Burroughs, including Discovery
claim, and IOO feet toward the west end of the
lode, undeveloped. The mine is considered worked
out to a depth of 300 feet. It was the famous “Pat
Casey Property,” and produced immensely before
the present owners purchased it. There are four
shafts, A, 174, B, 343, C, 486, D, 320 feet deep.
The Company are working now only in B and C.
I66 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
In C they were in cap 150 feet; the last 70 feet
show an ore vein from twenty inches to three feet
wide. At the bottom of the deep shaft a level has
been run 100 feet each way. West, the vein is
badly split up ; east, there is an average ore vein
of thirty inches—they are now back-stoping this
out. Shaft B is 72 feet east of C. At a depth of
3OO feet they had a cap of twenty feet, and since
then have had a vein of ore twenty inches in width.
Shaft A is II 5 feet east of B, and shows the same
vein at I 74 feet from the surface as B at 32O, and
C at 416. It is believed it strikes upward again
west of the deep shaft, as the same vein is found
140 feet west at a depth of 320 feet. The west
end of the mine has never been worked much.
The B shaft is to be pushed down to the 480-foot
level, and used while a pump is being put into C
shaft. The old mill building in the gulch is to be
moved on to the lode for an engine, pump, and
shaft-house.* The present houses are of no account.
A 12-horse engine does the hoisting. A railway
four or five hundred feet long takes the ore to the
mill in the gulch. The mill is of wood, contains
24-stamps and crushes forty to fifty tons a week, now
yielding $35 to $40 a ton on the average. The
Company also own a 20-stamp mill, steam power,
in Chase Gulch,-in running order, though not now
used. They have nearby it a considerable property
on Gregory Second, with two shafts, 80 and 150
feet deep, in good shape, but in cap; a wooden
railway takes the ore to the mill. This property
* This calculation has been carried out during the past Winter.
THE BURROUGHS LODE, 167
has not been worked for two years. The Company
have also 200 feet on the Kansas; a tunnel runs
nearly in to it, striking the lode 50 feet from the sur-
face; there are two shafts, each about 125 feet deep,
which have never been worked by the present
owners. They also have 400 feet on the Sullivan,
and other slightly improved property. Altogether,
this is one of the first properties in the country, at
work and paying. Mr. E. Humphrey, of Nevada,
is the agent, and he is a good boy.
. The Gilpin Gold Mining Company adjoin the
Ophir on the east; they own 262 I-2 feet, with two
shafts, 350 and 420 feet deep. The latter has been
for 25 feet in pay; has a drift in the bottom 50 feet
west, disclosing a six-foot vein of pay-rock. This
shaft was carried through a cap of 130 feet. The
surface of the mine, to a depth of 80 feet, is worked
out. Three hundred tons of pay-rock lie at the
mouth of the shaft. The other shaft is in cap.
The hoisting is done by a whim. The Company
own a 22-stamp mill in the gulch at the foot of a
compensation, wooden railway, with a 36-horse
engine, all in pretty good order. They had another
36-horse engine and a IO-stamp mill, which have
been sold. Nothing has been done on this prop-
erty since the Spring of 1864. The Company is
represented by Colonel T. R. Tannatt, of Black
Hawk. - -
The Colorado Gold Mining Company, of Boston,
own 200 feet on the Burroughs, next east of the
Gilpin Company; have two shafts, the west one
240 feet deep, and the east one ninety. In the
I68 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
deep shaft are fifteen inches of what is considered
pay-rock; 160 feet from the surface a level is run
east 11o feet, under the east shaft, with an average
of two feet of pay-rock, the ground above slightly
taken out. It is thought this is good nearly to the
surface. There are eighteen inches of pay-rock in
the east shaft. A whim-house and whim are on the
deep shaft, and a small engine, which is not set up.
There is a wooden railway to the mill. The Com-
pany have also 240 feet on the Kansas, close by the
mill, and the same amount on the Sullivan, crossing
the Kansas—the two running much of the way
together. The shaft where the lodes cross is five
by eleven in the clear, is in good shape, 45 feet deep,
with three feet of ore. Eighty feet east is another
shaft of the same depth, with the same-sized pay-
vein. The surface is not much worked out. Fur-
ther east they have another 140 feet on the Kansas,
with a shaft 90 feet deep, showing a five-foot crevice,
nearly all ore; also 166 feet on the Monroe, which
is the Sullivan east of its crossing the Kansas—
with shaft 60 feet deep, out of which considerable
money has been taken. They have a very nice
mill building, 70 by IOO feet, with a 100-horse
engine, Crosby & Thompson desulphurizer, Blake
crusher, Storer pulverizer, three ball-crushers, one
Hepburn pan, one shaking-table, and one Eaton
amalgamator, all in complete working order; the
mill was tried in the Spring of 1866, but did not
work satisfactorily, and so was shut down to await
developments. The Company also own an old
I2-stamp mill in the gulch, the engine belonging
THE BURROUGHS LODE. . I69
to which has been taken on to the lode. J. F.
Phillips, of Nevada, is the agent.
The Burroughs Gold Mining Company come next,
and own 255 feet in two lots, C. P. Sykes, or the
La Crosse Company, owning 50 feet between them.
On their mine are three shafts, 43, 142, and 220 feet
deep. The last been IOO feet in cap. The 142-foot
shaft has a tolerable vein of ore, say twelve inches
wide. One hundred feet from the surface the two
deeper shafts are connected by a level. There is a
24-stamp mill on the lode, with a 25-horse engine,
the machinery partially set up. Tanks are ar-
ranged for using the water over and over, as that
article is somewhat scarce in the vicinity. The
mill and mine are in good shape, and the Company
have more than $2O,OOO in their treasury. Mr.
DuBois, of Black Hawk, represents the Company.
The Company have other mines, 200 feet on the
Hubert, north of Nevada, with shaft 56 feet deep,
&c. The works of the Company are well arranged
to economize labor and team work, the main
shaft opening in the mill just in front of the bat-
teries. -
The Hardesty Property joins the last above des-
cribed on the east, and consists of 265 feet, on which
are two shafts, I4O and 220 feet deep, each having
an eighteen-inch vein of pure ore, which has pro-
duced $60 a ton under stamps. There are also two
other shafts of a less depth, not in pay. This prop-
erty has just been sold by Hardesty and is now
owned by an association. There is a whim for
hoisting but no mill nor machinery. J. A. Conlee
8
17o THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of Nevada has been appointed agent and instructed
to commence work.
East of this the Burroughs vein seems to divide,
and the branches take the names of Missouri and
Baker.
The Pacific Mational Gold Mining Company own
550 feet on the Missouri—half of Discovery, and
Nos. I, 2, 3, 4, and 5 west; have a shaft on No. 3,
I75 feet deep, with a crevice of good ore two feet
in width at the bottom. On Discovery they have
a shaft about 60 feet deep, with a fair show of ore,
and on 1, 2, and 4, shafts from 20 to 30 feet deep.
The discovery claim on the Missouri paid $85 a
ton on the surface. The Company also have 142
feet on the Baker, adjoining, with one shaft 152
feet deep, just coming into pay. There is a whim-
house on the mine 30 by 50, and a whim turned by
a horse does the hoisting for the Baker and No. 3
Missouri shafts. The Company also have I,345
feet on other lodes, partially developed ; a new mill
building, 75 by IOI, in Spring Gulch, containing
twenty-four 650-lb. stamps, a reverberatory de-
Sulpurizing furnace and a 30-horse engine. Work
on the property was stopped in the Spring of 1866.
Mr. John Young of Central is agent and part owner.
Now we will trace the lode west of the Ophir. The
First National Gold Mining Company of Colorado,
own the first 183 feet. -
The Gold Hill Gold Mining Company own the
next 70 feet which are pretty much worked out to a
depth of 200 feet. The Company used to get good
ore but could not save the gold; it is thought to
THE BURROUGHS LODE. I71
have been largely the fault of the mill. They have
a 15-stamp mill complete and in running order, at
the head of Nevada Gulch. The Company have
no agent in Colorado and their mill and mine have
been idle for the last two years.
7.he Baltimore & Colorado Gold Mining Company
own the next 40 feet, and are represented by Mr.
J. T. Simms of Nevada. They are now at work,
down 160 feet, and getting out good ore. There is
an engine, with hoisting apparatus, on the lode.
The Company own and run the 8-stamp mill in the
gulch near by. - -
The Quartz Hill Gold Mining Company own the
next 90 feet, upon which is a shaft something more
than 200 feet deep, well timbered, having two
bucket ways, and a fair ore-vein in the bottom.
Thirty or forty feet above the bottom of the shaft a
level has been run the whole length of the mine
and the back mostly taken out, paying in stamp
mill, $35 a ton, average three feet of crevice crush-
ed. The hoisting is done by whim. The Com-
pany have a compact 12-stamp, steam mill in the
gulch near the mill, which commenced running in
December 1864, and did well, producing in three
months 480 ounces of gold. It was subsequently
stopped together with work on the mine, because
the whole institution was on too small a scale to
work to advantage. The Company are understood
to have since acquired other valuable mining prop-
erty in the vicinity, which will enable them to en-
large their operations. They own a tunnel site
pretty well up in the gulch, and have driven the
172 THE MINES OF COLORADO.'
tunnel 15o feet. It will cross six lodes in course of
900 feet, the last at a considerable depth. A. Man-
sur of Nevada is the agent.
Then come the First National again, owning
233 2-3 feet; then McCabe, 66 I-3 feet; then An-
drews, 90 feet; First National again, IOO feet, and
a half interest in the next 200, which takes the
lode considerably beyond any development.
The First National Gold Mining Company have
more than 600 feet in all, but it is badly divided.
They have a shaft on each of the two eastern lots,
about 240 feet deep, well timbered, of good size,
and in complete order for working. The ground is
somewhat worked out at the surface and bottom of
each shaft. The west one is thought to be just
“raising” the cap. The east shaft has a 7-foot
crevice, through which the ore vein is scattered.
There are other old shafts, of a less depth, not yet
attacked by the present owners. The east shaft
has a whim, the west one a 12-horse engine and
complete hoisting works, with a good house. The
Company have 450 feet on the Kansas, the east
end of which is worked out IOO by IOO feet. The
working shaft is I2O feet deep. A tunnel, from the
mill in the gulch, in 225 feet, has passed the Kansas,
which it strikes 50 feet from the surface, and is
within 65 feet of the Burroughs, which it will strike
I 17 feet from the surface. They have had an enor-
mous vein of rich ore in the ground worked in the
Kansas, in some places eleven feet wide. The
hoisting works on the Kansas are driven by a line
of shafting from the mill, which is 60 by 70, and
"THE BURROUGHS LODE. I73
contains twenty-five 880-lb. stamps, eighteen Frei-
berg pans, and a 60-horse engine—all set up. This
splendid mill ran a few weeks in the Summer of
1866. Seventy tons from the Burroughs retorted
193 ounces of fine gold. The mill is now shut
down to wait for a process that shall save more of
the value of the ore. Thomas R. Rodman, of Ne-
vada, is agent for the Company. The stockholders
are solid men, who have never offered their stock
for sale, and have but one object—to better them-
selves and the country by a legitimate development
of its resources.
We have now traced the Burroughs vein for about
3,000 feet. It is the king lode of Nevada, and per-
haps second to none in the country but the Gregory
for strength, length, and value. It is a shame that
but a very small portion of it is at present product-
ive.” In two places its very heavy cap has been
gone through, and a better vein than ever found
below, which should encourage all others in cap,
not only on this but on all veins, to persevere ; and
the only way to prevent these caps and pinches from
eating up all the profits of the mines is to confine
operations in them to getting through them with as
few and small holes as can be got along with. As
an instance of the evil.effect of the opposite course,
we might refer to Mr. P. F. Tobin's mine on the
Illinois. He has five shafts, all from Ioo to 14o
*This is so much the case that it was extremely hard in some
cases for the writer to find the owners or agents of the different lots
on the vein. It is quite possible that on this account some slight
inaccuracies may have crept into his report.
I74 THE MINES OF COLORADö.
feet deep, and all in cap. As a consequence he is
bankrupt so far as ready means goes, and the prop-
erty is idle. One-third of the same work expended
in one shaft would most certainly have taken him
through the cap, and furnished him the means,
from the mine, of making it productive, and the
country by so much the more prosperous. This
seems to us of enough importance to warrant its
interpolation here.
OTHER MINES, COMPANIES, MILLS, ETC.
The American Flag Gold Mining Company, own-
ing 530 feet on the American Flag Lode, Nevada,
is considered one of the best companies in the dis-
trict. There are seven shafts on the property,
varying in depth from 70 to 230 feet, and it is esti-
mated $2OO,OOO have been taken from the mine.
The crevice was enormous above the cap, varying
from eight to eleven feet in width, and paying in a
stamp mill an average of $30 a ton. In the Spring
of 1864, the mine filled with water, and nothing
was attempted until May, 1866. Then, machinery
for pumping and hoisting, with pump, having arrived,
Mr. James Clark, the agent, commenced work. On
the 27th of July the engine and hoisting apparatus
had been set up opposite thé discovery claim, and
the water was out and the shaft straightened and
timbered 120 feet deep, ready for the pump, by the
end of August. The Company intend to get the
mine in order as fast as possible, selling the ores,
which are very rich in lead as well as bullion, to the
smelters meanwhile to meet expenses, and not in-
LA CROSSE, KANSAS-COLOR ADO. I75
dulge in the luxury of a costly mill of their own
until progressing experiments shall have developed
just what they need. -
The La Crosse Gold Mining Company are con-
fining their operations to driving a tunnel, intended
to cut, at a considerable distance below the surface,
property belonging to them on a number of lodes
in Burroughs Hill running parallel with the Bur-
roughs, some above, some below. They are now
in more than 500 feet, and within a few feet of the
Burroughs, upon which they own 50 feet, and which
they will strike 200 feet from the surface. The
Burroughs is half way from the mouth of the tun-
nel to the Rhoderick Dhu, which it is designed to
reach eventually. The Company have a 12-stamp
and four-pan mill at the mouth of the tunnel, in com-
plete order, but not running. James Clark, of
Nevada, is the agent.
The Kansas – Colorado Gold Mining Company
have 4oo feet on the Camp Grove and Kansas each,
including the junction of the two lodes; two shafts,
90 feet and 130 feet deep, with a fair crevice —
150 feet on the Sullivan—two shafts, 50 feet and
75 feet deep ; 100 feet on the Gardner, shaft IOO
feet deep, with an average vein of ore ; 4OO feet
on the Cook County—two shafts, 30 feet and 50 feet
deep; 300 on the Cooper, with about the same
development. The lodes are all in Nevada, and near
together. The Company have a frame mill, almost
on the Camp Grove, 50 by IOO feet, exclusive of
a large stone engine-house, in which is set up as
handsome a 60-horse engine as there is in the
176 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
country ; also machinery complete for a Crosby &
Thompson mill, purchased and set up, including
twelve stamps. No results were obtained, and after
experimenting a few weeks in the Spring of 1866,
they shut down to await developments in the treat-
ment of ores. The mill can be easily adapted to
any process. The Company have a six-inch pump,
not set up ; also an engine-house and small engine
on the shaft. at the junction of the Camp Grove
and Kansas. B. C. Waterman, of Nevada is the
superintendent, and T. R. Tannatt, of Black Hawk,
consulting engineer and managing director.
The Egyptian Gold Mining Company have 190
feet on the Egyptian, Quartz Hill; shaft in the
centre of the mine I 50 feet deep, just getting
through the cap, have ten inches of ore; shaft 30
feet east, 98 feet deep, in cap. The hoisting is done
by hand. They have also IOO feet on the Massa-
chusetts, Nevada, shaft 40 feet deep; and a com-
plete 12-stamp mill, four pans, at the upper end
of Nevada Gulch, leased and run by Thompson &
Deavor, of Central. The Company were organized
in the Winter of 1865–6, and are represented by
C. C. Welch, of Central
The Great Western Gold Mining Company have
190 feet on the Topeka, Russell Gulch ; four shafts,
20, 50, 150 and 18O feet deep. The working shaft
opens into the mill; there is said to be a good ore
vein in the deep shafts. They have also 200 feet
on the Bench, near by—two shafts, 50 and 130 feet
deep, in good pay; and over 8,000 feet of unde-
veloped property on the best lodes in Russell Dis-
ALPS AND GRANADA COMPANIES. 177
trict; an old 12-stamp mill in Russell Gulch, run
in 1865 by lessees, – idle and somewhat out of
repair now; a new frame mill on the Topeka Lode,
with a 40-horse engine, 2O stamps and some pans.
The Company are not now at work. B. C. Water-
man is the superintendent, and T. R. Tannatt, man-
aging director.
The Alps and Granada Gold Mining Companies
are composed of pretty much the same men, and
are located on the same vein on the top and
southern exposure of Quartz Hill, the Granada
Company holding 800 feet under the name of
Mackie, and the Alps Company holding the 700
feet adjoining, west, under the name of Alps. The
Mackie has four shafts, 44, 56, IO5, and I75 feet
deep respectively. The ground worked is all on
the west end of the mine. At the bottom of the
deepest shaft a level is started either way, and the
shaft kept sinking; there is an ore vein in both levels
eight inches wide. There are three shaft-houses,
and an engine-house 40 by 40, half on one mine and
half on the other, owned by the Alps Company,
but used by both, with a 25-horse engine and very
complete hoisting tackle. On the Alps the ground
worked out is on the east end. There are two
shafts 90 and I70 feet deep, and two or three others
from 20 to 35 feet deep, just down to the crevice.
In the bottom of the deep shaft a level is started
each way, showing an ore vein ten inches wide.
Three hundred and sixty-five tons of gossan from
the surface of this vein, taken out in 1863–64,
yielded over $32,000 in gold. Its profits for the
3# * * &
178 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
first four months it was worked, amounted to
$40,129. 18. The Granada Company own a magnifi-
cent mill-building in Russell Gulch, 65 by IOO, con-
taining a IOO-horse engine and all the machinery
for a 30-stamp mill. The engine and boilers are set
up, but the remainder is not—now waiting for a pro-
cess, to any of which the mill can be easily adapted.
Good roads lead from the mine to the heads of Ne-
vada, Russell and Leavenworth Gulches. George
R. Mitchell of Nevada, is the agent.* The works
on the mine, the shafts, etc., are in tip-top order.
The shafts are being sunk by contract for $30 a
foot, the Company hoisting and doing the Smithing;
drifts on the same terms for eight and ten dollars.
The mines are in the most delightful situation, near
the highest point of that mountain tongue which
extends clear down to the junction of North and
South, Clear Creeks,—where all the world seems
tributary to the eye, and yet quite well sheltered
on the north and west.
The Wottoway Gold Mining Compnay have 800
feet on the Nottoway, on the north side of Russell
Gulch, half way from its head to Pleasant Valley;
three shafts, each more than IOO feet deep. The
ore has paid in a stamp mill $70 a ton. The lode
has a very strong vein of ore. The hoisting is
done by hand. The Company have a mill in the
gulch at the foot of the lode, intended for the Dodge
*He since leased an old 12-stamp mill in Leavenworth Gulch,
and, selling his best ores to the smelters, took 1,197 ounces of gold,
$18,896.30, from 1,360 tons of second quality ore; this between
August 11, 1866, and February 2, 1867.
º
$
KING AND Rochdate companies. I79
process, but the machinery is not put up. Eben
Smith, of Central, is the agent. Not at work.
The King Gold Mining Company have No. 5, and
half of No. 6 west, and No. 3 east on the Nottoway;
two shafts on the west mine, 130 feet deep; hoist-
ing done by rope from the mill engine; no im-
provement on the east mine. They have also 200
feet on the Dorchester—50-foot shaft; 300 feet on the
Golden Wedge,_30-foot shaft; all near together,
and looking encouragingly for pay: a 12-stamp
mill in the gulch, near the mine, in running order,
we believe. Mr. W. A. Abbee, of Central, is agent.
The Nottoway is opened from 5 east to 15 west,
and is considered one of the best veins in the
country. O
The Rochdale Gold Mining Company have 800 feet
on the Harsh Lode, Leavenworth Gulch; four shafts,
down on to a three foot ore vein—average depth, 5o
feet; deepest, 80 feet; four other shafts not yet down
to the ore, still in quartz. About 50 feet from the
surface is a drift 250 feet long, west from the deep
shaft, showing an average ore vein of three feet;
80 feet from the surface, is a drift west 40 feet, on a
crevice of ore of three to four feet. The hoisting is
done by hand, and they are not troubled with water.
The Company have also 550 feet on the Calhoun,
in the same vicinity; one shaft 125 feet deep, which
has gone through a vein of pure and rich ore
eighteen inches thick for 60 feet; there are 85 tons
of ore out. The surface of the whole mine has
been worked out to a depth of 40 feet, and paid
largely. The hoisting is done by hand. The ore
I8O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
is considered as rich as any in the country. They
also have 600 feet on the Wood, in the same vicinity,
including all the developed part of the lode ; one
shaft 80 feet deep, which exposes an ore vein of
fifteen inches—the material taken out of this shaft
more than paid for the sinking; one shaft 60 feet
deep also in pay. The hoisting is done by hand.
The surface has been worked out 40 by 300 feet,
and paid largely. The Company have a frame mill
60 by IOO on the Harsh, about half of it two-story,
containing a 60-horse engine, two Dodge crushers,
and two Cutler mills, such as are used in the zinc
works at Jersey City. They have made some ex-
periments in * but have not yet de-
cided on a process. eir mill is easily adaptable
to any. With a satisfactory treatment for the ores,
the Company must be successful, for they own ex-
tensive, strong, and rich veins, in good shape, easily
accessible, with a mill conveniently located. S. P.
Lathrop, of Black Hawk, is agent and part owner.
The Prometheus Gold Mining Company own 500
feet on Prometheus, in Russell Gulch; shaft 55 feet
deep, with fourteen inches of ore; four other shafts,
from 25 to 40 feet deep, all showing a good ore vein.
Their hoisting is done by hand. They have no mill
nor machinery; $30,000 of their capital is to be
devoted to mining. Col. Charles H. Lewis, of
Central, is the agent. Now at work.
The Empire Gold Mining Company have 1,400
feet on the Empire Lode, which is an extension of
the American Flag; four shafts, from 80 to 90 feet
deep each—two of them on the west end of the
RING AND MONITOR COMPANIES. I8I
mine, down to a two-foot vein of galenous ore.
They are putting up a whim, and mining; have no
mill nor machinery; working capital of $30,000.
Col. Charles H. Lewis, agent.
The King Gold Mining Company have 1,600 feet
on the King Lode, Nevada Flats; one shaft 80 feet
deep, one 93, and the crevice struck on nearly every
IOO feet. The ore vein is galenous, twelve inches
wide. A contract is let to sink the deepest shaft—
on the discovery—IOO feet. The hoisting is done
with a whim: The Company will probably sell the
ore to the smelters, or keep it for the future. They
have a mill building 35 by 70, in Eureka Gulch,
8o rods from the mine, intended for a Crosby &
Thompson mill; was tried and failed. They will
mine, and await developments as to treating pro-
cesses. They have a fine dwelling and boarding-
house, 24 by 36, two-story, painted and well-finished.
Col. Charles H. Lewis, agent.
The Monitor Gold Mining Association have 400
feet on the Canton Lode, Leavenworth Gulch ; two
shafts, 80 and IOO feet deep, connected 50 feet from
the surface by a level. Twenty feet lower is an-
other level, not run clear through; twenty feet
lower a third level is started. There is an average
ore vein of three feet in the shafts and levels; 7oo
tons of ore out. They also have 600 feet on the
Pennsylvania, at the head of Virginia Kanyon; two
shafts, 40 and IOO feet deep, in cap; other less de-
veloped property, considered first-class. The hoist-
ing all done by hand. The Company have a stone
mill 65 by 80 in Russell Gulch; tried the Crosby
I82 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
& Thompson process thoroughly, and it utterly
failing, gave it up; have adopted nothing yet in its
place. In the mill are a 40-horse engine, a Dodge
cracker, two ball pulverizers, one shaking-table, and
one set of Peck pans. The mill could be adapted
to the Keith process by building a furnace. A. S.
Cobb, of Russell Gulch, is the agent.
The Keystone Mining Company have 200 feet on
the Calhoun, Leavenworth Gulch, with a shaft I4O
feet deep, just through a cap of 80 feet, and show-
ing eight inches of ore; IOO feet on the Wood, in
the same Gulch, shaft 60 feet deep, sixteen inches
of ore ; 700 feet on the Cisler, south of Russell
Gulch, shaft I40 feet deep, ore vein of two to three
feet; 600 feet on the Rockford, at the head of Rus-
sell, shaft 40 feet deep; and some other less im-
proved property. They have also a stone mill
building in Russell Gulch, 45 by IOO, exclusive of
engine-room 34 by 60, partly finished. The ma-
chinery is on the ground for 3O stamps and 20
pans, but none of it set up. The Company have
as good a mining property as any. Not at work
and no agent.
The Philadelphia and Colorado Gold Mining
Company have 300 feet next east of the Clark-Gard-
ner, on the Gardner ; one shaft 250 feet deep, one
80 ; a drift 220 feet from the surface, run 25 feet
either way, exposing a pay-vein eighteen inches in
width. On the mine is an engine-house, with a
small engine for hoisting. They have beside much
other property, less improved ; a large stone mill
in Nevada Gulch, 70 by 70 in the clear, exclusive
GARDNER LODE. 183
of engine-house, 34 by 35, an assay office in con-
nection with it, 20 feet square, and a recess on one
side for a quartz room. The mill is intended for 50
stamps, I2 pans—only 25 of the stamps now put
up—and two Cornish buddles. They ran the mill
a few weeks in the Spring of 1866, and shut down
to put up a Monnier muffle. They built a leanto on
the side of the mill 25 by I I2, and a brick muffle
80 feet long, six by nine feet in size, with a stack 50
feet high.* The ore is introduced at one end, with
one-tenth of its weight of Sulphate of soda, and
worked to the other with shovels, then lixiviated
for the copper and silver, and amalgamated for the
gold. They have a small drying furnace besides the
muffle. The muffle was commenced September
Ist, 1866. The mill is in good order, a fine struc-
ture, and contains an 80-horse engine. Henry A.
Vezin, of Philadelphia, did this last work. The
Company have no agent in Colorado at present.
The Clark-Gardner Gold Mining Company have
2OO feet on the Gardner, Quartz Hill; two shafts,
2OO and 182 feet deep, +the last opening into the
mill—connected by a drift I 82 feet from the sur-
face. In both shafts and the level is an ore vein,
averaging four feet in width. There are 350 tons
of ore out. They have a stone mill building on the
lode, 40 by 80 feet, with a Little-Giant engine
of 40-horse power. The only machinery at present
in the mill is a set of Cornish rollers, whicles not
*This was done by the Monnier Metallurgical Company of Colo-
rado—headquarters in Philadelphia—and this Company together;
that is, each sharing equally in the expense.
I84 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
yet set up. The hoisting works were constructed
by Joseph F. Sanderson ; an iron skip raises two
tons at once ;-it is the best hoisting apparatus in
the country. The Company shut down in July,
1866, to await developments in smelting. Alfred
Clark, of Nevada, is the agent.
Next west of the Clark-Gardner, Frank Gravitt
owns IOO feet on the Gardner Lode, not much im-
proved. Next come the Hawley-Gardner Com-
pany, owning 200 feet, undeveloped ; expect to
commence work in the Spring of 1867. S. B. Haw-
ley owns the next 300 feet; two shafts, I I5 and 18O
feet deep ; the deep shaft is just through the cap,
and has fourteen inches of ore ; above the cap,
which is 70 feet deep, the crevice is from three to
five feet wide, and the ore and quartz yielded from
$25 to $225 a ton under stamps. B. C. Waterman
owns the next IOO feet, has a deep shaft, whim and
whim-house. The Gardner is considered one of
the best veins in the country. It is wide and soft,
and rich. The Philadelphia and Colorado Company
once took out 420 tons with only $800 expense for
powder and blasting. C. :
The Congress Gold Mining Company have 300
feet on the Saratoga, between Russell and Willis
Gulches; three shafts, I45, II5, and IOO feet deep
respectively. The two deepest shafts are timbered
for Ioo feet; all the shafts are in pay. More than
$50,000 have been taken from this mine. They are
In OW putting up a 50-horse engine—large enough to
run a mill and the mine ; also a six-inch pump.
They will sink the two east shafts to a depth of 200
SARATOGA AND ILLINOIS LODES. 185
feet, and connect by drift. The material now
coming out is worth $30 a ton by stamps. The
Company own no mill, but are thinking of putting
up a small stamp-mill on the mine, the latter fur-
nishing water to run it. The mine is in first-rate
shape. James S. Sheafe, of Russell Gulch, is the
agent.
P. F. Tobin owns 3 Io feet on the Illinois Lode,
Quartz Hill, supposed extension of the Mammoth;
two shafts opening in the mill, one 90 feet deep, one
190, drifted together 80 feet from the surface; ten
feet from the bottom of the deep shaft is a drift 43
feet east. These shafts are in cap, and show about
6 inches only of galenous ore. Fifteen feet east of
the mill is a shaft 130 feet deep ; 20 feet further
east is a 120-foot shaft; 30 feet further a 140-foot
shaft—all in cap. The surface of the mine is pretty
well worked out. On the mine is a frame mill, 30.
by 75, containing a 20-horse engine with hoisting
apparatus complete, and twelve stamps, all in run-
ning order.
The Ford Gold Mining Company own 600 feet on
the Jefferson Lode, at the head of Russell; one
shaft I3O feet deep, one 50 ; the surface is stripped
for 150 feet. The crevice is three feet wide, and
the surface quartz is very heavy with galena. The
vein is even, and descends vertically between
smooth, solid walls about three feet apart. The
Company have also 600 feet on the Goldsborough,
in the same vicinity, not much improved ; also 400
feet on the Stewart, same vicinity, one shaft IOO
feet deep, one 40 to 50—the crevice in the deep
I86 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
shaft three feet wide, half of it very rich and heavy
galena ; a wooden mill, just below the lodes in the
gulch containing a reverberatory smelting furnace
ready to run, of six tons a day capacity—a Dodge
crusher, Blake crusher, two sets of burrs, a Collom
Separator, and a 40-horse engine, all in running
order. The Company are not at work, on account
of temporary pecuniary embarrassment. Francis
R. Ford, of Russell Gulch, is the agent.
The Hill Gold Mining Company own 500 feet
on the Fairfield, south from discovery, at the head
of Russell—a north and south lode. The surface
of No. 1, is worked out to a depth of 40 or 50 feet;
a shaft I2O feet deep on No. 1, in cap. The hoist-
ing is done by hand. There is a mill in the gulch
near the mine, containing twelve 600-lb. stamps, a
I5-horse engine, not set up ; foundation for the
batteries laid. The Company have not been at
work for three months, as their prospects were not
considered encouraging enough to warrant going
on until mining should be less expensive. Iron py-
rites from the lode prospects extremely rich in gold
pan, and assays $75 a ton, coin value, but they have
not yet enough of it to pay. John H. Barlow of
Russell Gulch is the agent.
The Fairfield Gold Mining Company have 500
feet on the Fairfield, just north of the Hill Com-
pany ; one shaft 70 feet deep, timbered and in good
shape; other shafts just down to the crevice the
whole length of the mine. The last 30 feet of the
deep shaft show a crevice from eighteen to forty
inches in width; a level is run 70 feet long, 25 feet
THE BENCH LODE. 187
from the surface, on an average vein of two feet.
The hoisting is done by hand. The Company also
have 300 feet on the Leavenworth, in Leavenworth
Gulch ; shaft 80 feet deep, well timbered and in
good shape; the vein underlies so that the shaft at
80 feet depth just strikes the crevice, which con-
tains two feet of ore ; another shaft 65 feet deep—
the surface a good deal worked out, paying largely;
other less improved property. They have an old
8-stamp mill at the head of Russell, somewhat
out of repair. The Company stopped work in
May, 1866, like many others, to await develop-
ments. O. H. Harker of Central, is the agent.
The Kershow Gold Mining Company have 200 feet
on the Bench Lode, near the Topeka, Russell Gulch;
two shafts one I55 feet deep, the other 85. The
surface is worked out for 40 feet in depth. From
the bottom of the 85-foot shaft is a level, driving
both ways, now in 20 feet in each direction ; there
are from four to five feet of ore in this drift. In
the deep shaft they were in cap 80 feet, but now
have three feet of rich ore. Both shafts are well
timbered and in good shape. On the mine are an
engine-house, containing a 20-horse engine—rent-
ed, and two shaft-houses. They have about 3OO
tons of ore out; machinery for two Crosby &
Thompson mills, complete; a IOO-horse double
engine, two desulphurizers, two Storer beaters, Blake
crackers, &c., all on the ground, but none of it put
up. The Company have considerable other mining
property, not improved, among it 600 feet on the
Tuscola, in the same vicinity; two shafts, each 30
I88 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
feet deep, connected by a drift, showing three feet
of ore. They do not know whether they will adopt
smelting or the Keith process for treatment, An-
drew J. Ames, of Russell Gulch, is their agent.
John M. Osborne, represents a partnership mining
concern, the partners living in New Jersey. He is
running a tunnel into the big hill south of the head
of Russell Gulch, which rises at an angle of 45°
to a height of more than 700 feet, and intends to
cross the rich belt of lodes running down the gulch,
the same as that containing the Pewabic, Iron,
Kingston, Nashville, White Cloud, Clinton County,
&c., all of them known to be rich. The tunnel is
now in 8o feet, and is to be driven without cessa-
tion. The partnership own a good deal of the best
property in the head of Russell Gulch, more or less
developed, but are now confining themselves wholly
to driving the tunnel.
Şoseph Briggs and John W. Zehner own 600 ſeet
on the Kingston Lode, Russell Gulch, including the
discovery, they being the discoverers; four shafts,
55, 35, 20 and 40 feet deep respectively; the crevice
of ore in the discovery shaft is three feet wide,
nine feet between walls. The first seven tons of
ore yielded $480; seventy tons from the different
shafts, quartz and iron, IO to 55 feet from the sur-
face, averaged $36 a ton in gold. Four hundred
feet are open. The lode is not yet struck beyond
this property.
The Pewabic Lode is all owned by the original
pre-emptors, and is opened by seven shafts from 30
to 60 feet deep, for 900 feet in length. It is consid-
THE PEWABIC LODE. I89
erably worked out on the surface and by drifts. It
is estimated that I5OO tons of material have been
taken from the lode, averaging $30 in gold per ton.
One run of 2 I tons averaged $57 a ton. The
crevice varies in width from five to ten feet.
The Clear Creek Tunnel Company own 6oo feet
on the Kinney Tunnel Lode, on North Clear Creek,
in Black Hawk. Adit driven in on creek level and
on vein 60 feet, crevice of gossan six feet wide, with
thin streaks or formations of very rich ore, assay-
ing as high as $600 per ton in gold, improving rap-
idly. Also a mill-site on the creek at mouth of
adit, dwelling-house and lot near by, and 25-horse
engine now in use in a saw-mill at Guy Hill.
The Kip & Buell Gold Mining and Thmmel
Company, have 600 feet on the Kip Lode, crossing
Gregory Gulch just above Mountain City ; one
shaft 235 feet deep. Two hundred feet from the
surface a level is run east and west IOO feet long ;
the crevice between the walls is eight feet, with
twenty inches of tolerably clear ore. From the level
downward, the vein will probably pay for taking
out. An engine-house, containing a IO-horse en-
gine, is on the shaft. This Company also have 350
feet on the Leavitt, crossing Gregory Gulch, parallel
with and not far from the Kip ; two shafts, 75 and
90 feet deep, with a crevice of six feet, mixed ore
and rock in the west shaft, the east one being on
a pinch occasioned by a cross-course. They are
now sinking the west shaft, with good indications.
They have leased 150 feet east for two years. The
ore is raised within four feet of the new mill.
I90 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The Company have a log 12-stamp mill, built in
1860, which they have been running on custom
ore.” They have a stone mill-building 45 by IOO
feet, containing two upright engines, of 75-horse
power, a five-inch pump and hoisting gear, at work;
they had some other machinery, which seems to
have been proven worthless before it was put up.
The mill is a splendid one, built, says Mr. Kip, at a
cost of $15,000, and adaptable to any plan of treat-
ing ores. John Kip, of Central, is agent and also
a considerable owner.
The Montezuma Gold Mining Company have 3OO
feet on the Newfoundland, in the lower part of Ne-
vada Gulch ; a shaft nearly in the center of the
mine, well curbed and in fine shape. The vein is
regularly irregular—that is to say, they have it about
half the time, and four feet in width if at all. Sixty
feet west is a shaft I40 feet deep, drifted to the
other shaft. This shaft and drift have not yet been
worked by the Company. There are several drifts
on pockets from the main shaft I5 to 40 feet long.
They are now sinking the main shaft, and running
a level east, 3OO feet from the surface, on a 20-inch
vein. On the mine is a shaft-house 18 by 30, with
a 10-horse engine and hoisting works complete—no
pump, but a bucket of water can be raised every
two minutes. Three hundred feet from the mine is
a new frame mill, irregular in shape, about 70 by
Ioo in size. It is intended for a Crosby & Thomp-
son outfit entirely ; contains one of Otis Tufts'
*It has latterly been doing very well on the Company's ore from
the Leavitt. Such is the tenor of our advices from Colorado.
NEWFOUNDLAND LODE. I9 I
120-horse engines, thought (by Mr. Cushman) to be
the finest in Colorado; a Blake crusher, Crosby &
Thompson desulphurizer, 4-foot ball pulverizer,
30-inch ball pulverizer, three Hepburn pans, two
shaking-tables, all put up in the best of style. The
mechanical arrangement for handling the ore is per-
fect. They have just started and are depending
on the Crosby & Thompson process for success ;
could easily substitute Keith's, or any other, should
that prove worthless. The capacity of the mill is
I5 tons a day. Samuel Cushman, of Central, is the
agent.
The Gregory Gold Mining Company have 160 feet
on Gregory Second, Mountain City; one shaft 160
feet deep, with a three-foot vein of ore. The last run
of I5 or 20 tons produced about an ounce of gold to
the ton under stamps. They have another shaft 95
feet deep; the mine is worked out above that depth,
and there is a pinch below: the deep shaft is just
through it. On the mine is a new engine-house,
with engine and hoisting machinery, in good trim.
The Company also own 200 feet on the Gregory
Extension, running from the United States Com-
pany's mine to the Manhattan Company's, but
slightly improved ; also 50 feet on the Bobtail,
on No. 3, west—shaft 230 feet deep, with rather a
pinched crevice, engine-house and engine on it;
also 360 feet on the Fisk, no improvements; one
60-horse engine, and a set of the Dodge machinery
of 1864, not put up or likely to be. William Mc-
Cleary, of Black Hawk, is the agent.
The Montana Gold Mining Company have 200
192 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
feet on the Kansas, 200 on the Kent County, and
500 on the Illinois, all on Quartz Hill. On the
Kansas they have one shaft 50 feet deep, with an
8-inch vein of ore; on the Kent County one shaft
40 feet deep, crevice of gossan three feet wide, ore
just coming in ; on the Illinois two shafts, 40 and
60 feet deep, ore vein 24 inches wide. They
stopped work on the mines in the Fall of 1864.
They have a large frame 30-stamp mill at the mouth
of Spring Gulch, Central City, containing 15 stamps
and a IOO-horse engine, set up and run a few days
in 1865. P. L. Sherry, of Central, is the agent.
The Manhattan Gold Mining Company have 350
feet on the Fisk; two shafts, 130 and 214 feet deep.
In the shallower there is a vein of ore four feet in
width for the last 40 feet, and a level in a few feet
each way shows no diminution. There are nearly
300 tons of ore out. In the deep shaft is about a
six-inch vein; they have never had any larger from
the top, and the shaft is thought to be off the crevice.
On the mine are a whim-house, and an engine-house
containing a 25-horse engine. The Company have
further 200 feet on the Gregory Extension, shaft 50
feet deep, with not much show yet; own property
besides on the Bobtail, Tucker, Ground-hog, Enter-
prise, Cotton, Kip, Galena, etc., none of it much
improved; have a frame mill in Black Hawk 40 by
Ioo, containing a Keith furnace, Ingersoll crusher—
which takes the ore wet or dry equally well—ball
pulverizers and twelve shaking-tables. The esti-
mated capacity of the mill is twenty tons a day.
There is a large stone engine-house a little removed
THE BATES LODE. I93
from the mill, with a handsome double engine of
8o-horse power, stable, &c. They expect to start the
mill and make it pay from the 1st of November.
Col. Thomas R. Tannatt, of Black Hawk, is the
agent.
The Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Company have
250 feet on the Bates, immediately in Gregory
Gulch ; three shafts, 150, 175 and 150 feet deep re-
spectively. In two of them they have three feet of
ore. The deepest is the main shaft, now receiving
a six-inch pump and being driven down. They
have a stone engine-house 30 by 32, and a mill ad-
joining 50 by 85 ; also a 40-horse engine, expected
to drive the mill, pump, and hoisting rig. Dodge
machinery was purchased for the mill, but is thrown
aside and will not be put up. They do not yet
know what they will adopt-but probably Keith's
process, should it give satisfaction in the Manhat-
tan mill. The Company own other undeveloped
property, including 33OO fect on the best lodes in
Empire District, Clear Creek County. . They are
now putting up their engine, pump and hoisting
works, preparatory to mining on the Bates. Thomas
R. Tannatt is the agent.
The Standard Gold Company have 175 feet on the
Fisk; one shaft 125 feet deep, three-foot vein of
ore ; hoisting by whim; stopped mining in the
Winter of 1864-5. They have also a mill site and
750 feet of water power on North Clear Creek
above Black Hawk. A 40-horse engine, and ma-
chinery for a Dodge mill have just arrived, after
being on the road two years, but will not be set up.
9
I94 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The Company own 3,000 feet on veins in Ohio Dis-
trict, Clear Creek County. They are not now at
work. Col. T. R. Tannatt is the agent.
The Alliance Mining Company, organized in the
Spring of 1866 by the consolidation of “The
Eight Associates,” “The Crawford & Coin,” and
“The Leavenworth Companies,” have 400 feet on
the Harsh, including discovery; two shafts, each
60 feet deep, and one I2O feet, with a good crevice
in all of them; 600 feet on the Crawford County,
in Russell District—two shafts, 40 and 70 feet deep,
good crevice in both ; 300 feet on the Carolton,
Leavenworth Gulch—shaft 80 feet deep, 18 inches
of ore ; 700 feet on the Huber, same vicinity—two
shafts, I2O and 18O feet deep, in the latter two to
three feet of ore, in the former eight feet; 400 feet
on the Stump, Russell District—two shafts, each
40 feet deep, and one I30, two feet of ore in the
latter; 500 feet on the Coin, Mountain City—shaft
8o feet deep, ore vein two feet wide ; 3oo feet on
the Berry, Gregory Hill—shaft 70 feet deep; 700
feet on the Alliance, Gregory Hill, shaft 124 feet
deep ; other less developed property; no hoisting
machinery but whims and windlasses. They have
two stone mill-buildings in Russell Gulch, 5o or 6o
by I50, calculated for 40 stamps and 20 pans each,
with engines, shafting, etc., for complete mills, the
machinery not put up ; also the Excelsior mill, a
mile below Black Hawk, steam and water power,
2O stamps and eight pans, all in working order,
which has been leased to the Cook Company, Who
have been trying to run a Crosby & Thompson de-
THE CORY DON LODE. I95
sulphurizer, but so far without much success; the
mill also contains a reverberatory desulphurizing
furnace. The Company are not doing much at
present, but anticipate erecting smelting works an-
other season. D. W. Wise, of Central, is the agent,
and Robert Teats, of same place, acting superin-
tendent.
The Corydon Gold Mining Company have 600
feet on the Corydon, lower part of Nevada Gulch;
discovery shaft, near the east end of the mine, 275
feet deep, three feet of ore in the bottom. One
hundred feet from the surface is a drift west 140
feet, with fifteen to forty inches of ore in the floor;
250 feet from the surface is another drift 40 feet
long, on an average 30-inch ore vein ; in the shaft
below is the same sized vein. One hundred and
fifty feet west is a shaft 99 feet deep, which has been
in cap, but now has a fair crevice of ore. There
are I 500 tons of ore out. Levels are to be run the
whole length of the mine. The ore has yielded
from $12 to $37 a ton in a stamp mill. The main
shaft is in as good shape as any in the country. On
the mine is an engine-house, with a 16-horse engine
and hoisting rig complete. The Company also have
400 feet on the Newfoundland, nearby, undeveloped;
400 feet on the Lyman, same vicinity,+shaft IIo
feet deep, two-foot ore vein, the ore from which
yielded $100 per ton by the Keith process—three
other shafts, from 30 to 85 feet deep; 4OO feet on
the Excelsior, the crevice simply struck on each
claim ; and an 8-stamp mill in Nevada Gulch, near
the lodes. Mr. H. M. Teller, of Central, who is
196 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
part owner and represents the Company, has dis-
suaded them from investing their working capital
in machinery by dint of strong and persistent effort.
He is mining simply as yet.
The Cook & Kimball Gold Mining Company
have a large Bertota mill in Gregory Gulch, near
the heart of Central City. It contains a 20-horse
portable engine, two batteries of four 320-lb. stamps
each, six small iron Chilian mills, and eighteen pairs
of Bertola pans—iron, with stone mullers—all in run-
ning order, and in use by Mr. George L. Cook, son
of Cook, of Cook & Kimball, on his own account.
He says it is an improvement on the stamp mill.
The process consists substantially in amalgamating
in iron pans, after subjecting the pulverized ore to
a chemical steam bath, the exact components of
which are as yet a secret so far as the public are
concerned. This mill is supplied with water from
the Gulch Lode, under the mill, considerably im-
proved, but never worked by the present owners.
What little ore they have treated has been for other
parties. The Company are not doing anything.
The Lode Star Gold Mining Company have 1600
feet on the Pacific Lode, Illinois Central District ;
one shaft 80 feet deep, one 60, and other shallower
shafts. The vein is struck for 500 feet. The deep-
est shaft is in cap; the others show a crevice of
from two to four feet. They are working on this
lode. They also have 400 feet on the Metropolitan,
Quartz Hill, shaft 55 feet deep, being sunk; also
I6OO feet on the Atlantic, in Russell, not much im-
proved. The Company have a mill at the mouth
WHIPPLE AND NEw ENGLAND companies. I97
of Excelsior Gulch, frame, 50 by 60 in size, con-
taining a 50-horse engine, a Kingsley's crusher—
worthless—a Crosby & Thompson desulphurizer,
four-foot ball pulverizer, three shaking-tables, all
set up ; started, and stopped. The Company are
mining, and intend to let the mill stand still and
await developments. Capt. George K. Kimball, of
Central, is their agent. &
The Columbia Gold Mining Company have 1600
feet on the Wall Street Lode, near the mouth of
Nevada Gulch ; shaft 40 feet deep, vein of ore one
foot in width; a full Dodge and Crosby & Thomp-
son mill, the machinery, including a 50-horse engine,
all set up and in working shape. George K. Kim-
ball is the agent.
The Thurber Gold Mining Company have six full,
or nearly full, lodes (16OO feet), in Spring Gulch,
none of them worked but one—the Grace—which
has a shaft 60 feet deep, with a five-foot crevice,
but no defined vein of ore yet. They have also
IOoo feet on the Burton, Illinois Gulch, with a shaft
96 feet deep, ore-vein two feet wide, now being
sunk; and some other lodes, not at present worked;
no mill; a small engine and rig for hoisting. Their
operations are confined strictly to mining. Col. W.
A. Arnold, of Central, is their agent.
The Whipple Gold Mining Company have IOO feet
on the Bobtail—No. 4 west—and 200 on the Fisk—
Nos. 4 and 5 west—at what was once Supposed to be
the crossing of the two lodes; it has been demon-
strated that they do not cross on this property, but
further west, if at all. They have a shaft on the Bob-
198 THE MINES OF COLORADo.
tail claim 85 feet deep, with an ore-vein I8 inches
wide—the surface somewhat worked out; at the
bottom of the shaft a cross-cut, 24 feet long, strikes
the Fisk in the centre of the Company's 200 feet,
in a shaft I 50 feet deep. A level is run, I IO feet
from the surface, on a three-foot ore vein, and con-
siderably worked out in the back; below this level
the ore vein is from two to three feet wide. There
are 300 tons of ore out. A large whim-house an-
swers for both shafts. The Company are sinking
on the Fisk now. They have a mill and water-
power in the lower part of Black Hawk; the mill
containing a Dodge crusher and desulphurizer,
Cornish rollers, eight Dodge pans, a Dodge amal-
gamator, and a large Oscillating engine, all set up,
and run a few weeks in the beginning of 1866; not
working satisfactorily it was shut down. M. A.
Arnold, of Central, is the agent.
The New England Mining Company of Colorado
have 900 feet on the Running Lode, a strong vein
about half a mile south-east of the Bobtail. There
are several shafts on the property, varying in depth
from 20 to I2O feet. In the bottom of the latter
shaft is a vein of ore two feet wide. There are 150
tons out. On the mine is an engine-house, with
engine and hoisting rig complete. The Company
have a mill in Black Hawk, containing eight stamps,
two pans, and a small engine. They are represented
by Com. Rodney French, of New Bedford, and have
been principally engaged during the last two years
in experimenting with their ores with a view to
adopting the best treatment known. The former
FISK AND JAQUES COMPANIES. I99
owners claim to have taken $75,000 from the
mine.
The Fisk Gold Mining Company have 200 feet on
the Fisk, No's I and 2 west; a shaft on No. 1, 155 feet
deep, showing three feet of ore mixed through a
seven-foot crevice; shaft on No. 2, 75 feet deep,
with a four-foot crevice of ore and rock, well mixed.
On the mine is an engine-house, with a 15-horse
engine and hoisting works in good order. The
Company are taking out ore, and selling it to the
Mammoth (Keith) mill. They have also 500 feet
on the Running Lode, but slightly improved ; a
stone mill building in Black Hawk, about 80 feet
square ; a 75-horse engine, forty 88O-lb. stamps, and
2O Freiberg pans, on the ground, but not put up.
W. N. Dickerson, of Black Hawk, is the agent, and
a large owner of the stock. .
The 9aques Gold Mining Company have 300 feet
on the Mercer County (extension of the Flack)—
Nos. 3, 4 and 5 east; a shaft on No. 4, 172 feet
deep, with a vein of ore thirty to forty inches wide,
assaying $12O a ton; shaft on No. 5, 142 feet deep,
with two feet of ore. A drift 130 feet from the sur-
face connects the two shafts, and runs west 53 feet
on No. 3.; a shaft on No. 3, 40 feet deep—no ore yet.
A whim and two shaft-houses are on the mine. The
Company have also 700 feet on other lodes, less
developed ; and a mill in Nevada known as the
“Stoner,” containing twelve 600-lb. stamps and an
engine. John Young, of Central, is the agent.
Not at work.
The Sierra Madre Gold Mining Company have
2OO THE MINES OF COLORADO,
6OO feet on the Eureka Lode, at the head of Prosser
Gulch, in a body, and 66 2-3 feet in another place.
The main shaft, I42 feet deep, opens into a wing of
the mill ; 150 feet east is another shaft 87 feet deep,
five feet between walls, with strong seams of ore
coming in. There are 80 tons of ore out. The
Company have a frame mill 40 by 60, containing a
35-horse Patterson engine, a Thunderbolt crusher,
and ore dressing machinery after the plan of the
Royal Hanoverian works in the Hartz Mountains.
The intention of these works is simply to crush and
dress the ores preparatory to smelting: after being
reduced to an even fineness, the ore, except the
dust or slimes, is carried by a stream of water to a
continuous German jigger, the capacity of which is
650 cubic feet in twenty-four hours, the result being
perfectly clean ore. The fine ore, or slimes formed
in crushing, pass to the German buddle, where they
are cleaned. The tailings from the jigger pass over
a blanketed shaking-table, and are afterward finish-
ed on a shaking-table without blankets. The head
of the buddle collects the clean ore, the tailings
pass over a blanketed table on to a shaking-table
without blankets as above, which finishes the oper-
ation. There are other blanket tables for these
tailings, so that the ore is all saved, perfectly clean-
ed, and the only manual labor required is in remov-
ing it from the different machines. The capacity
of the dressing works, all in complete operation, is
50 tons in twenty-four hours. The Company are
thinking of building a set of furnaces for what is
called the “Roast Reduction Process,” as carried
THE EUREKA LODE. 2OI
on in Europe. The capacity of the furnaces to be
ten tons each of dressed ore in twenty-four hours.
There is a four-inch Cornish pump in the main shaft,
and this is being sunk at the rate of ten feet a week,
and at an average cost of about $30. Wm. H. Doe,
of Central, is agent and large owner.
The Eureka Gold Mining Company have the dis-
covery claim on the Eureka, and considerable un-
developed property on the east end of the lode;
a shaft 160 feet deep, Io feet between crevice
walls, 5 feet of solid ore ; 40 or 50 feet west a
shaft 90 feet deep, in cap; engine house, engine
and hoisting rig on the shaft; no mill. The lode has
been gouged out on the surface 4OO feet in length
and paid well. It is considered one of the strong
veins of the country. Wm. H. Cushman is the agent.
The Chicago Gold Company have 200 feet on the
Ransas, not much improved ; IOO feet on the Bur-
roughs—No. 6 west—not developed; I33 feet on the
Monroe, considerably developed : 4OO feet on the
Buckeye, shaft 80 feet deep, with one foot of ore—
now being worked ; other scattering property, not
worked ; no mill nor machinery; will mine, that is
all. They are represented by George L. Cook of
Central.
The Morrell Gold Company have 460 feet on the
Morrell Lode, Russell Gulch ; shaft 50 feet deep,
ore vein of galena 24 inches in width, assaying
$300 a ton; no mill nor machinery. George L.
Cook is the agent. These two Chicago Companies
have started in on a correct basis, and will confine
themselves to mining for the present.
9*
2O2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The Merchants' Gold and Silver Company have
four full lodes (1600 feet each)—the Senator, Mer-
chant, Commercial, and Oscar, on Enterprise Hill,
near Black Hawk. The two first are being worked.
There is a shaft on the Senator 70 feet deep, with
a seven-inch vein; shaft on the Merchant 55 feet
deep. Three-foot crevice of mixed ore and quartz.
There are 70 tons of pay material out. The Com-
pany have no mill nor machinery, and are mining
at present. W. L. Thompson, of Black Hawk, is
the agent.
The Fisher Gold Mining Company have improved
property on the Quartz-Mill, Leavenworth, Wood,
Calhoun and other lodes in Leavenworth Gulch ; a
Bertola mill in Black Hawk, containing a 20-horse
engine, six stamps, twenty pairs of Bertola pans,
and two Chilian mills; also a reverberatory furnace
for desulphurizing. They used the Bertola process,
but could not make it pay—either because they did
not know how to use it, because it is not adapted to
the purpose, or because there was nothing in their
ores. They have no agent in Colorado at present.
The Chase Gold Company have 500 feet on the
S. P. Chase, between Russell and Willis Gulches;
two shafts, 70 and 130 feet deep, the latter sinking;
a whim-house and whim ; a IO-stamp steam mill in
Russell Gulch, in working order, but not running.
E. J. Sweet, of South Boulder, is the agent.
The Bates & Barter Gold Mining Company have
3OO feet on the Bates—No's 1, 2, and 3 east; shaft
on No. 1, 380 feet deep, in lean ore ; shaft on No. 2,
250 feet deep, also in lean ore. Two hundred feet
THE BATES LODE. 2O3
from the surface the shafts are connected by a drift
150 feet long. Very little ground has ever been
worked out ; the vein is superlatively “pockety.”
The former owner took out a pocket 40 by 40 feet;
it and the above level are about all that has ever been
worked out. On the mine are a whim-house, and a
whim for hoisting. The Company have a I 5-stamp
steam mill in Mountain City, rented ; have done
nothing since October, 1865. w
The Union Gold Mining Company have 250 feet
next west of the above on the Bates ; two shafts,
50 feet apart ; west shaft 270 feet deep, east, 230 ;
drifted together 200 feet from the surface, and again
at 230. Both shafts expose the faces of fair average
veins of ore for the last hundred feet of their depth.
There are two drifts from west shaft to west end
of mine, both well toward the bottom of it and
having good veins of ore. The Company at one
time had out a large pile of ore ; it has been crushed
in a stamp mill, we know not with what result.*
There are steam-hoisting works on the mine, and
in Mountain City, close by, a mill building and ma-
chinery for 15 stamps, not in running order. S. P.
Lathrop of Black Hawk is agent. -
The United States Gold Mining Company have
262 feet on Gregory Second, and 250 on Gregory
Extension ; a shaft on Gregory Second 170 feet
deep, with 14 inches of ore, pyrites and Sulphurets, in
*Late advices state that this Company have ground in sight to
last eight or ten months; that they were selling their first quality
ore to the Smelting Works at $60 per ton, and getting about $30
per ton from the second quality under stamps.
2O4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the bottom—has gone through a stratum of gale-
nous ore I IO feet, the vein averaging ten inches in
width; another shaft on the same I40 feet deep, I8
inches of ore in the bottom, of the same character
as in the deeper shaft ; a whim for hoisting; 30 or
40 tons of ore out. On the Gregory Extension
they have a shaft 172 feet deep, forty inches be-
tween walls, the gangue a white, soft quartz, carry-
ing considerable pyrites, no defined ore vein ;
another shaft 56 feet in depth. The Company own
mill site and water power on North Clear Creek,
430 feet long and from bank to bank ; no mill nor
machinery; have done nothing since August, 1865.
J. M. Smith, of Black Hawk, is the agent.
The josephine Gold Mining Company have 600
feet on the Granite, Mammoth Hill ; all opened,—
one shaft 85 feet deep ; 300 feet on the German,
slightly improved ; 200 on the Peck & Thomas,
shaft 30 feet deep ; 250 feet on the Ogden, shaft 40
feet deep—and other property ; no mill nor ma-
chinery. The Company were organized in 1865,
but have never done anything.
The Susquehanna Gold Mining Company have
7OO feet on the German, near Central City, supposed
extension of the Bates ; a shaft I40 feet deep, with
an ore vein of 17 inches, and widening ; a shaft
nearly in the centre of the property, 50 feet deep,
being cribbed,—five by eleven in the clear, and
sunk for a main shaft—shows the same vein as the
other shaft. The surface quartz yielded $45 to $70
a ton by stamps. The Company were but recently
organized, but have gone to work right, and are not
DICKERSON, BAXTER, BRUCE. 2O5
wasting or misapplying a dollar. S. B. Morgan, of
Black Hawk, is the agent. Jº
The Rochester City Gold Mining Company have
217 feet on the Borton, supposed to be the Gardner
and Rhoderick Dhu crevice in one; a shaft 200 feet
deep, crevice between walls six feet, with ore all
through it, hoisting by whim. They have 300 feet
on the Buford, and much other outside property.
The Borton promises to be a mine of value. Wm.
A. Abbe, of Central, is the agent.
William M. Dickerson is working 600 feet on
the Stonewall, near the Fisk ; has a shaft 75 feet
deep, 50-inch crevice, with 20 inches of ore, which
runs $12 to $15 gold per ton under stamps ; a
12-stamp water-mill, containing also four pans, in
Black Hawk, running. The mill building is 30 by
76 feet ; the water-power 40 feet head. *
E. K. Baxter is working the Baxter & Crispin,
on the eastern slope of Quartz Hill ; has the whole
lode; a shaft 8o feet deep, four feet between walls,
ore about eight inches in width, and improving ;
another shaft 40 feet deep, with three feet of quartz,
which yields $2O a ton. He is also working the
Myers Lode, in Lump Gulch—shaft 40 feet deep,
with three feet of ore; also owns 3oo feet on the
Baldwin, Russell Gulch—shaft II 5 feet deep, four
feet between walls, in lean ore for the last 70 feet.
Five wagon loads of ore from the last-named vein
yielded thirty-six ounces of gold. Mr. Baxter has
no mill nor machinery.
9 oft”. P. Bruce is mining on the Foote & Sim-
mons; has IOO feet, near the Gregory; shaft 270
2O6 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
feet deep, two-thirds of the ground above yet un-
touched; levels have been started for back-stoping
IOO and 200 feet from the surface; the crevice
averages twelve inches; the hoisting is done by
whim. He is also working the Bruce Lode, east
of North Clear Creek, in Black Hawk; has a shaft
50 feet deep, and is getting out good-looking stuff.
He has a water and steam mill, of twelve stamps,
in Black Hawk.
J. F. Field owns 33 I-3 feet—the west end of
No. 5, east,-on the Bobtail, being the discovery ;
it has been worked out for 375 feet in depth, the
crevice having averaged 20 inches. Twenty feet
of picked ore from this mine once produced $740
under stamps. It yielded $145 per ton in a stamp
mill all one Summer. The shaft is well cribbed to
the bottom. The ore is raised by power from the
Black Hawk Company's engine. Work was stopped
in June, 1866, on account of water. During three
weeks in June 150 tons of selected ore were taken
out. Mr. Field has a steam mill in Black Hawk,
containing twelve 600-lb. stamps, in good order.
It is estimated that $150,000,have been taken from
the claim. Mr. Field is also working the Field,
Cotton, Nemaha and Log Cabin Lodes, all near the
Bobtail, and developed from 30 to 135 feet in depth.
The Cotton has three shafts on it, and is stripped
to iron, having produced $2O,OOO. All these are
worked by whim or windlass.
The Mystic Tunnel Company are running into
Quartz Hill from a point low down on Nevada
Gulch. On the 1st of August, 1865, they were in
COLORADO ORE REDUCING COMPANY. 2O7
85 feet, and had struck one lode 25 feet from the
surface, with 20 inches of ore. The tunnel will
strike the Burroughs 800 or IOOO feet from the
surface. R. G. Kellett, of Central, is the agent.*
William Pritchard is mining on the S. P. Chase,
the Tuck, and the Whalin. On them all he has
encouraging prospects, in shafts from 40 to 80 feet
in depth.
The Colorado Ore Reducing Company, were or-
ganized in the Spring of 1866 with $65,000 capital,
to build a Keith mill for manufacturing custom ores.
The mill is in Black Hawk; the whole structure
being 60 by 90 feet. The furnace is 9 by 18, and
26 feet high outside, the stack of stone and brick,
rising 60 feet; the Keith process complete, with
all the improvements up to the moment of building
adopted. Capacity, with sixteen shaking tables,
25 to 30 tons a day. The works are complete, and
ready to start on their trial trip. Mr. Du Bois, of
Black Hawk, is the agent.
The Roxbury Gold Mining Company own 856
claims of IOO feet each, scattered all over the
county. They were recorded on the ends of lodes,
and bonded to the ex-Rev. W. W. King, at one
time of Chicago, who, we are informed, sold the
outfit in Roxbury, Mass., for $60,000. Theodore
B. Moses was hunting for the property during
*This must be the same as the Quartz Hill Tunnel Company,
of which a Colorado paper of late date says: “It was organized
one year since with a capital of $50,000; its tunnel is now 200 feet
long, having already crossed two lodes, and its cost has been less
than $10,000.” The stock is owned in Central City, and work is
carried on by regular assessments,
2O8 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the entire Summer of 1866, but without any alarm-
ing success. People who allow themselves to be
swindled in so outrageous a manner have really but
themselves to blame. It is doubtful if this batch
of so-called mining claims, sold for $60,000, is
really worth sixty cents.
The Great Eastern Gold Mining Company are
mining on the Hoosier Lode, near the Running ;
one shaft 145 feet deep; haye other property on
South Clear Creek; no mill nor machinery. S. B.
Morgan, of Black Hawk, is the agent.
77°uman Whitcomeå has IOO feet on the Kansas;
worked out 90 feet in depth, 16 inches of first-class
ore one-half the way, the rest pinched up. He has
also I 50 feet on the Indiana, extension of the Gard-
ner west; one shaft 145 feet deep, with two feet of
ore, and another 55 feet deep, 70 feet east, drifted
together; I2 inches of ore in the drift, Ore, cop-
per, zinc and galena, with a fair proportion of bul-
lion. He has much other undeveloped property,
and a 12-stamp steam mill, running on custom ore.
The Indiana and Kansas are both almost impossi-
ble to work to profit in a stamp mill. Mr. Whit-
comb is one of the oldest miners in Nevada, and
considers that the Kansas is to Nevada what the
Gregory is to Black Hawk.
The Flack Lode is one of the best in Nevada.
It has been worked out considerably for 400 feet in
depth. One shaft is 345 feet deep, another 250.
Nothing has been done on it since 1864. An as-
sociation owned the 700 feet on which most of the
work has been done, and they got into a quarrel,
FLACK AND FORKS LODES. 2O9
and one of the partners prevented the rest from
working; but they all agreed to bond it for sale.
Negotiations for its sale to Vivian & Sons have
been long in progress; what the probabilities of
success are, it is impossible for us to say. The
consideration asked is 440,000.
The Forés Lode, of Nevada, is one of the best in
the country ; paid well in early times in stamp
mills. The surface is worked out for 500 feet in
length. The deepest shaft is about 300 feet; there
are several shafts from I2O feet to that depth. The
Denver Mining Company had 400 feet on it, which
was sold out by the sheriff, in the Summer of 1866,
together with an 18-stamp mill in Nevada Gulch,
in working order, and machinery for a new mill.
The property is as good as any, but the Company
never did anything with it, although they did de-
clare a dividend once.
The Crozier Gold Mining Company are mining
in Quartz Valley, on the Mitchell, of which they
have 400 feet. They have also 275 feet on the Des
Moines, in Russell District, property on the Perrin,
in Eureka, and much other undeveloped property,
including 200 feet on the Freeland and 3OO on the
Vanderbilt, in Trail Run District, Clear Creek
County. They have no mill nor machinery. H. M.
Orahood, of Black Hawk, is their agent.
The Commonwealth Gold Mining Company have
500 feet on the Prize, and 800 on the Crosby, a branch
of the Prize. They have a shaft 100 feet in depth
on the Prize which they are sinking. Samuel Tidd
is their agent. They have no mill nor machinery.
2 IO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The Kenyon Gold Mining Company have a very
large Bertola mill in Black Hawk, run by steam,
put up late in 1863, but never much in operation,
and a great amount of mining property, more or
less developed, in the best districts of Gilpin and
Clear Creek Counties. Joseph Kenyon, of Black
Hawk, is their agent.
The Empire Gold Mining Company have an
18-stamp steam mill in Black Hawk, leased and
at present running for the Smith & Parmelee Com-
pany. They have some considerably developed
mining property on the Foote & Simmons, and
other lodes in the vicinity of Black Hawk and
Gregory Point. Maj. O. P. Rand of Boston, for-
merly represented the Company in Colorado, but
they never did much, and latterly have done
nothing.
Mr. J. B. Fitzpatrick owns an 8-stamp, steam
mill in Black Hawk, leased and running for the
Smith & Parmelee Company.
There are three or four other mills in Black
Hawk including the Idaho Mill, which have been
idle a long while and do not seem to have any own-
ers. The Idaho Mill, however, has lately passed
into the hands of an association of Judge G. B.
Backus's friends in Pennsylvania, and is liable to
be started most any time.
The Loker Gold Mining Company own 400 feet
on the Bates, on both sides and crossing Chase
Gulch not far from its mouth. F. W. Page, the
agent, sunk a shaft on it to a depth of 150 or more
feet, and was getting out some very fair ore when
PIERCE, ADELINE, ULYSSES LODES. 2 II
they stopped work last Spring. Doubtless the
Company own one of the idle mills in the gulch
near the lode; we know not for certain.
The foregoing comprises nearly all the companies
with their most important properties and operations,
in the Gregory Diggings. It is possible some have
been overlooked, and that some inaccuracies have
crept in, but such has not been the intention.
Lodes known to be very valuable, discovered within
the last three years, we hardly know how to notice
without seeming invidious, since we cannot notice
them all.
The Pierce Lode is considered one of the strongest
gold veins in the county. It is situate in Central
City, crossing Nevada Gulch just below its junction
with Spring Gulch, and seems to be formed by the
junction of the Adeline, New York, Cork, Rich,
and John Phoenix Lodes. The crevice is very
wide—I6 I-2 feet—and it is being worked, shaft 6o
feet in depth.
The Adeline, a little further up and on the south
side of Nevada Gulch, supposed extension of the
Corydon, is another strong, rich vein. John Shu-
mar is working it and recently got 96 ounces of
gold from 50 tons of quartz.
On the eastern point of Quartz Hill is the Ulysses
Lode, opened for 600 feet, and having four to five
feet of solid ore, pyrites of iron and copper, at a
depth of 50 feet, in Discovery shaft.
Near the head of Spring Gulch is the Wapello
County Lode, shaft IOO feet deep, fair average
crevice of ore. -
2 I2 THE MINES OF COLORADo
In Spring Gulch, close by McIntyre's mill, 1s a
new lode belonging to John Shumar, having a large
ore-crevice almost on the surface, yielding by Keith
process between $50 and $70 a ton.
Between the Bates and Gregory Extension, south
side of the hill, is the Hope Lode, owned by John
Tierney, opened for 500 feet by shafts from 25 to
188 feet in depth, vein five feet in width, paid in
stamp mill from $18 to $25 a ton. *
In Chase Gulch, half a mile from its mouth, on
the south side, is the Etna, one of the strongest and
richest and most promising veins in the county.
Near the head of Russell Gulch is the Jersey
City, opened on four claims, to a depth of 30 to 50
feet, each shaft developing a strong rich vein of
iron pyrites. -
In Russell are also the Federal, Iron, General
Birney, Jo Watson, H. D. Towne, Nemaha, Wash-
cash, White Cloud, Sangamo, Watch, Banker, Rock
Island, Pennsylvania, Nashville, Clinton County,
Gorham, Sam Hackly, Timbuctoo, Windsor County,
Prometheus, Big Horn, Pewabic No. 2, General
Butler, and others, all of them developed to a good
ore crevice, which is generally struck in Russell
Gulch if at all within 5o feet of the surface.
In Saw Pit Gulch is the Genesee County,
opened for 500 feet, showing a quartz crevice every-
where from six to ten feet wide; and in the Dis-
covery shaft, at a depth of 30 feet developing a
vein of solid, beautiful ore three to four feet wide.
Saw Pit Gulch is a tributary of Russell Gulch.
But we cannot particularize further. If the reader
MILLS NOW IN OPERATION. 2I3
fail to get some idea of the net-work of gold veins
that covers a circle three miles over of which
Central City is the center from all we have said in
this chapter, we despair of giving it. And there
are perhaps a hundred good lodes in the space men-
tioned which are not named in this book at all.”
* On the 1st of February last, forty mills and treating establish-
ments were at work in Colorado. It may seem like a small propor-
tion of the whole to strangers, but not to Coloradans. There was
hardly ever a time when a larger proportion of the mills was in
operation, and since the era of high prices, deep mining, and worst
of all, speculation, set in—beginning of 1864—there has not been,
as a rule, half so large a proportion at work. It indicates a great
decline in the cost of living and working, and more and better than
that, it proves that the mines are equal to their own development
when extraneous help, which has really been a curse instead of
a blessing, is withdrawn.
C H A P T E R V III.
Gilpin County Continued—Swinging Round the Circle—Independ-
ent, South Boulder, Central, Wisconsin Districts, Peck and Mis-
souri Gulches—Their Improved Mines, Mills, Companies, Pro-
cesses, &c.
As we have said before, the mines noticed in the
last chapter, occur on that high tongue of land
which comes down from the Range between the
principal forks—called North and South—of Clear
Creek. They are accessible from the Valley over
three wagon roads, one entering the Foot-hills at
Boulder City, one at Golden Gate, the other at Mt.
Vernon, each about twenty-five miles in length.
From Black Hawk on North Clear Creek, a wagon
road winds up through Gregory and Spring Gulches,
crosses the heads of Leavenworth and Russell
Gulches and goes down Virginia Kanyon to Idaho on
South Clear Creek, the distance about six miles, the
elevation overcome, two thousand feet, the route
toward the south-west, and passing through the im-
proved mines of the old Gregory and Russell Dis-
tricts. Another wagon road crosses the divide
higher up—at the head of Nevada or Eureka—de-
scends on to Fall River, and follows that stream down
OUTLYING MINING DISTRICTS, 2 I5
to South Clear Creek ; or, branching to the right
when the summit is attained, it follows the crest of
the divide north-west to Peck Gulch, the upper por-
tion of Chase Gulch, and soon thereafter enters Wis-
consin District, embracing the extreme sources of
North Clear and South Boulder Creeks, ten or twelve
miles north-west from Central City, and right at the
foot of James Peak. Doubling and proceeding down
the South Boulder on the arc of a circle of which
Central City is the pivot, we shall pass through
South Boulder District and arrive in the course of
about twelve miles at the mouth of Gamble Gulch,
coming down from the south. Turning into this
we ascend about two thousand feet in two miles,
and find ourselves in a patch of gold veins, called
Independent District, of which the Gold Dirt and
Perigo are the principal, so far as known. Adjoin-
ing Independent on the east is Central District,
lying at the head of Lump Gulch, a tributary of
Gamble Gulch. Where the two form a junction is
what used to be called Deadwood Diggings, the
place where gold was first discovered in the Moun-
tains. From the head of Lump Gulch a fine road
leads out to the Denver and Central City stage route.
Crossing the crest of the divide from Independent
District, south, we are in Wide Awake District, at
the head of Missouri Gulch, seven miles north of
Black Hawk. So that we have “swung round the
circle” of the Gilpin County Mining Districts, and
will now swing back, if the reader please, and give
all the information we have concerning these dis-
tricts “into his hands.”
2I 6 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Independent District, or Gold Dirt, with its ten
or dozen stamp-mills and its town of log-houses
along Gamble Gulch, was by no means an inconsid-
erable competitor with Gregory in 1860, as a place
of importance among the mines. Now, but four or
five companies are operating here. The Gold Dirt
Lode crosses Gamble Gulch about two miles above
its junction with South Boulder. It is struck for
a distance of two thousand, and has been developed
to a depth of four hundred and twenty feet.
The Hope Gold Company own 2200 feet on the
vein, their improvements being, however, chiefly
confined to No's 3, 4, 5, and 6, east, and 3 west.
No. 3 is worked out to a depth of 38o feet, and is
now rather pinched in the shaft, which is 400 feet
deep, and is near the east end of the claim, about
20 feet from the main shaft, on the boundary be-
tween 3 and 4. The main shaft is 420 feet deep and
being sunk, cribbed for 300 feet, four by eight in the
clear, well timbered the rest of the way, and contains
a four-inch pump which has been working a long
while to perfection. Starting near the present bot-
tom of this shaft there are three levels, perhaps 8o
feet apart, the lower one running east 130 feet, the
middle one 200, and the upper one 230. Nearly all
the ground has been worked out in the backs of
these levels for a distance of I2O feet east of the
shaft. One hundred feet east, the crevice is 15 feet
between walls, with a vein of ore from 12 to 18
inches in thickness on each wall. Here, in the two
upper levels, the best vein jumps off at the inter-
ruption of a cross vein, from the north to the south
HOPE GOLD COMPANY. 217
Wall. In the upper level they are now taking out
the vein on the north wall; in the two lower levels
on the south wall. The crevice matter, as taken
out, is worth only $15 a ton, but only 20 per cent.
of it is ore. The base of the vein, like that of all
others in the country, is copper, and it seems to lie
at a greater depth than in the veins about Gregory,
eight miles to the south and of a good deal less
altitude. Wherever the cupriferous ore is found,
it is rich in gold and silver and the veins are regu-
lar, not pockety nor displaced and split up. As yet
but little of it has been found in the Gold Dirt vein,
hence its great irregularity in every respect. In
the mine under consideration it occurs sparingly in
the upper level, from 200 to 250 feet from the sur-
face. Then for a depth of 150 feet comes very
coarse iron pyrites, streaked with hematite iron
ore. By going deeper the copper ore will doubtless
again be struck, and mining on the vein be attended
with the rich results realized from its surface quartz.
There is no surface crevice for 200 feet depth east
of the main shaft, so far as known. A shaft has
been sunk at the corner of the mill on No. 6, 90
feet in depth, but nothing satisfactory was found.
Fifty feet south of this shaft, one was sunk on a
spur, thought at the time to be the main crevice,
I2O feet; it is cribbed clear down and is in good
shape, but no pay-ore was got out of it, and it was
long since abandoned. There is also a shaft I2O
feet deep on No. 3 west, cribbed clear down, 18-inch
vein of ore, not worked. There is an irregular
shaft-house on No's 3 and 4, Ioo feet long, from which
IO º
2 I 8 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
a wooden railway conveys the ore into the third story
of the mill. Timber is on the ground for a quartz-
house 80 feet long for drying the material; will not
be put up at present. The mill is on No. 6, and is
a three-story frame, 60 by 75 feet, engine-room 40
by 50, uses the Keith process. The furnace and
stack, with a large cooling room, occupy a great
proportion of the body of the mill. There is a
Blake cracker, three large-sized ball-pulverizers,
the desulphurizing furnace, three large burnishers,
dolly-tub, and fifteen shaking-tables. The engine
is IOO-horse power, and with the addition of a little
more burnishing machinery the capacity of the mill
would be thirty tons a day. The process, says the
agent, Col. C. L. Grafflin, after a trial of six months,
gives entire satisfaction, saving 80 per cent. of the
gold even in poor ores. The Company have 1750
tons of tailings, considered worth $2O a ton. Also
a 16-stamp, steam mill in running order in Gamble
Gulch, half a mile from the lode. Also a great deal
of undeveloped lode property, ranches, buildings in
Gold Dirt, Sonora, &c., &c. The agent is a model
man, and has almost worn his life out trying, for
the last three years, to make the enterprise a suc-
cess for its owners. º
The Eagle Gold Mining Company own Discovery,
INo's I and 2 east, and No. 5 west on the Gold Dirt
Lode. On No. I they have an engine-house and
5o-horse engine, shaft I 80 feet deep, cribbed four
by nine feet in the clear, to the bottom, now sink-
ing at the rate of a foot a day and to be sunk in
future without cessation. Discovery shaft is I5O
EAGLE GOLD MINING COMPANY. 2 I9
feet deep, cribbed four by eight feet, not worked.
Have shaft on No. 2, 185 feet deep, cribbed four by
eight feet, not worked. There is a line of shafting
to the wing shafts, houses and hoisting rig com-
plete. The vein is about two feet wide, and con-
sidered worth $40 to $50 a ton. The ore is badly
streaked with hematite iron, and has nothing in it
that can be got with stamp-mill. One hundred and
forty feet down, the mine is drifted from end to end,
and above that the ground was worked out in 186O
by Sweet & Hollister, yielding $150,000. They
calculate to find a vein of the same richness as the
surface by going deep enough and they have started
for it. No. 5 has never been opened ; neither has
any of the rest of the Company's lodes. They
have a first-class 50-stamp mill at the mouth of
Gamble Gulch. The building is 75 by 90 feet, con-
tains the batteries, plates, 60-horse engine and
boilers, and that is all. It was run through June,
1865, but without paying result. It was shut up
and is likely to remain so until further develop-
ments in the art of treating Colorado ores. The
Company have a boarding-house, barn, and other
necessary buildings near their mill on South Boulder.
E. J. Sweet is their agent, a man whose experience
in Colorado mining and milling is perhaps second
to that of none. *
The Rollins Gold Company own 400 lode claims
in Independent and South Boulder Districts. On
the Maurer, which is not far from the Gold Dirt,
they have two deep shafts and a very large ore
crevice, an engine-house 40 by 50 feet with engine
22O > THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and hoisting rig complete, and a shaft-house 35 by
40 feet. On the Perigo, which is top of the hill
opposite the Gold Dirt and a mile distant, they
have four deep shafts, an engine-house 40 by 50
with engine and hoisting works. On these as well
as on the New York & Benton, the Company
are mining with energy. Among their less devel-
oped lodes, considered good if not first-class, are
the Bateman, Wisconsin, Boston, Subterranean,
Kansas, and War Eagle. On the South Boulder,
just above the mouth of Gamble Gulch, the General
Director of the Company, J. Q. A. Rollins, has laid
off a town-site, and called it South Boulder. The
main street curves regularly with the creek, and
along its lower side a race has been located, five
thousand feet long, calculated to carry the entire
Boulder, and furnishing I5 water-lots of 300 feet
front each with power for mills. On the other side
of the street, which is 60 feet wide, a tier of build-
ing lots, each 40 by 80 feet, has been surveyed.
Beyond this is another street parallel with the
first with its double tier of building lots the same
size as the above. The spot is 25 miles from
Golden Gate over an excellent wagon-road; 20
from Boulder City over the old Gordon Road, ten
north from Central City; and on any road that
shall ever enter the Middle Park via. the Boulder
Pass. This town-site covers a beautiful, natural
park, about half or three-fourths of a mile wide by
a mile and a half long, the north side of it, along
which are the surveyed streets, most delightfully
turned up to the kiss of the sun. They have made
SOUTH BOULDER. 22 I
forty tons of hay along the creek bottom this sea-
son, and a crop of 3OOO bushels of vegetables.
The Company's mill and other buildings are located
in this park. The mill is 76 by 90 feet in dimen-
sions, built like a pair of stairs against the creek
bank, each bent forming a step. It has two sets
of Gardner's quartz machinery in it, one for dry,
the other for wet crushing. The wet side has been
in operation since the 18th of July and gives per-
fect satisfaction to Mr. Rollins. First there is
Gardner's Thunderbolt crusher; on the next story,
or bent, or step below, Gardner's Thundermug
pulverizer, a huge cast-iron pan with an oscillatory
motion rolling round a 6000-lb. ball, a perfect tri-
umph of mechanical skill; on the next story be-
low a set of concentrators, small round iron boxes
with screen-blowers in them, designed to beat up
the clay and liberate and catch the coarse gold in
little pockets attached to them; on the next story
below a Gardner's amalgamator, an iron bowl of
peculiar construction whirling rapidly within a
bowl, the motion expected to keep the “quick” on
the sides of the bowl and throw out the slimes
over the edge. This is found to work well. They
have added two shaking-tables to all this, on which
they get very little. The dry side of the mill has
the Thunderbolt crusher, a huge mortar with a
6000-lb. pestle turned by the handle, a set of Wil-
son's fire-clay cylinders for desulphurizing, an iron
dolly-tub, another mortar like the one above for bur-
nishing, another dolly-tub, then the Evans amal-
gamator, a segment of a circle rocking on its periph-
222 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ery. This was started in July last, but the reels
in the fire retorts were soon eaten up, and it could
not run. New reels, coated with porcelain, are
en route, and much is hoped from the process when
they shall have been put in. The machinery in
this mill is of the best make and well put up. The
Company have a steam saw-mill at the mouth of
Gamble Gulch, quartz-house, 60 by 80 feet, barn,
boarding-house, Smith-shop, market-house, and four
or five log dwellings. They have constructed sev-
eral miles of wagon road in the vicinity. They have
also a 6-stamp and a 12-stamp mill in Gamble Gulch,
not in repair nor used. John Q. A. Rollins, of
South Boulder, the most energetic man in the whole
world, is General Director.
The Perigo Mining and Tunneling Company have
several hundred feet of improved property on the
Perigo Lode, an engine-house and hoisting works,
mine pump, and two or three deep shafts.”
The Excelsior Gold Mining Company are tearing
out forty stamps, which have never been used, and
a Crosby & Thompson furnace, which has not been
much used, from their mill in South Boulder Park.
It is the intention of the Company to soon put up
another set of the Crosby & Thompson machinery,
with some important modifications.” The Excel-
*This Company have leased their mines and premises to W. E.
Darby, of Gold Dirt, for a term of two years. He proposes to get
out ore and have it treated by the Keith machinery in the Hope
Company's mill, about a mile distant.
t Under the head of Processes for Treating Ores, will be found
the latest ideas of these gentlemen with regard to desulphurizing
and amalgamating. They believe that after three years of trial and
difficulty, they have at last perfected what is called their process.
HORTON, FROTHINGHAM & Jon ES. 223
sior Company own property on the Parker, Thomas,
and Hope, in Phoenix District, adjoining South
Boulder on the north. They are considered good
lodes. They also have property on the Revenue,
in South Boulder, and the Illinois, in Central Dis-
trict (Lump Gulch).
The Illinois Gold Mining Company, represented
by Crosby & Thompson, are mining and have built
a mill building on the Illinois Lode; none of the
machinery set up but the engine, which is used
simply for hoisting. Have one shaft 80, and one
60 feet deep, drifted together 40 feet from the sur-
face, fair show of ore, lode reputed very rich. Aus-
tin, DuBois & Co., long ago used to run a mill on
quartz from the Illinois, and other lodes in the
District, with fair success. No one is now operat-
ing in the District but the Illinois Company.
Horton, Frothing/am & 9 ones, have tried very
hard to succeed with the Crosby & Thompson
machinery, but as yet to no purpose. They are
now using one of the cylinders as a burnisher,
filling it half full of small boulders and passing the
desulphurized ore through it from one end to the
other. This seems to us to answer its purpose the
best of any machine we have seen. They are also
trying the Crosby amalgamator, consisting of a
cast-iron mercury tank holding IOOO pounds, con-
nected with a hollow wooden column, perhaps eight
feet high. Conveyed into the top of this column,
the ore is forced by its own weight up through the
mercury tank, as the easiest escape. In the mer-
cury play back and forth slotted copper-plates,
224. - THE MINES OF COLORADO.
evolving electricity, which purifies and enlivens the
quicksilver, and securing, by a minute division of
the ore, perfect contact. When they first started
this machine, careful tests indicated that they were
doing well; but after a certain period the longer
they ran the less gold was there in the quicksil-
ver.” So they have stopped work and are going
East for the Winter. Whether the Crosby &
Thompson cylinders can be made to thoroughly
calcine ores without destroying them by the heat
and gases liberated, yet remains to be proven in
Colorado. Horton, Frothingham & Jones have
property on the Revenue and Illinois Lodes, con-
siderably improved but not worked at present.
The National Gold Mining Company, arose on
the ruins of “The Pittsburgh and Rocky Mountain
Gold Mining Company,” which was organized on
property in Wisconsin District, better known per-
haps as Mammoth City, in Boston as early as 1862.
They brought on a 50-stamp mill, but before they
got into operation ran out of money, fell to quar-
relling, and were sold out by the sheriff. The
present Company own some 300 lode claims in the
District and in 1865 built a complete Crosby &
*From this most astounding and perplexing, not to say provoking,
circumstance, repeated a few times, Crosby was led to the belief
that the gold, after chemically uniting with the mercury, commenced
oxydizing and escaping in an impalpable form. Careful experiments
Seemed to confirm the idea, and finally, so far as he was concerned,
establish the fact. A patent was taken out covering the supposed
discovery, and, of course, the proposed remedy, and in the begin-
ning of February of the current year, Crosby went back to Colo-
rado from Boston to put new works in operation. But of this more
hereafter. See the chapter on Processes.
INVINCIBLE AND CALEDONIA COMPANIES. 225
Thompson mill. Before it fairly started, the Com-
pany shut down. They have driven a tunnel into
each bank of the creek about 160 feet, designing
to strike with each eight or ten of their best lodes
at great depths. On one lode they have a shaft 90
feet deep, good whim-house and whim, and an ore
vein two feet in width. They have also a barn,
boarding-house, store, etc.
The Invincible Gold Mining Company, repre-
sented by C. C. Welch of Central, divide the best
property of the District with the National. They
have six to seven thousand feet of lodes, one of
which they are working, saw-mill, water powers,
&c. The Sampson is on the extreme head of North
Clear Creek, has a shaft 60 feet deep, two feet of
ore, assaying $40 to $50 a ton. It is being de-
veloped by Mr. Welch. -
Peck Gulch lies between Wisconsin District and
Central City, and is the extreme head of Chase
Gulch. Its chief vein is the Mann, owned by W.
J. Mann, and B. F. Pease, developéd to a depth of
60 feet, where its crevice is eight feet wide, two-
thirds of it ore. Mann & Pease have a 12-stamp
steam mill near the lode, in running order, and in
which the surface quartz paid from $5 to $18.5o a
ton. The ore they could not make pay. It pros-
pects very rich. They have about 300 tons of ore
out and design to soon start the mill again on Sur-
face quartz. There are several other lodes in the
vicinity, less developed but considered good.
The Caledonia Gold Mining Company own 361
feet on the Caledonia, the great lode of Wide
IO* -->
226 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Awake District, which the reader will remember is
seven miles North of Black Hawk at the head of
Missouri Gulch. Have one shaft 267 feet deep, one
140 feet, and four others, 25, 45, 90, and 130 feet,
some showing a good vein, and some not. Shaft-
house 30 by 30 feet, Io-horse engine, complete
hoisting rig for two shafts, smith-shop, &c. Have
an old 6-stamp, steam mill, also a new mill, 30 by
50 feet, 40-horse Little Giant engine, and Crosby
& Thompson machinery throughout ; mill built,
machinery not set up, not at work. Sam Cushman
of Central, agent.
The Washington and Wallace Companies, own
property considerably developed, on the Wallace, .
Washington, and Wide Awakelodes. Neither have
mill nor machinery, nor are they at work at present.
Sam Cushman of Central, agent.
The Mountain Eagle Company—property on the
Caledonia. Have a 9-stamp, steam mill, are mining
and running mill, quartz yields about $15 a ton.
S. B. Morgan of Black Hawk, agent.
David Clow has a new I2-stamp, steam mill and
property on Caledonia. Is at work with average
SUICCCSS.
All these districts have the advantages of cheap
fuel, lumber, and mine timber, of pasturage, and
most of them of water power.
CHA PTER IX.
Clear Creek County—General Characteristics—Idaho—Empire—
The Mines of Idaho—Spanish Bar—Trail Run–Fall River—
Morris and Downieville Districts—Empire Mines—Griffith &
Argentine Districts—Discovery, Development, and Richness of
the Silver Mines.
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY is so located as to just
embrace the country drained by South Clear Creek.
The reader will please remember that Clear Creek
forks fourteen miles within the Foot-hills from
Golden City. At that point corner Gilpin and
Clear Creek Counties, one meant to cover the
north, the other the south fork of the Creek. From
this point to the crest of the Range, South Clear
Creek forms a gigantic tree, as it were, forty miles
in extreme length, worn down into the surface of
the wilderness of upward-sweeping hills and ridges
from one to five thousand feet in depth. All along
its trunk and throughout its main limbs and smaller
branches, Nature has hidden her treasures of gold
and silver, her jewels and precious stones; and as
if determined for once to be magnificent, has not
only well-marked her cache, but grouped here the
indispensable means of unearthing and rendering.
them useful to man. The enclosing hills are low
228 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and often smooth, grassy, and Sunny, receding and
ascending gradually and affording means of easy
access. There are many bars of considerable size,
smooth and pretty, offering delightful sites for
towns, excellent places for mills and mining works.
There is abundance of fuel, and unlimited “range”
on the hill-sides for stock. Six hundred feet of the
creek gives, with the volume that may be used, on
a turbine wheel, a power of one hundred horses, and
the valley is so open that there is hardly any point
for ten miles where powers can not be taken out
on both sides, making for this distance, one hundred
and eighty in all. Taking the two forks with their
forks into the calculation, it is not too much to say
that they and the main stream furnish, from Grass
Valley Bar to their sources, six hundred first-class
water-powers. The bars were somewhat mined in
the early days of Colorado, but that, as has been
before observed, has now pretty much ceased.
The quartz mines now engage the principal effort.
These are considered first-class, and are almost
universally well located for tunneling. The advan-
tages of tunneling where the ground will permit—
for instance, where there is ample room on the
creeks for the rubble, and where the hills rise at an
angle of 45° or more from the streams to a great
hight—can hardly be overestimated. Its cost in
Colorado at present is between $25 and $30 a foot.
All ground above the tunnel may be broken down
instead of up, which in itself is a great saving of
time, labor, and powder, as every practical miner
knows. The water runs off through the tunnel
CLEAR CREEK COUNTY. 229
and the ore may be conveyed on dump cars through
the same channel into the mill, saving costly hoist-
ing and pumping machinery and power, the con-
struction of surface roads, a great deal of heavy
teaming, and excavating for whim and shaft houses.
And in the mill which uses hydraulic power, fuel
and machinery are economized. It would seem
that mining by means of tunnels and treating by
water instead of steam mills, ought to pay hand-
some dividends on unwatered capitals on ten-dollar
rock, provided the veins are of average size, regu-
larity, and richness. And where a tunnel can
attain a depth of one, two, or three thousand feet
in the course of a reasonable length, the ground
above will be seen to be clear gain when it is re-
membered that beyond a certain depth it is unprof-
itable to mine, because the expense of hoisting the
ore and water overbalance the value of the ore.
The advantages of unlimited water power and
mining by tunnels are common to every part of
Clear Creek County.
Idaho, the county-seat, is situate on Payne's
Bar, at the mouth of Virginia Kanyon, seven miles
above the junction of North and South Clear
Creeks. Good wagon roads radiate from Idaho to
Denver, thirty-five miles east, to Central City, six
miles north, and to Empire and Georgetown, twelve
miles west. It is nearly 8000 feet above the sea,
and is noted not only for its mines but for its hot
soda springs, which have been improved until they
are a most delightful place of resort. The waters,
internally or externally, or both, have valuable
23O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
medicinal properties, especially in rheumatic and
cutaneous ailments. There is a large, pleasant ho-
tel, owned and kept by F. W. Bebee in the best
style. Payne's Bar is expansive and smooth, and
the hills opposite on the south are toned down by,
the channels, near together, of Soda and Chicago
Creeks, the latter the first place where gold was
discovered in the county, and its surroundings
scarred by the operations of the early miners.
These hills are covered with the finest turf and in
the right season are one bed of flowers. They are
topped out by mountains rising to a hight of II,OOO
to 12,000 feet, locally named “Old Chief,” “Old
Squaw,” and “Papoose.” It is about two or three
miles below Idaho where the mines begin, extend-
ing thence on the main stream to Empire, thirteen
miles above, and on the left fork to its extreme
sources, twenty-five miles.*
At the mouth of Fall River, three miles above
Idaho, there is a post office, hotel, and stores; at
the mouth of Mill Creek, four miles further up, an-
other post office, hotel, stores, &c.; two miles above
the Creek forks, and two miles still above is the
town of Empire. -
Of all the towns brought into existence by the
fame of Cherry Creek sand, Empire bears away
the palm for a pretty location and picturesque sur-
roundings. Imagine a lively stream, a hop-step-
* Between North and South Clear Creeks, below Idaho, occurs a
vein or deposit of milk opal, some specimens having caught the
slightest breath, perhaps, of a flame. No valuable opals have been
found as yet, but that is not saying that there will not be.
*
EMPIRE MINES. 23 I
and-jump over, tumbling and rushing toward sun-
rise forever at the bottom of an open kanyon two
thousand to fourthousand feet in depth. Formed by
million trinklets from thousand heavy snow wreaths,
in sight, it is pure, clear, and cool. Two brooks,
Lyons' from the north, and Bard's from the south,
flow into the main stream opposite each other, their
deltas, with the natural bars of the creek, forming
the town-plat. With a little trimming it would be
square, the corners toward the cardinal points.
Four mountains, Lincoln, Douglas, Covode, and
Eureka, constitute bold promontories, perhaps a
thousand feet in altitude, between the creeks. As-
cend either of these, and from the successive hights
still before you, you seem yet in the valley, and so
you are comparatively, although IO,OOO feet above
the sea. The scenery is Alpine, and the elevation,
being 8,871 feet above sea level, the climate, Sum-
mer and Winter, is salubrious and tonic. The bar
has a considerable elevation above the creek, and
is too heavy to invite the labors of the bar miner,
so that it is still smooth and grassy.
A mile north, up a tremendous hill, (1400 feet)
are the Empire mines, and the town of North Em-
pire ; it and Georgetown and Elizabethtown, the
last two the same, located at the forks of the South
Fork, about five miles south of Empire, will be no-
ticed with their mines. The most important mines
of the county are undoubtedly at Empire, or at
and above Georgetown, but our description will
perhaps be more intelligible if we begin at one end
of the county and go through it regularly.
232 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
THE IDAHO MINES.
Commencing, then, two or three miles below
Idaho, we have half a dozen veins lying near together,
the property of “The Federal Union Mining Com-
pany,” at present represented by Gen. N. B. Bu-,
ford of Rock Island, Ill. The General has erected
some necessary buildings, a bridge over the creek,
cut a race, and is building a wooden mill 50 by 70,
into which he intends to put ten Mexican arastras.
His power is water, used on a large turbine wheel.
He is also mining, on the General Buford by adit,
now fifty feet long ; on the Moline by incline, and
on the Deerfield by shaft. -
At Idaho there is much good mining property,
but the greater part of it is idle. That of Womack
and Seaton, comprising the Seaton and other lodes
and a mill and water power in town, has been in
the English market for a year or two; what the pros-
pects of closing the transaction are, we are unin-
formed.
The mill property of “The Lowe Mining Asso-
ciation” is in Idaho, and consists of a 12-stamp,
water mill, running on the ores of the different com-
panies for which Mr. T. H. Lowe, of Idaho, is agent.
“The Lowe Mining Association” are taking excel-
lent ore from the Seaton, No. 8, west. “The Ken-
tucky and Colorado Mining Company” are getting
out good ore from the Robinson, head of Virginia
Kanyon, three miles north of Idaho. “The Louis-
ville & Mill City Company” are developing the
Rufus Snyder in Morris District, six miles above
§
FULTON AND STAR MINING COMPANIES. 233
Idaho. Mr. Lowe is agent for these companies
with head-quarters at Idaho. They are confining
themselves to developing their mines and getting
out ores, a wise policy for the present.
“The Fulton Mining Company,” represented by
W. E. Sisty of Idaho, have their mine on the Crys-
tal—crossing Virginia Kanyon a mile north of
Idaho-well opened. They have 361 contiguous
feet including Discovery, upon which they have
sunk IOO feet and drifted IOO, the vein in the drift
being from fifteen to thirty inches in width, ore
worth $8o a ton by actual test, and 3OO to 500 tons
out. They have taken some steps toward building
a mill on Payne's Bar, and while they hesitate as to
what they want, mining is suspended.
“The Star Gold Mining Company” own 1200 feet
on the Crystal, west of Virginia Kanyon, from which
they have run an adit west 200 feet, intersect-
ing a shaft I 53 feet deep, showing, said the agent
to us, a fair crevice. Three hundred feet west is
another shaft I23 feet deep, in cap ; and 300 feet
further is another 65 feet deep, also in cap. They
have a water power 1500 feet long, 18 feet head,
upper end of Payne's Bar, wooden mill building 55
by IOO feet, raised, and enclosed, machinery for
forty stamps on the Missouri River. They have .
besides a great deal of lode property from Idaho to
Empire, and other valuable water powers.
SPANISH BAR.
Two miles above Idaho is Spanish Bar. Famous
in early times for its bar diggings, the deposit was
234. THE MINES OF COLOR ADO.
too deep, the boulders too many and heavy, and the
water too troublesqme for bar mining to generally
pay, and but little of the bed-rock was ever un-
covered. Very rich quartz veins were early dis-
covered on the abutting hills, and “The Silver
Spring Mining Company” started a 20-stamp water
mill in 1861 which ran pretty steadily for two years
on surface material from the Whale, Lincoln, and
other noted lodes in the vicinity. As much as
$2O,OOO was taken from Discovery on the Whale.
Messrs. Thatch & Kinkead own a 12-stamp, water
mill here, in good repair, and 3OOO feet on the Cook,
Anoka County, Phoenix, and Newcastle Lodes, all
on the south side of the Creek and coming down
very near the mill, the Cook under it. On this an
adit runs in, creek level, 180 feet, intersecting a
shaft thirty feet deep near the entrance, and having
one sunk thirty feet below, at its inner end. The
vein shows a regular four-foot crevice of rich ore
and quartz on and near the surface, but does not
appear so well in the adit and deeper shaft. It is,
however, considered one of the best lodes in the
county. The Anoka County has a shaft forty feet
deep, the other lodes are unimproved. Negotiations
for the sale of the property East have been under
way for a year or two.
“The Whale Mining Company” was organized
in 1864 on the Whale and other lodes in the vicin-
ity. The Whale comes down the face of the south
mountain directly across the bar. An adit, start-
ing IOO feet above the creek, has been driven in
277 feet, intersecting there a shaft 225 feet in depth.
SOUTH CLEAR CREEK COMPANY. 235
The vein underlies at an angle of 30 to 4o degrees,
and the shaft has a solid, smooth foot-wall all the
way. The vein has been pinched and pockety
both in the shaft and adit. Considerable ore was
taken out of two levels and a shaft nearer the sur-
face. The Company have a brick mill building on
the bar the body of which is 75 by 139 feet, intend-
ed for 128 Bertola stamps, (weighing but about 300
lbs. each) an iron Chilian mill for each battery,
tanks for catching the crushed ore, and tanks for
treating it by Bertola process. Attached to the
mill are two wings, each 50 by 75 feet, designed
for fifty Bertola pans each, in which the ore is
ground and amalgamated after its chemical steam
bath. Six hundred feet above the mill a substan-
tial dam has been put in, giving with the race a fall
of I2 or I4 feet. There are two large turbine
wheels, one at each end of the building. But a
small part of the machinery has yet arrived, and
only sixteen stamps, four Chilians, and ten pans
have been set up. Mr. Thomas B. Moseley, Vice-
President of the Company, has just arrived out, and
means to see if he can make the Bertola process
work. If successful, the rest of the machinery will
be set up. The mill is a mammoth and substantial
concern, the power ample, the mine believed to be
good from its surface character, the Bertola pro-
cess works satisfactorily in New York, and it is to
be hoped the enterprise may prove a success.
“The South Clear Creek Gold and Silver Mining
Company” are located a little way above Spanish
Bar, on the north side of the creek and where the
236 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Lincoln Lode is supposed to cross and become the
Oro. An adit has been run in about on the creek
level 135 feet, intersecting a shaft 65 feet deep ;
ore-vein from eight to ten inches in width through-
out the adit, 50 to 60 tons of ore out. They have
900 feet of water power, substantial dam, flume-
race 550 feet long giving fifteen feet fall, center-
vent turbine wheel, IOO-horse. Stone mill building
on the lode 50 by 60, twenty stamps, two Freiberg
pans, and Crosby & Thompson desulphurizer. Mr.
D. B. Myres is the agent of the Company, and he
has a nice, Snug arrangement and a promising mine.
He is mining and milling.
Mr. Myres is also opening the Summit Lode,
head of Hukill Gulch—opposite Spanish Bar—for
some parties in Chicago who will organize a stock
company to work it if it shall prove good. Twenty
feet down it shows a large quartz crevice which
prospects at the rate of ten cents a pound.
“The United States Mining and Ore Decom-
posing Company” own a good deal of valuable
property on Hukill Gulch. The Company's affairs
are in a somewhat unsettled state, but before they
became so they had done considerable work on
the Edgar and Union, supposed extensions of the
Hukill, developing on the Edgar, a vein of most
beautiful ore fifteen inches in width.
“The Alden Tunnel Company” own sixteen full
lodes lying parallel and near together on the face
of the north mountain. They are driving a tunnel
which in the course of 700 feet will cut them all,
the last 700 feet deep; now in 138 feet at a cost of
. GARDEN CITY AND HALE COMPANIES. 237
$28 a foot. They have a water power, opposite the
Whale Company's, 600 feet long, twelve feet fall,
and are building a stone mill 40 by 90 feet, with
wing 20 by 40 feet, designed for any process,
including smelting, that careful tests of the ores
may indicate as the best. They have other neces-
sary buildings and are doing business with economy
and energy.
“The Garden City Gold Mining Company” have
started an adit on the Garden City Lode, which
develops most encouragingly, just above the Alden
Company's works, and designed to cut the same or
a similar belt of lodes cropping out on the surface.
They are in 85 feet, will go on 500 feet further, and
then, being well under the mountain, break sharply
to the left and cut their lodes, of which they have
fourteen, at right angles. Mr. J. M. Dumont is
attending to the business of the last two com-
panies.
TRAIL RUN DISTRICT.
Trail Run comes in from the south-west, just
above Spanish Bar. It rises very fast for about
three miles, where it heads in a thick pine forest.
A mile from its mouth, and high on the left moun-
tain occur the Kelley and Champion Dirt Lodes.
“The Hale Gold Mining Company” have here a
new mill, large alligator cracker, Kingsley's pulver-
izer (worthless,) and Keith shaking-table. The
quartz is taken from an adit on the Kelley, and is
run down to the mill on a wooden track 1400 feet
long. The mill is to be supplied with a different
238 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
pulverizer; the quartz is worth by actual test about
$40 a ton in gold and silver.
A mile further up, the Freeland Lode crosses the
run, opened, on both sides, for 4000 feet. For
eighteen hundred feet of this distance there are
two shafts on every claim, the deepest 285 feet.
Some of the shafts and surface gouging have
caved in; others are in good condition, a few being
worked. The vein is one of the strongest in the
County.
Just where the Freeland crosses the run is a
cluster of .mills, houses, &c., affectionately called
“Bonito.” Here is the primitive 6-stamp mill of
Captain Anshutz, which Dr. E. F. Holland is run-
ning with reasonable success.
A little further up, “The Colvin Gold Mining
Company” are making preparations to build a mill
for the Keith process. They are also mining on
No's 12, and I3 west on the Freeland, getting out
some beautiful quartz. B. R. Colvin is the agent
of this Company.
Next above is the mill of “The Baltic Gold
Mining Company.” It is intended for twenty
stamps and ten Freiberg pans, which machinery is
on the ground but not in place. This Company
own No's 9 and Io, west, on the Freeland, and have
sunk I 50 feet, crevice pinched.
Three miles from Clear Creek is the mill of “The
Noble Gold Mining Company,” represented by J.
Alden Smith. The mill has ten new 750-lb. stamps,
short plates and shaking-table, also a Crosby &
Thompson desulphurizer. The Company have
NOTED LODES OF THE DISTRICT. 239
mines on the Freeland, French, Jim Mulligan, and
other lodes that prospect well.
Among other noted lodes of the District are the
Tennel, Capital, Black-earth, Holman, Plutus, Co-
yote, Holland, Leavenworth ; some of these have
been largely developed. The District is easily ac-
cessible from Clear Creek, and is covered with a
dense growth of pines.
FALL RIVER DISTRICT.
Fall River debouches into Clear Creek from
the north-west, above the mouth of Trail Run, per-
haps half a mile. It is seven or eight miles long,
generally within an hour's ride of Central City, and
its right bank, easily accessible and open to the sun,
is almost as regularly pitted with prospect holes as
a harvested potato patch. It is estimated that
I5OO lodes have been discovered and pre-empted on
the stream.” It carries enough water at all seasons,
besides supplying the Consolidated Ditch, to run
the largest reduction works, and has a heavy fall.
Commencing at its mouth it has Iowa, Lower Fall
River, Lincoln, Cumberland, and Upper Fall River
Mining Districts.
A mile above its mouth, on the right, on the same
hill that heads Russell Gulch, are the lodes of “The
Equitable Gold. Mining Company.” They are run-
*It is a misnomer to call these lodes; for the most part they are
nothing but potato patch holes, only they are in yellow dirt. If
five, or one in each hundred claimed proves a valuable mine, the
owners may feel well satisfied, for they ºwill in that case have been
fortunate.
24O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ning an adit on the Calendar, and a tunnel 400 feet
above, designed to strike the Wilson, Chicago, Noye,
Red and New, which crop out on the surface. Also
building a dam, and preparing to build a mill ; have
6OO feet of water power, abreast of their lodes, with
24 feet fall ; work carried on by J. M. Dumont.
Not far above these, Mr. Dumont is running a
tunnel into the right bank, calculated to strike the
following lodes, lying parallel on the face of the
mountain and running nearly east and west like
those at the head of Russell Gulch, of which they
are undoubtedly the extension, west; Jones, Cook
County, Advent, Briggs, Red, Cedar, and O K, all
struck on the surface. The hill is excessively steep
and 2000 feet high. A tunnel will gain more in
depth than in length.
A mile further up are the mines of “The Fall
River Gold Mining Company,” organized in 1864.
They have run a tunnel IOO feet into the right bank,
designed to cut a belt of parallel lodes at great
depth ; also an adit IOO feet on the Pulaski, crevice
pinched. They have a dwelling-house but no mill
nor machinery. Sam Cushman of Central, is their
agent.
Next above is the property of “The Montrose
Gold Company of Colorado.” They have sundry
feet on the Phillips, Almy, Buffalo, and twenty other
lodes. The Phillips paid ſargely in sluice and mill
on and near the surface. It has shaft more than
100 feet deep, vein pinched. The Almy has shaft
50 or 60 feet in depth; walls smooth and perpen-
dicular and 4 I-2 feet apart, crevice material pros-
UPPER FALL RIVER DISTRICT. 24. I
pects moderately. Have a mill on Fall River 40
by 94 feet, wheel-house 20 by 36, two-story dwelling-
house 20 by 30 with a wing 13 by 23, well-finished,
a boarding-house large enough to accommodate
forty hands, barn, Smith-shop, &c. Water-power
IOOO feet in length, 50 feet fall, The mill contains
eighteen stamps and four or five Dodge pans. J.
G. Mahany is the agent of the Company.
The most improved lodes of Upper Fall River
are the Hardup, Ross, Sullivan, McClellan, Estelle.
The Hardup has a shaft 127 feet deep, two feet of
pure ore, assays $27O aton. The McClellan has two
shafts, 45 and 60 feet deep, average 18-inch vein of
ore, assays $3OO a ton. The Sullivan has four
shafts from 25 to 50 feet deep, good dirt and quartz
crevice, prospecting rich. The Ross can be seen
for 400 feet on the almost perpendicular side of a
mountain, one edge of the ore crevice, forever cov-
ered with snow. A good deal of work has been
done on it. Mary's Lode 1s another like the Ross,
plunging for 200 yards down the face of the moun-
tain into Mary's Lake, a sheet of water of five or
six acres whence flows the right fork of the river.
There are three Eastern and home companies in
the District—“The Union,” “The Black Eagle,”
and “The Fall River.” To the former belongs the
deep shaft on the Hardup, much other improved
and first-class lode property, and a 12-stamp, steam
mill, 25-horse engine, and water power 500 feet
long. There is also an 8-stamp mill in the district,
both of them in running order. There is abundance
of grass and timber in the vicinity; six tons of hay
II
242 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
were made just below Mary's Lake in 1861. It is
the lower part of the basin whence issues the right
or east branch of Fall River, that it has been con-
templated to make into a great water reservoir, to
supply, through the Consolidated Ditch, the mines
of Gregory District with water. Referred to at
length under the head of Gilpin County.
MORRIS AND DOWNIEVILLE DISTRICTS.
These lie between Fall River and the forks of
the creek, and their business is so mingled that we
can better notice them under one head.
Half a mile above Fall River, Turkey Run comes
down from the south. On its bar are located the
works of “The Syracuse Gold and Silver Mining
Company,” represented by George Copeland, a man
more experienced in mines and more original than
any other man in the whole world. They have 7000
to 8000 feet of mining property on both sides of
the creek and not very far from their mill, in con-
dition to be worked for quartz when it shall be de-
sirable. Have cut race and dug wheel-pit, and are
building dam and mill designed for a stone arastra
twenty-five feet in diameter, and to have twelve
heavy stone mullers. Mean to get in operation in
the Spring of 1867.
Between Fall River and Mill Creek comes in
Spring Gulch from the north. It is comparatively
a new district but has some noble veins, among
them the Golconda, very large crevice and very
rich quartz. “The Osceola Company” have a
IO-stamp steam mill in the district, running occa-
MINES OF MILL CREEK. 243
sionally. From the Golconda they crushed for
three months in 1865, the yield varying from $25
to $30 a ton. An arastra has taken as high as $45
a ton from a small lot. It is a pretty place, about
two miles from Clear Creek, the hills. Smoothly-
turfed and accessible by wagon, timber abundant,
water rather scarce. The veins are numerous,
strong, and rich, but not much developed.
A little way above the mouth of Spring Gulch
is the mill of “The Adrian Gold Mining Company,”
stamps and pans, somewhat out of repair. The
Company own property on the Hiawatha, north of
the creek and just west of Spring Gulgh, largely
improved, and a great deal other in the Acinity, de-
veloped but little.
“The Boston & Chicago Company,” represented
by W. R. Hawkins of Mill City (mouth of Mill
Creek, coming from the north-west, about four miles
above the mouth of Fall River), are sinking a shaft,
now down I40 feet, and running an adit and tun-
nel, now in 40 feet, on a supposed cross-lode called
the Herring. In the course of 900 feet the adit
will intersect the shaft 450 feet from the surface,
crossing meanwhile half a dozen other lodes. The
shaft is ten feet between walls, no well-defined vein
of ore yet, but mixed through the crevice. Have .
built some necessary buildings and are pursuing a
wise policy in developing their mines before erect-
ing expensive reduction-works.
“The Piasaw Gold Mining Company,” repre-
sented by G. B. Reed of Central, have run an adit
193 feet on the Piasaw, near the mouth of Mill
244 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Creek, and are now sinking a shaft at the inner end
of the adit. The indications are extremely en-
couraging.
“The Downieville Gold Mining Company” are
mining on the Albro ; have a shaft 132 feet deep
intersecting an adit 200 feet long, two feet of good-
looking ore ; also mining on the Ohio and other lodes
south of the creek. Have a 12-stamp water mill
in operation. John Young, of Central City, agent.
“The Mill City Mining Company” own property
on the Ulster County, Keystone, Washington, Rich-
mond, etc., developed by shafts from 50 to IOO feet
in depth. Frame mill near the mouth of Mill
Creek, 50 by 90, intended for the Mason process of
desulphurizing in a sort of lime-kiln furnace by su-
perheated steam. The furnace is a cupola, seven
feet in diameter by twelve high, and desulphurizes
satisfactorily, thirty-five tons a day, using one and a
half cords of wood. The difficulty is in amalgama-
ting. The mill has two Dodge crackers, four pairs
of burr-stones, let us say once and for all worthless
for pulverizing raw ores, Dodge shaking-table and
arastra.
“The Bullion Gold Mining Company” are mining
on the Hiawatha in Downieville District, supposed
to be an extension of the celebrated Hiawatha of
Morris District. They have a Bertola mill on Clear
Creek, incomplete, twenty-four stamps, twenty-four
pans, power, turbine wheel, running occasionally as
it can get quartz. They have 400 feet on the Hia-
watha in Morris District, shaft IIo feet deep, lode
considered one of the best in the county.
MINEs of EMPIRE. 245
John Young of Central has a mill on Mill Creek,
35 by 42, power, overshot wheel; contains a Bullock
crusher (Chilian principle) and stone arastra. Has
I300 feet on the Silver Star, considered as good as
any lode in the district of the same development;
average of a five-foot crevice assayed $73 a ton in
gold and silver.
Jacob Snyder is mining for a Philadelphia com-
pany, driving an adit and sinking a shaft on the
Albro, and running an arastra by water on surface
quartz, manufacturing about a ton per day and
getting $40 from it; vein averages fourteen inches
in width. s”
UNION DISTRICT-EMPIRE MINEs.
We have before located the town of Empire. It
is at the mouth of Lyon's Gulch. Half a mile up,
it forks, and between the forks, is Silver Mountain,
rising very fast and soon to everlasting baldness
and snow-banks. On its south-eastern exposure are
the principal mines, and within a mile of the forks.
Almost the entire of this face of the mountain has
been sluiced off by water brought in a ditch four and
one-half miles, from the head of Mill Creek. In places
it seems to be quartz, en masse, and it is full of large
and small mineral seams. The strongest veins are
the Rosecrans and Atlantic ; the Silver Mountain
and Ben Franklin, the Tenth Legion, the Roland,
the latter not yet defined, but underlying a mass of
quartz 40 feet wide by 500 long, from which the
dirt has been sluiced to a depth of 30 feet, and
paying under stamps from $7 to $85 a ton. If
246 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
these are not the strongest, richest veins, they are
the most improved. Several Eastern companies
have been formed on them, and they own property
and have done work as follows:
“The Leibig Gold Mining and Mill Company”
have I 33 feet on Tenth Legion, shaft II 5 feet deep,
tunnel in to and under the shaft, striking it 225 feet
from the surface; tunnel 350 feet long. Vein struck
near the mouth of the tunnel called Leibig, drifted
on 70 feet, shows a crevice of quartz and ore which
pays well from one to three feet wide. Have 600
feet on the Northrup, above and running parallel
with Tenth Legion ; shaft 75 feet deep, good show ;
also 6OO feet on the Winnebago, shaft 65 feet deep,
adit 50 feet in length, good vein; much other unde-
veloped lode property. Frame mill on Clear Creek
45 by IO2 feet, Keith furnace, calculated for 25
tons a day; Dodge cracker, ball-pulverizer, shaking
tables, &c.; power, double-vent, turbine wheel, 26
feet head, all the water they can use. J. E. Leeper,
of Empire, is the agent. Mining on Leibig and
Tenth Legion and milling.
“The Bay State Gold Mining Company” have
350 feet on Tenth Legion, a tunnel intended to
strike it, Silver Mountain and Livingston County,
from 300 to 500 feet from the surface, now in 415
feet; gone through five lodes not known on the
surface; shaft between the Holton and Boston, dip-
ping together, intersects the tunnel 150 feet from
its mouth, and is continued below 71 feet to the
junction of the two crevices, in all 160 feet from
the surface; from 12 to 20 inches of ore at the bot-
EMPIRE MINES. 247
tom of the shaft. Further down the hill, another
tunnel, designed to strike the same lodes at a greater
depth, has been driven 380 feet. Have much unde-
veloped lode property, own a steam 12-stamp mill
(Old Candee Mill) at the forks of Lyons' Creek,
to which they have added a Crosby & Thompson
desulphurizer, Collom separator, and Eaton amalga-
mator. Have a steam saw-mill at North Empire
in operation, and silver lodes on Douglas Moun-
tain and Snake River acquired since the formation
of the Company. John Collom of Empire, an ex-
perienced Lake Superior miner, is the agent.
“The Star Gold Mining Company” have 780
feet on the Silver Mountain, one shaft 125 feet deep,
one 65, level at the bottom of the latter 16o feet
long, winze below level 25 feet, vein of first-class
ore two feet in width. Have 40-horse portable en-
gine and 8-Inch pump on the lode ready to put up.
Have property on the Rosecrans and Haskins, and
own a steam-mill (Old Tennessee) twenty-four
stamps, five pans, in running order, on west fork of
Lyon's Creek. Have very valuable mine and mill
property near Idaho, heretofore noticed. No agent
at present, property unproductive.
“The Knickerbocker Gold Mining Company”
have property on Tenth Legion, shaft 180 feet deep,
very strong vein of first-class gold ore, steam-hoist-
ing works; complete 24-stamp, water mill on Clear
Creek, one of the finest water powers and mills in
Colorado. Represented by George C. Munson.
“The Peck Gold Mining Company” have 500
feet on the Atlantic, high up on the mountain, from
248 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
which the ore is run down by wooden rail I5OO feet
to mill in North Empire. Shaft 225 feet deep, port-
able engine of 20 to 30-horse power, for hoisting,
ten-foot crevice, half ore, coarse iron pyrites, the
rest white quartz impregnated with iron pyrites,
pays about $15 a ton; IOOO tons of ore out. Have
12-stamp, steam-mill in North Empire, to be re-
paired and enlarged in capacity. James Peck, of
Empire, represents the Company.
“The Humboldt Gold Mining Company” have
250 feet on the Humboldt, shaft II 5 feet deep; tun-
nel aiming to intersect this shaft 220 feet from the
surface now in 380 feet and being pushed; struck
ſour new veins, some of them valuable. Have I5o
feet on the You Bet, shaft 60 feet deep, and much
other undeveloped lode property. Frame mill on
Clear Creek 50 by IOO, driven by water, head of 33
feet, Dodge machinery throughout, not put up. H.
W. Hill, of Empire, represents the Company.
“The Rosecrans Gold Mining Company” have
650 feet on the Rosecrans, high up on the east fork
of Lyon's Creek; five shafts from 30 to 80 feet
deep, crevice of seven feet, quartz and ore mixed;
yield by stamps varies from $15 to $30aton. Frame
mill on the lode 40 by 60, Little Giant engine, cal-
culated to run the mill and mine, a Conkling crusher
(Chilian principle) and twenty stamps, machinery
not put up. Have much undeveloped lode property,
and a water power on Clear Creek half a mile above
Empire. N. G. Rounds represents the Company.
“The Eagle Gold Mining Company” have 650
feet on the Ben Franklin shaft 65 feet deep, very
EMPIRE MINES. 249
strong vein of ore. In running a level 250 feet,
are thought to have missed their crevice and crossed
the Rosarico. Have 350 feet on the Knapp, unde-
veloped, and a one-third interest in the Argentine
silver mines of The Pine Silver Mining Company.
Have a stone mill low down on Lyon's Creek,
crushers on the Chilian principle, iron cylinder amal-
gamators, (worthless,) and a rude furnace for roast-
ing ore in the rough. Organized in 1865 and paid
$35,000 the first year in salaries. Became embar-
rassed of course, turned over a new leaf, appointed
new officers in Colorado, and recommenced work.
Have a tunnel, starting at the Candee Mill, bearing
north under Silver Mountain, driven I.47 feet.
“The Enterprise Gold Mining Company” have
650 feet on the Rosarico, and other lode property.
Building a stone mill above North Empire, dupli-
cating the Eagle Company's machinery except the
amalgamators. Running tunnel from their mill
west into Silver Mountain, in 50 feet. E. F.
Brothers and J. C. McElroy, superintendents.
“The Elk Gold Mining Company” have 1200
feet on the Roland, supposed to cross the south-
eastern face of Silver Mountain under the patch
diggings—spoken of before. Taking out the best
of what appears to be a 40-foot vein of quartz and
crushing it in Morris & Miller's 12-stamp mill
in North Empire. It may cost considerable to find
the true fissure, but it is claimed that for a width
of 40 feet it will pay for handling in a large mill.
GRIFFITH AND ARGENTINE DISTRICTS
Are so interwoven in their interests that they are
©
II* -
250 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
easier noticed together than separate. Griffith lies
at the forks of the south fork of South Clear Creek,
thirty-three miles from Golden City by the creek,
forty-six from Denver via the Mt. Vernon road, and
about fifteen south-west from Central City. It has
two towns, half a mile apart—Georgetown, just
below the forks, and Elizabethtown, in a small park
just above them. The divide between the forks is
called Leavenworth Mountain up to Huff Gulch
in Argentine, about six miles, when it becomes
McClellan Mountain, topping out five or six miles
further up in Gray's Peak. Republican Mountain
rises abruptly to a hight of 1226 feet on the west,
soon becoming Sherman Mountain as it bends to
the west with the right fork, and in the other direc-
tion becoming Douglas Mountain beyond a certain
low notch through which a trail passes to Empire.
Alpine Mountain confronts Republican Mountain
on the east, and is tall enough to shade him until
a long while after the world first opens its eye in
the morning. The surroundings are worthy the
pen of an Irving and we shall not desecrate by
attempting to describe them. Suffice it that the
valley below is wide and smooth, slightly swelling,
and sprinkled with firs, pines, spruces, hemlocks,
alders and aspens. The stream is generous in size,
clear as crystal, purity itself, and winds round and
round as if it imagined itself in a meadow instead
of in a deep gorge of the Rocky Mountains, and was
loath to leave its grand surroundings for the dreary
journey down over the arid plains to the sea. It
seems to hug the banks of tiny islands of its own
GRIFFITH MINING DISTRICT. . 25 I'
creation, answering the kiss of the bending wil-
lows with a crying ripple as it glides past them and
away forever. But it is with the eternal hills,
rising boldly into the clouds, that we have to do.
Mines were discovered near the forks in 1859,
and sluicing from the Griffith Lode paid very well.
In 1863 there was a small stamp-mill at George-
town, which had made a few good runs. It, with
nearly all the known lodes of the district, passed
into the hands of Eastern men during the succeed-
ing Winter, and five Companies—the Georgetown,
Washington, Mount Alpine, Wilson & Cass, and
Express, were organized, and all but the last com-
menced work the next year.
“The Georgetown Company” put up a 40-stamp
mill-building, brought on their machinery, did a
good deal of work on the Western, Filmore, Ex-
press, and Lincoln Lodes, became embarrassed, and
were sold out by the sheriff. In 1866 the property
passed into other hands, and Mr. Biddle, of New
York, is gradually getting it into shape to run again.
“The Mount Alpine Company” built a large,
handsome mill, put up 24 stamps and started them,
then stopped. They did a good deal of work on
the Griffith, Corisannie, and other lodes. Subse-
quently the Company was reorganized and is now
known as “The What Cheer.” Col. Wm. M. Hale,
of Providence, represents it.
“The Wilson & Cass Company” confined their
operations to mining, of which they did consider-
able on the Wilson and Cass County Lodes.
“The Washington Mining Association,” repre-
252 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
sented by J. T. Harris, is developing the following
property; Douglas, by adit, I2O feet long, three-
foot vein of galena and iron pyrites; Burrell, by
shaft, 50 feet deep, three-foot vein of cupriferous
ore four tons of which gave by Bertola process $500,
and by Keith process $415; Branch, by adit, 30
feet long ; Sweden, by adit, 25 feet long; Panama,
by shaft, 30 feet deep, ten inches of galena, has as-
Sayed as high as $2,2OO a ton; Morning Star, by
shaft, five-inch ore-vein, has assayed as high as
$1,978 a ton; George M. Wilson, William Bennett,
and S. F. Nuckolls, the latter having two feet of
galena. They own 5000 feet on different veins and
are now working on the Burrell and Panama, erect-
ing a reverberatory furnace, fifteen tons a day ca-
pacity. -
Early in September, 1864, Gov. R. W. Steele,
James Huff, and Robert Layton, started out of
Empire in search of silver, “which,” says Gov.
Steele, “we supposed to exist in and around the
Range near the heads of the south-western branches
of Clear Creek, where the same interlock with the
heads of the Snakes.” Two or three days found
them in camp on Huff Gulch, where the Argentine
cabins now stand. Next morning Huff went di-
rectly up the long eastern slope of McClellan
Mountain, Steele and Layton going up Huff Gulch
to the right, and all intending to meet on the sum-
mit somewhere, and if they should find nothing,
seek a pass through on to the Snakes. It happened
that Huff passed over the “cropping” of what was
afterwards called the “Belmont Lode,” which occurs
\
DISCOVERY OF ARGENTINE, 253
well up on the ridge and is scattered over a consid-
erable area. He picked some of it up, and upon
exhibiting it to his comrades, they all agreed that
it was silver ore or blossom, and that they need go
no further. Opening the ground slightly they got
a few pounds from the vein in place, took it to
Central City and had it assayed, with results vary-
ing from $2OO to $500 per ton. A few other men
were let in on it, and an association formed, now
known as “The Pine Silver Mining Company.”
During the ensuing Winter six accurate assays
were made, one each by Prof. Hill of Providence, , .
Behr & Keith of Black Hawk, F. T. Sherman of
Nevada, George B. McClure of the Denver Branch
Mint, and two by Prof. Dibben of New York, the
average result being $827.48 per ton, gold and
silver, chiefly the latter. The locality is about eight
miles above Georgetown, and the discovery was
made September 14, 1864.
Next year there was a rush to the spot. A dis-
trict embracing the sources of the south fork of
South Clear Creek and the north branch of North
Platte was laid out and called “Argentine.” The
lodes generally assayed high in silver, and during the
succeeding (last) Winter, several Eastern and some
home companies were organized rather for the pur-
pose of prospecting and acquiring property by dis-
covery than for working the mines for their profits.
Among them is “The Argentine Silver Mining
and Exploring Company,” represented by C. S.
Stowell. They have built a building in Elizabeth-
town containing a Scotch hearth, McKinsie blower,
254 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Atwood's lead oxydizer, &c., all driven by a Little
Giant engine of 16-horse-power. The intention is
more particularly to experiment with the lead-oxy-
dizing process, claimed as a cheap substitute for
cupelling. A cast-iron cylinder three feet in diame-
ter by eight in length, revolves slowly in a furnace
fired to a red heat. Flanges on the inside of the
cylinder lift and pour down the lead-riches, the lead
Oxydizing by the heat and passing out at one end
of the cylinder into a chamber in the form of lith-
arge. One machine is calculated to reduce the
lead to a richness of 70 or 80 per cent. bullion, at
the rate of IOOO lbs. in twelve hours. It has been
in use for two years at Portland, Me., making lith-
arge from English lead, giving the best of satisfac-
tion. It is expected to greatly reduce the cost of
cupelling. The jigger and Scotch hearth are such
as are in use at Lyon's smelting works in Black
Hawk.” They commenced work in September on
ores from their mines on McClellan Mountain.
Should everything work as expected and the lodes
open well, similar but larger works are to be erected
next season at Argentine on Huff Gulch.
“The Georgetown Silver Smelting Company,”
represented by J. T. Herrick, have put up a dam
and cut a race on the right fork at Elizabethtown,
and are erecting smelting works, of considerable
capacity, costing $25,000. They have one of the
best water-powers in Colorado, and though originally
intending to confine their operations to smelting,
have not been able to do so under the excitement
*—
*See the chapter on Processes, under head of smelting.
SMELTING FURNACES AT GEORGETOWN. 255
caused by discoveries and extraordinary assays, but
have themselves invested heavily in lodes. They
think I 500 ounces of silver per ton a pretty nice
thing, even if the veins are somewhat narrow on
the surface.
“The Georgetown Silver Tunneling Company,”
represented by A. JR. Wright, are sinking on the
Elijah Hise, on Sherman Mountain, of which they
own 700 feet. Sixteen feet down they have twelve
inches of ore, an average of which, assayed by Mr.
B. Hermann of Swansea, Wales, and Prof. N. P.
Hill of Providence, R. I., gave at the rate of
$1,339.2O a ton. -
J. W. Watson is building a reverberatory furnace
and small cupel at Elizabethtown, capacity three
tons a day, to test the Baker, on Kelso Mountain,
at the extreme head of the right fork. Half way
up the mountain the lode crops out in seams for 30
feet in width, and there an adit is being run in for
ore, of which there is a considerable quantity out.
The indications are good for a very large vein of
rich ore—seven feet it is expected—when these
croppings shall have merged in the true fissure. It
is fully believed by its friends that the Baker will
prove one of the best mines in the world, and it is
being energetically tested. -
“The Bohema Smelting Company” have a re-
verberatory furnace, opposite Georgetown, the hearth
five by seven feet, capacity three tons in twenty-four
hours, such a furnace as is used in the lead mines.
It works to the satisfaction of the owners. They
have constructed a wagon road to the H. W.
256 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Beecher, a very strong galena vein high on Repub-
lſºhn Mountain, whence come their ores. The
Company was organized in Denver and is repre-
sented by Jno. W. Cree.
Besides these there are mining in Griffith and
Argentine, The Pine Silver Mining Company, The
Sonora Mining Company,” Hasbrouck & Co., and
many individuals. There are shafts from ten to
forty feet deep on the Argentine, Morse, Bowman,
Panama, Bond, Compass & Square, and others on
the eastern slope of Leavenworth Mountain ; on
the Savage Extension, Black Hawk, Comstock,
Savage, Richmond, Belmont, Bob Morris, Animosa,
Wheeling, Great Bear, St. Lawrence, Bob Morris
No. 2 or Bullion, Mohawk or Paymaster, Fairview,
Monitor, Quincy, Ripley, Rockland, Christopher
Columbus, Premium, Ayres, Silver Wedge, Radius,
Debenion, etc., on McClellan Mountain ; on the
Eugenia, South American, McClellan, Kalibagh,
Mammoth, Herkimer, f United States Coin, Brown,
and many others on Sherman Mountain ; and on
the New Boston, R. E. Demmon, Cuckoo, Brook-
lyn, Wonder, Self, Knickerbocker, Wentworth, B.
Morrison, Partridge, G. W. Packard, DeGrant, Tal-
isman, and a great many others on Republican
*The Sonora Company, of which Mr. George Stille is agent, and
Mr. Rothpletz general director, or something of that sort, packed
in provisions late last Fall, no road having yet been constructed
more than two-thirds of the way from Georgetown, and have been
working a full force of hands all Winter—not less than 12,000 feet
above the sea.
f Behr & Keith certify that a fair average of this lode assayed
$1,158 a ton of 2000 pounds.
SNAKE RIVER MINES. 257
Mountain, and the one opposite, showing crevices
from four to six feet in width, with veins of qua
rich in sulphuret and chloride of silver, and veins
of argentiferous galena of from six to twelve, fif-
teen, twenty, and even thirty inches.
The lodes of the vicinity are not yet extensively
exploited, but enough has been done to prove that
some of them are true and rich silver veins, and
the argentiferous galena is rich and can be worked
cheap. A good deal is doing in the way of open-
ing and testing them, and if they shall prove what
assays indicate and of the usual size, the district
must rival the best in the world ere many years.
A wagon road is building from Elizabethtown up
the right hand fork to the Baker Lode, about ten
miles; one will be built next season by the left fork
to Huff Gulch, about six miles. The district has
an immense water power. The fuel is ample now,
but once mining were fully entered upon, would
soon be exhausted, that is to say, in a few years.
But the grade from the forks down the creek to the
Valley is but eighty-six feet per mile, and when
necessity arises, a railway can be built without any
difficulty, making the inexhaustible coal-beds at the
base of the Mountains available for mining purposes.
Four miles south-west from Mt. McClellan, one
finds himself on waters running into the Pacific,
and in a silver district, eight or ten miles long and
two or three in width, equally as rich as that of
Argentine or Griffith, known as “The Snake River
Mines.” A fold or elbow of the Range lies like a
huge cap on this belt of lodes, which crops out
258 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
for a greater or less width on each side, showing
Q. same general characteristics, and preserving the
true direction—north-east and south-west. Any-
where but in the very heart of the Continent, re-
mote from all seas, rivers and railways, such a dis-
trict would already have been made the basis of a
new and flourishing State. However, railways are
now rapidly stretching from either ocean toward
Colorado, and when they shall have joined hands,
with their accompanying columns of adventurers in
these silver chambers above the clouds, Colorado,
from her heaven-topped mountain throne, will hold
forth a golden sceptre that shall enchant the world—
perhaps
Argentine, as we have said, is comparatively a
new district, and we therefore add a little to the
above, bringing our account nearer to date than last
October. Fifty-seven dwellings, averaging in value
$500, were erected, in Elizabethtown and George-
town” in 1866; one furnace building and furnaces
costing $25,000, one costing $10,000, and a third
about $7,500. Several new lodes have been found,
among them the Bethany, Anglo-Saxon, Cherokee,
and Summit. Of seven assays of ore from the Beth-
any, the highest was $22,137.30, the lowest $3,960.90,
and the average, $10,912 per ton of 2000 pounds.
The vein is very wide, the ore in small seams as
yet, not more than six inches in width in the aggre-
gate. At the depth of twenty feet the Anglo-Saxon
has a vein of pure ore, sixteen inches in width, the
*These two towns, by late action of the inhabitants, are merged
in one, and called Georgetown.
MINES OF GEORGETOWN. 259
average assay of which is $1,600 a ton. The
Cherokee is on the right hand fork, a few m
above the junction, is a galena lode, rich in silver.
The Summit is on top of Alpine Mountain, the vein
ten feet in width, streaked with numerous seams of
ore which never has assayed less than 1500 ounces
of silver to the ton. The writer from whom these
statements are taken, and who is entirely to be
trusted, claims that there is one lode near George-
town seventy-five feet in width. “But saw-mills
and smelters and ‘big things’ make a poor old
Christmas,” he writes, “after all. One would rather
see a row of little stockings carefully arranged about
the fire, than to hear of all these old matter-of-fact
affairs. Big red apples, and red cheeks, and bright
eyes will occur to a fellow in spite of himself on
such occasions as this (Christmas Eve.) Don't you
think we could raise an immigrant aid society for
girls? Colorado needs a thousand to-day, and by
New Year's a thousand more might find snug
homes, warm hearts, and strong arms to keep them
till death.” -
Later still, the shaft on the Elijah Hise had
reached a depth of 35 feet, had one well-defined
wall, vein of gangue and ore 5 I-2 feet wide; ore
streak had varied in width from five to fourteen
inches for the last 20 feet of the shaft; and its
average value from daily tests had been $835 a ton.
It comprised argentiferous galena, silver glance,
brittle silver glance, cupreous sulphuret of silver,
and a very little chloride of silver. The vein crops
out 100 to 300 feet either way from Discovery, sev-
26o THE MINES OF COLORADO.
| feet in width, and shows many points of similar-
ibºto the great Comstock vein of Mt. Davidson.
The Discovery shaft on the Belmont is twelve feet
deep, shows a vein of white quartz about nine inches
wide, carrying cubes of galena and specks of sul-
phuret of silver, the assay value of which is not far
from $1000 a ton. A second shaft, some 400 feet
east, discloses the same kind and three times as
large a vein, the assay value of which is from $300
to $500 a ton. The Wheeling Lode, near the Bel-
mont, and occurring in the same syenitic formation,
has been opened in three places covering a lineal
extent of 500 feet; Discovery shaft is fifteen feet
deep, and contains on the surface three distinct
veins of ore, varying in width from three to eight
inches, and separated by four or five feet of gangue
rock, or more properly, country rock; toward the
bottom of the shaft these veins approach each
other, and doubtless unite at a greater depth. The
Baker Lode stands out on the eastern slope of
kelso Mountain,” like a great tree which has
been stripped by the storms of all but three or
four of its principal branches. Wm. Brückner, a
mining and metallurgical expert, describes it as
follows:
“The two principal ramifications, called the
north and the south crevices, bear a course of S. 72°
W., and S. 60° W., dipping 65° and 85° to the
north. They are traced and disclosed by many
prospecting pits, showing bodies of uncommonly
*Kelso Mountain is at the head of the right upper fork as Mount
McClellan is at the head of the left. -
* MINES of KELSo MoUNTAIN. 26 I
rich ores, varying in width from twenty inches §
twenty feet. The crevices consist of sulphuret aff
bromide of silver and argentiferous galena; all
these ores being more or less interspersed within
the vein matter of quartz and feldspar. Samples of
ore, taken from these crevices, yielded by assay, as
high as $800 to $2OOO per ton. At the junction
of the north and south crevices, a tunnel has been
commenced, which shows a large body of ore, seven
feet in width, consisting of sulphuret and bromide
of silver and argentiferous galena, and a gangue,
of quartz and feldspar. In order to ascertain the
average value of this ore, samples of all the differ-
ent classes of ore, more or less intermixed with
gangue, were taken from all the different tunnels
and surface pits, pulverized and equal weights of
each mixed together. This average ore yielded by
assay—gold, $6. II, silver, $69.OO, $75. II per ton
of 2000 pounds. This is an uncommonly rich aver-
age yield for a lode of such enormous dimensions;
from which, with a comparatively small amount of
labor, hundreds of tons may be taken out every
day; and in a locality, where good facilities for
working the ore are very near.”
Another account says:
“The ores which fill this vein are of varied c.1ar-
acter. The great body of them are chlorides, filling
nearly two-thirds of the crevice, occupying a mid-
dle position in the vein nearly four feet wide. Next
to the west side, along the underlying wall-rock, is a
seam of bromide of silver about one foot in thickness,
easily mined. To the side of the eastern wall-rock
262 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
here is found a seam of galena, and closely united
with it, brittle sulphuret of silver, and a small seam
of fahlerz, in all from fifteen to eighteen inches in
thickness.”
It is believed that the most of the ore found in
this vein is better adapted to treatment by amalga-
mation than by fire. Two tons of it, unselected,
undressed, and without roasting, were smelted last
Winter, yielding twenty-five pounds of silver—coin
value #422.90—and 1500 pounds of lead, at ten
cents a pound, $150. A piece weighing eighty
pounds and assaying $532. I2 per ton, was sent to
the Paris Exposition. About three miles above
the junction on the right fork and two thousand
feet up from the creek, occur the John Brown,
United States Coin, and Mammoth Lodes, parallel
and within fifty feet of each other, standing above
the surface, the Mammoth assaying sixty dollars a
ton for thirty inches in width, the Coin $200 a ton
for eighteen inches in width, and the Brown about
$350 for sixteen inches. Some ore from the Brown
has been smelted—they are all argentiferous ga-
lena—and the lead-riches, of which the yield is
nearly one-half the weight of the dressed ore, as-
says about $1000 per ton. It will be seen that they
constitute a somewhat remarkable group, possibly
all coming together below. These items will give
some definite idea of how the Georgetown and Ar-
gentine silver veins develop, and of their value.
They are not the result of personal observation,
but are derived from contemporary sources which
are deemed trustworthy.
C H A P T E R X.
Boulder County—Characteristics—Mining Districts—Gold Hill,
Ward, Central—Boulder Valley, Boulder City, Valmont—Geol-
ogy and Topography of the Coal and Iron Region—Bellemonte
Furnace and Coal Beds—Black Hawk Foundery.
UNLIKE Gilpin and Clear Creek Counties, which
are wholly within the Foot-hills, Boulder County
takes in a large slice of the best agricultural land
of the Valley—about eight townships. Long's
Peak is the north-west corner-stone, and the crest
of the Range the western boundary line. It ad-
joins Gilpin and Jefferson on the north, and is not
far from thirty miles square. Watered by the
Boulders, St. Vrain, Left-Hand, and Little Thomp-
son Creeks, which divide it into so many all but
equal sections and flow through it from west to
east; occupying the end of the Great Mineral Belt
which approaches nearest and is most accessible to
the Plains; abounding in coal and deposits of valu-
able iron ore accompanied by all the materials used
in the construction and running of smelting fur-
naces; and having no less than two hundred and
fifty square miles of the finest agricultural land
admirably situated in every respect for irrigation,
264 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Boulder may be not inaptly termed the gem of all
the counties of Colorado.
Its numerous streams escape through the feather-
edge of the Foot-hills by the abjectest kanyons,
worthless but as avenues of access; but above these
the surface has been fretted by thousand rivulets
making down from the Range until it is one vast
park, chiefly covered with forest, but still presenting
sunniest openings on the banks of clearest and most
musical waters. It affords a pleasing and beautiful
landscape from any elevated point on its circular
enclosure. It was early invaded by the adventurous
gold-hunter. Seven years ago, the Boulder Dig-
gings at Gold Hill made quite as much noise as
those of Gregory. Gold Hill is not properly on
either of the Boulders, however; it is between
Four-Mile and Left-Hand Creeks, say 1200 feet
above them and eight or ten miles from the Valley.
There used to be half a dozen mining districts in
the county, each the size of a township, the precise
boundaries of most of which either never were re-
corded or the record has been lost. Now-a-days,
only Sugar Loaf, Gold Hill, Central, Ward, and
Phoenix are ever heard of
Ward District lies at the Head and on the North
side of Left-Hand, extends east and west eight
miles, and north from the creek, five. Gold Lake
District adjoins Ward on the north, and is as much-
noted to date for containing a lake of 160 acres—
Dr. Parry's “Osborne's Lake”—as for its gold
mines, which, although they prospect well in a pan,
do not seem to have interested anybody much in
MINING DISTRICTS OF BOULDER, 265
their development. Central District lies east of
Ward, between Left-Hand and St. Vrain's, and con-
tains the James Creek mines, just now attracting
attention and engaging effort. This was Utilla
District in olden times. South of this comes Gold
Hill, south of Gold Hill, Sugar Loaf, and west of
Sugar Loaf, Phoenix District.
Among the most noted lodes of Gold Hill are the
Horsefall, Williams, and Hope. In 1860 there
were a dozen quartz mills, small and rude of course
compared with the mills of the present, running in
the district, besides quite a number of arastras.
All but three or four drew out in the Fall of the
year mentioned and moved to Gregory or elsewhere.
The mills were incomplete, most of their owners
had no mines in their own right; they were new to
the business of quartz-milling ; and the quartz and
dirt of the surface were soon exhausted, leaving the
miners on cap or in sulphurets. Two or three mills
persevered through another year or so, but they
gradually failed and quit, In 1863 the owners of
the Horsefall, to the number of twenty or more,
formed an association called “The Union Com-
pany,” fitted up a 6-stamp mill and ran it till they
wore it out. Since that nothing has been done
there, probably because there are so many to be
consulted. For a year the district has been de-
serted. It has at least three or four lodes of the
first class which might easily be made productive.
In the other districts of the county little has yet
been done beyond prospecting and recording, with
the single exception of Ward District. Indiana
I2
266 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Gulch cuts it from north-west to south-east, and on
this the principal known lodes occur. The most
considerable and the most improved is the Colum-
bia, opened or struck under that name for between
2,OOO and 3,000 feet, and continued as much fur-
ther east of Indiana Gulch under different names.
The Niwot Mining Company own 1,300 feet of the
vein, 650 feet of it contiguous, a portion of which—
No's 9, IO, and II, west—has been developed by four
shafts from 70 to 80 feet deep, and a level 40 or 50
feet from the surface the entire length of No. 10.
The crevice is from six to ten feet wide. In the Fall
of 1861 Davidson & Breath took a 6-stamp, steam
mill in on to Indiana Gulch, which was run, off and
on, up to the Fall of 1865. The district was wild
at that time and the mill was intended merely for a
prospector. In the course of a few months it took
$40,000 from the property now owned and worked
by the Niwot Company, the yield varying from $40
to $65 a ton, the cost of taking out $3.75 a ton.
The little mill was sold to Gen. Joseph Hayes in
the beginning of 1866, and is now being run by
Mr. Bixby, of Central City. While Colorado mines
were selling in the East the Niwot Mining Com-
pany was organized on this and 35,000 feet on other
lodes in the district, and a 50-stamp mill purchased
and sent out. It arrived in October, 1865, four
months on the road from Grinnell, Iowa, and was
immediately set up. The mill-building is a frame,
44 by 84 feet, engine-room 24 by 30, situate on the
lode, No. 10, west. From the top of this mill is
presented one of the finest views in Colorado.
NIWOT MINING COMPANY. 267
Audubon's Peak looms grandly up in the west, but
a few miles distant; to the south, the park of Left-
Hand, the Boulders, and North and South Clear
Creeks, spreads away as far as the “Old Chief,”
“Squaw,” and “Papoose,” and the “cloud-compel-
ling summits,” among which the last-named stream
takes its rise; east, the Foot-hills, except here and
there a gigantic crag, assume an almost level ap-
pearance, over and beyond which the eye sweeps
the Plains from the head of Cherry Creek to the
Platte far below its great eastward bend. The
Plains seem to bank up like the ocean to meet
the sky, and the division is lost in the dreamy dis-
tance. To return : The engine is 125-horse power,
and runs as smooth as oil on water. It belts
directly on to a counter shaft driving the cam
shafts, the latter thrown in and out of gear by
clutch-coupling. The stamps are set up in two
sections along one side of the mill, five batteries
of five stamps each in a section. The crushed ore
passes over long, stationary, copper-plates, then
over blankets into small tanks intended to catch
escaping quicksilver, then away. Each battery has
65 square feet of copper-plate. The stamps weigh
650 pounds each. The mill is a plain, substantial,
old-fashioned stamp-mill, without any foolishness,
well located and put up. Water is brought from a
noble spring a half-mile distant, giving head enough
to throw it all over the mill if desired. Half the
stamps were started about August Ist, and the
others were to start a month later. The first twenty
days' run with 25-stamps, on a mixture of quartz,
268. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ore, and stuff that was thrown aside while using the
old mill, averaged something more than twenty
ounces of gold a day. The Company also have a
steam saw-mill on Left-Hand, half a mile from the
mill, with which they have cut all their lumber.
The battery timbers were found in the immediate
vicinity, although timber-line is not more than
five miles back and but little higher. They have a
wagon-road from the district down Left-Hand to
the Valley—about eighteen miles. It is considered
the best as it is the shortest route from the agricul-
tural districts into any paying mines except those
at Gold Hill which are on this road, six or seven
miles below; it has a water grade except in one case.
The timber in the district is quite thick and of the
common size for the Mountains, the hills only mod-
erately steep, the whole region furnishing une-
qualed pasturage and frequently small parks where
hay can be profitably made and the hardier vege-
tables grown. The Niwot Company have a good
boarding-house, lodging forty men; a wood-shed
holding 500 cords, and are building shaft-houses on
No's 9, IO, and II, hoisting to be done by a line of
shafting belting directly on the engine. Wm. A.
Davidson is the Company's agent, and the present
improvements in Ward District are largely due to
him.*
*After the above was written the Niwot mill caught fire and
burned to the ground, but slightly injuring the machinery however.
By the end of January last a new mill was ready to raise. At the
same time Crosby & Thompson had got a new 24-stamp mill run-
ning on the Stoughton Lode, paying handsomely. The stamps are
a part of those torn out of the Excelsior Company's mill last Fall,
LoNG's PEAK GOLD MINING COMPANY 269
Another mining company called “The Long's
Peak Gold Mining Company,” are at work in the
district. They have 200 feet on the Columbia, shaft
IOO feet deep, vein of mixed ore, quartz, and coun-
try rock, six feet wide. Putting up a whim pre-
paratory to sinking. Also 6OO feet on the Comet
(extension east of the Columbia) two shafts, just
started, showing very wide quartz vein and pros-
pecting rich. Also 6OO feet on the Manhattan,
shaft 45 feet deep, average vein, prospects well.
Have besides a very large amount of unimproved
property on the best lodes in the district. Have
built a frame mill on Indiana Gulch, where the Col-
umbia crosses and becomes the Comet. It is set
like stairs against the east bank, a peculiarity of
construction quite common and intended to facili-
tate the manipulation of ores. It has a 35-horse
Little Giant engine, Dodge crusher in the quartz
room, upper story; two ball-pulverizers on the
second story, also an improved dolly-tub for amal-
gamating ; and directly under this story, a room
for drying or other manipulating of the concentrated
tailings from the amalgamator. The last is intended
to realize an idea of J. V. Pomeroy's, the agent of
the Company, it being to prevent the float-gold from
passing off in the water by cribbing it, and to sink
Bixby was still successfully working with the little old Niwot mill,
and Cushman, Cressey & Co. were about ready to start a new stamp
mill. Ward District has become an attractive spot since the new
Niwot mill went into so successful operation, thus calling attention
to the great richness and size of its lodes. It seems that the Win-
ter is just the season to carry on work there, too, if it is Io,000 feet
above the sea.
270 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the coarse but rusty particles into the concentrated
tailings, which it is designed to dry and re-grind.
The tub is of copper and has a triple, funnel-shaped
bottom, a paddle stirrer, and a faucet underneath
whereby to draw out the tailings, the slimes having
gone off in the water through the vent, which is
high up but under or outside of the first bottom.
As the water is drawn off to clean up, the float-gold
is expected to adhere to the funnel-shaped coppers,
one after the other, the very last of it to be caught
in a pan the same as the concentrated ore and
coarse gold. Mr. Pomeroy expects to dipense with
desulphurizing. He believes that all that is re-
quired is, to free the gold and brighten it by perfect
pulverization when plain stirring will amalgamate
it. The Company's mill and other buildings were
commenced in May, and are now nearly ready to
run, the entire cost being $25,000.* This is the re-
sult of strict personal attention to business.
These companies are the only parties doing much
of consequence in the district. There are a great
many lodes, among them the Ward, Nelson, Croe-
sus, Niwot, Banner, California, Stoughton, Norman,
Rothschild, Susie, Larned, developed from 20 to I2O
feet deep, and drifted out more or less; some of
them having gossan that pays moderately for sluic-
ing; some of them with large piles of quartz out
awaiting the arrival of mills; all of them wide and
open, prospecting rich. The mines are forty-five
*In February last Pomeroy was replacing his crushing ma-
chinery with twenty stamps, which he expected soon to be ready to
TUille
CENTRAL MINING DISTRICT. 271
miles north-west from Denver and twenty-five north
from Central City, and are accessible by fair wagon
roads from either place.
It has transpired quite recently that Central Dis-
trict, between Ward and the Valley, has some of
the strongest, richest gold, silver, and copper lodes
in the country. About one hundred have been dis-
covered and pre-empted within three months. They
do not differ greatly in their general features from
the lodes common to the Belt, and are not more
than ten miles from the Valley, nor than 1500 feet
above it in altitude. Present indications are that
these are but the beginning of discoveries in that
region. The advantages it has in contiguity to the
Valley and consequent ease of access, must secure
its rapid development.”
* From 200 to 300 prospectors have wintered in the district and
a great many lodes have been discovered. The mines are on James
Creek, a tributary of Left-Hand, and the town is called Jamestown.
It already boasts from 160 to 200 houses. Three saw-mills and a
smelting furnace were in process of erection between January and
February. As an illustration of miners’ life, the subjoined extract
from a late Jamestown letter is not bad :
“There is great excitement about town lots just now. All the
front lots, or lots near the gulch, are pre-empted for about three miles
along the stream; also, all mill-sites. And now as there are some
coming in and threatening to jump the lots not built on, it creates
some excitement. Miners’ meetings are in vogue, and we are hav-
ing a good many. I attended one not long ago, which was con-
ducted after this fashion: When the crowd had gathered, the busi-
ness was introduced by the singing of ‘Sweet Betsey from Pike.’
The Chairman then took his seat and the object of the meeting was
stated to be, ‘the opening of the lots held by speculators to actual
settlers,’ &c. Discussion followed. The floor was soon claimed by
three or four—half a dozen were speaking at once, and I could
gather only a few words, such as “Open 'em,” “Pioneers,’ ‘Broke
*
272 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Boulder Valley is perhaps the best farming dis-
trict in the nothern portion of the Territory. The
indigenous grasses are thrifty and rich, vegetables
grow to enormous size, and wheat yields twenty-five
bushels per acre. There are two considerable
towns if it, Boulder City, the county seat, twenty-
five miles from Denver and twenty-five from Central
City by an excellent wagon road just completed;
and Valmont, four or five miles below, where the
South Boulder and Left-Hand Creeks form a junc-
tion with the North Boulder. The latter is hardly
a year old, but has a population, including the valley
around it, of five hundred, supports a small weekly
newspaper, has a good hotel, two churches, several
stores, a flouring-mill, many residences, and a thriv-
ing trade with the magnificent farming country which
forms its setting. Boulder City is one of the oldest
the ice,” “No right,’ &c., &c. During the confusion the Chairman
was seen to wave his hand and speak, but was not heard. At last a
man with a stentorian voice reached the ears of the Chairman and
crowd, and ‘moved that we all Āeep still.” Motion obtained. A
motion was then made to appoint a Committee to inquire into, and
find out, if a lot had actually been sold for a keg of beer. Before
the motion could be put, it was stated by one of the best men
we have that no doubt a lot had been sold for a keg of beer, but
the beer was drunk, and drunk or sober the title was just as good
as if the consideration had been money. After a great many other
‘motions,’ and ‘resolutions,’ which were all as clear as mud, a
Town Committee was appointed to survey lots and see to their im-
partial distribution. But to-day a man went to work on a lot; an-
other man warned him off; they had a fight, and the one that drew
the ‘first blood’ held the lot. Now the talk is to call another
miners’ meeting and make it a law that ‘first blood” shall hold
against all other titles. We want your candid opinion—ſs first
&lood a good title ž"
ſº
CoAL AND IRON OF BOULDER. 273
towns in the Territory, is the entrepot of the mines
of Boulder County and also has a large trade with
the farmers and rancheros of the Boulder Valley
which it overlooks for a long distance. It has the
features of any town, and the present year has wit-
messed quite an influx of population, and consequent
energy in building and other improvements. With
the revival of mining in the county and the con-
struction of a direct wagon road to the Gregory
mines, the town must prosper.
In Boulder County occur very considerable out-
croppings of coal, and the only deposit of iron ore
that has been improved. The coal measures which
along the eastern base of the Mountains throughout
the most of their extent were brought edgewise to
the surface by an upheaval of the latter subsequent
to the deposit of the former, are peculiar in that
they occur in the Tertiary formation, having no
connection with the carboniferous coals in geologi-
cal position, if they have any in character. From
some improvement in Boulder and Jefferson coun-
ties, they would seem to be from three thousand to
five thousand feet thick, the whole series, particu-
larly in the latter county, deposited unconformably
on the Silurian, being ten thousand feet thick. In
the contact of two series of rocks, so widely differ-
ent in age and lithological character, is presented
large scope for investigation. It is as yet an almost
untrodden field. Geologists say that at the time of
this Tertiary deposit, what now forms the base of
the Mountains was a low range of hills, the shore
of an ocean extending from the Arctic region into
I2*
274 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Mexico, and the Parks of the Range, inland seas.
A high temperature and consequent energetic meta-
morphic action existed in both the older and newer
series. This is inferred from the absence of fossils
below the coal measures, and from the fact that in
places the gneiss has been changed to syenite and
granite a mile or two back from the Tertiary sand-
stones. The latter also exhibit the intensity of the
metamorphic action in their extreme hardness, en-
abling them to form a series of marginal ridges,
fronting the main Mountains and from one to four
miles distant, occasionally broken down to the
common level of the plain by the mountain streams,
or cut and worn away by denuding agencies pro-
ceeding from the Range, outward; but generally
preserving an elevation of five hundred to ten
hundred feet, and forming a striking feature in the
topography of the section. They appear to have
once formed a continuous line, the western summit
offering a bold escarpment, the base of which is
covered by the debris fallen from above. The
eastern slope is that of the strata, and the surface
is frequently in great part that of the rock itself
scantily overgrown with bushes, cactus, and grass,
springing from the crevices. In some localities
there are one, in others two, and again three or four
of these sandstone ridges, called “hog-backs” by
the natives, separated by the space of a mile per-
haps, and gradually sinking away in the prairie
toward the east. Outside of these, fronting Golden
City and standing guard on the banks of Clear
Creek at the royal gate of the Rocky Mountains,
CoAL AT GOLDEN CITY AND BOULDER. 275
there is another group, or rather block, of basaltic
formation. If they once constituted a single block,
ten miles long by three in width and eight hundred
feet high, their summit a mesa of large area upheld
round the edges by vertical walls of rudely-columnar
greenstone or hornblende from one hundred to two
hundred feet in hight, they do not now, for the creek
has cut them in two, although not otherwise altering
their characteristics. They are called “The Table
Mountains.” The soil near their base is fertile, and
is cultivated some distance up their very steep slopes.
It is between these mesas and , the Mountains,
among the sandstone ridges, that the coal outcrops.
At Golden City, and extending north and south for
twenty miles, occur two all but vertical veins of coal,
each from six to nine feet thick, accompanied by
heavy beds of fire-clay of fine quality, and separa-
ted by a fifty-foot stratum of sandstone, standing
high above the face of the plain. A large estab-
lishment at Golden City manufactures fire-brick,
roofing, tile, window and door-sills and caps, and
assay crucibles from this clay. A shaft has been
excavated to a depth of one hundred and thirty
feet on one of the coal veins. One wall is the Solid
sandstone, the other a dirty, rotten shale or slate,
and the underlie to the east is about five feet to the
hundred in depth. On Coal and Boulder Creeks,
fifteen to twenty miles north from Golden City, sev-
eral veins of coal have been opened, varying in
thickness from three to twelve feet. They are three
times as far from the edge of the Foot-hills as those
at Golden City, and while one of them is almost
276 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
vertical, the others dip from the horizon at angles
between two and forty-five degrees. For instance,
one vein, which has been penetrated for one hun-
dred feet, is six feet thick, and inclines two or three
degrees toward the north. Another bed near this
is in two positions, the upper seven feet,thickness of
coal, separated from the lower, which is four and a
half feet thick, by an eighteen-inch stratum of dark
blue fire-clay. It has been opened for one hundred
feet, and dips about 18° toward the east. A third
bed twelve feet thick, has been worked one hundred
feet, down a slope of some Io9 toward the east, for
the Denver market. Half a mile east, it has again
been struck. A vertical vein, seven feet thick, has
been sunk upon fifty feet. In none of these shafts
or tunnels is there yet experienced any trouble from
water, and the veins are usually free from any inter-
mixture of stony, earthy, or slaty matter. Ten or
twelve miles east of this locality, a coal bed was
opened in 1866, at the base of a considerable hill,
nearly horizontal in position, accompanied by fire-
clay and fifteen feet thick, not greatly different
from those already described in anything. At
Canon City and other places on the waters of the
Arkansas River, the coal measures crop out the
same as above.
An analysis of this coal by Dr. Torrey showed
it to contain about sixty per cent, of fixed carbon.
He pronounced it a lignite, and not a coal, remark-
ably free from sulphur as compared with most bitu-
minous coals, and in calorific power, between dry-
wood and bituminous coal. “There is no reason,”
BELLEMONTE FURNACE. . 277
says Torrey, “why it may not be used for the
smelting of iron and other ores.” In point of fact,
it has no superior as a grate or steam coal. In the
Arkansas Valley it is applied in blacksmithing, but
on the Platte it is either unfit or how to use it has
not been discovered. In the reverberatory furnace
it works well. In the blast furnace its use has not
been seriously attempted. It constitutes the chief
fuel of the Valley towns, brings five dollars a ton
at the mines, and twice or three times that in Den-
ver and Golden City. It contains seven thousand
to eight thousand cubic feet of gas to the ton,
which it yields at a low red heat. As to its extent,
it is co-equal with that of the Mountains them-
selves. The veins which are on edge near the
Mountains are found in horizontal strata on the
Plains, and along the ridge between the Platte
and Arkansas extend eastward two hundred miles.
East of Denver there is hardly a stream that does
not disclose workable veins of coal.
On the South Boulder, in the midst of the out-
crops of coal above described, and of an extensive
deposit of iron ore, Langford & Co., of Black
Hawk, erected a small blast-furnace in 1865, and
ran out one hundred and fifty tons of white iron
of fair quality. The ore is a compact hematite,
nearly pure peroxide of iron, scattered over the
surface of thousands of acres, but unconnected with
the strata of the hills, in pieces of all sizes up to
those weighing half a ton. It is in excellent con-
dition for the furnace from its long exposure to the
elements, and is not deteriorated by the intermix-
278 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ture of foreign stony material. It yields about
thirty per cent. of iron, and for that used, was re-
duced by charcoal brought from the neighboring
hills, at a cost of seventy-five dollars per ton.
Prices at the time ranged much higher than pre-
viously, or than they ever can after the advent of
railways in that region. By the enlargement of the
works, and the use of mineral fuel and the hot-blast,
the cost of production may no doubt be brought
within a compass that will leave fair profits. The
enterprise was only an experiment, but it was so
satisfactory that it would have been pursued had
not old iron become cheaper than new, through the
shipment to Colorado of so much worthless quartz
machinery. The materials for constructing and
supplying blast-furnaces exist in abundance on the
ground. The making of iron in Colorado is worthy
the attention of capitalists, in view of the wants
of railways, a system of which is to be built in the
Rocky Mountains on their own grand scale, and of
the perpetual demand for iron in quartz-mining,
which must ever be the staple business of Colorado
and her sister mountain communities. It is greatly
to their interest, having the raw material, that they
make their own iron, since they always must im-
port many of the necessaries of life. There is no
safer nor more promising enterprise in the yet
infantile but vigorous and growing West. Con-
nected with the Bellemonte iron and coal mines
and furnace and owned by the same firm, are a
foundery and machine shop at Black Hawk, in the
heart of the Gregory mines, which turns out three
BLACK HAWK FOUNDERY. 279
to five tons of castings a week, makes mine-pumps,
engines, quartz-pulverizers, and all quartz-mill and
mining machinery. With additional facilities, much
of the machinery heretofore brought from the States
at such great cost in time and money, might be
made from the ore on the ground, and better satis-
faction in every respect given.
C H A P T E R XI.
Park County—South Park—Towns and Mines—Salt Works-
Geology—Placer Mining in the Past, in the Present—Beaver
Gulch–Tarryall–Crossing the Range in Midwinter—Lode Min-
ing in the Past, in the Present—Climate—The Espinosas–The
Reynolds Guerrilla Raid.
PARK County is nearly identical with the South
Park, its boundaries generally coinciding with the
crests of the surrounding ranges and spurs. In
the upheaval of this portion of the Mountains it
appears there were two or perhaps three great cen-
ters of eruptive force. Two of these are Mt. Lin-
coln and Pike's Peak. Their relative positions to
each other and to the Park have been elsewhere
noticed. They stand one hundred miles from each
other, and are connected by semi-circular spurs, as
the towers in the walls of ancient cities were by the
walls. Between these spurs and upon their shoulders
is upraised and upheld the plateau of the South
Park, about thirty by sixty miles in extent, foot-hills
forming a separate system between the Park proper
and Pike's Peak, making its total area perhaps three
thousand square miles. Of the great parks it is
* the third in size. Mt. Lincoln rises at its head to
SOUTH PARK TOWNS AND MINES. 281
an altitude of 17,300 feet,” overlooking its entire
extent and the solid, banked-up billows within the
limits of vision on every hand, any of which would
be a wonderful mountain elsewhere—yet is Lincoln
as Saul among his brethren. From his sides the
waters flow to the East and the West. Hence de-
part the Grand for the Pacific, and the Arkansas
and South Platte for the Atlantic. The Park slopes
away gently to the south-east, and on its bosom are
gathered a multitude of brooks, which, uniting
twenty to thirty miles from their extreme sources
in the eternal snow-banks and morasses of the
Range and the Montgomery Spur, form the south
branch of South Platte, break through the eastern
wall and bear away across the great Plains on their
journey to the sea. Let us be a little more precise:
At the base of Mt. Lincoln is situate the mining
town of Montgomery, enjoying or enduring an
élevation above the sea of Io,000 feet. Here the
South Platte debouches from the Range, four or
five miles from its extreme source, a cluster of
mountain pools, fed by the ever-during snows.
Eight miles east of Montgomery, if you cross the
root of a huge spur running down into the Park ten
or twelve miles to Fairplay, or twenty miles if you
round the point of said spur, is Hamilton, situate
on Tarryall Creek, where that stream escapes from
the Range. Six or seven miles south from Mont-
gomery, a tributary stream escapes from the Mont-
gomerº Spur, and here is the county seat of Park
County, the original “Buckskin Jo,” still called
* Calculation of Prof. Alfred Du Bois.
282 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
“Buckskin.” Two miles further south, at the
mouth of a similar gorge and on a like stream, is
Sterling City, originally called “Musquito.” These
towns are each in the midst of a cluster of rich
quartz veins. The forks unite six or seven miles
south-east of Montgomery, and between their junc-
tion and Fairplay, perhaps three miles further down
the main stream, occur immense bar diggings, the
bar being very wide and from sixty to one hundred
feet in depth and prospecting everywhere and all
through. This bar has always been wrought with
fair success, and preparation is making to aggre-
gate the “claims” in which it has been held into
a large tract, so as to justify the expense of putting
in a bed-rock flume and working by steam machin-
ery. A steam dredge will do the work of fifty men
with shovels. +
About ten miles west of Fairplay and five south
of Musquito, another affluent of the main stream es-
capes from a vast horseshoe in the Range as from
the mouth of a jug. In this horseshoe about sixty
lodes have been discovered, one-third of which are
strong veins, containing more than the usual pro-
portion of silver. The surface formation is trap,
and there is considerable galena which will doubt-
less disappear at a greater depth. Four of the lodes
have been sunk upon from thirty to sixty feet and
are considered first-class. The district is called
“Horseshoe,” and the stream “Horseshoe Creek.”
From Fairplay, which seems the natural eptrepot
of these mines, the stream glides smoothly down
through the Park with a descent of one hundred
COLORADO SALT WORKS. 283
feet per mile, and receiving a few miles further
down considerable tributaries from the north and
from the south, its banks spread out into an arable
plain, which, though 9000 feet above the sea level,
has sufficient strength and warmth to mature vege-
tables and the small grains. This Park has salt .
springs, beds of gypsum, coal shales, veins of chal-
cedony, carnelian, and other curious stones and
minerals. It has not been thoroughly explored and
no one fully knows its resources or curiosities.
Silicified wood abounds in its lower portion, and at
one point, about thirty miles west of Pike's Peak,
there is a small patch of petrified stumps still stand-
ing, one of which is fifteen feet in diameter.
Some twenty miles below Fairplay, extensive
salt works were erected in 1866, by Rollins, Hall &
Lane. The brine is rich and boils up all over an
acre of ground, flowing off quite a stream. There
is practically no limit to it, and consequently no limit.`
to the amount of salt that may be furnished by these,
the appropriately named, “Colorado Salt Works.”
They now furnish all of the article used in the Ter-
ritory. Nothing, we fancy, could more delight or
surprise a stranger, traveling over the virginal and
somewhat lonesome Park, than to come suddenly
upon these capacious and well built kettle-houses,
drying and store-houses, saw-mill, barns, dwelling-
houses, &c., nestled away in one of those secluded
nooks with which the Park abounds. Toward the
Park nothing can be seen from the Salt Works, it
being shut out by a low ridge, but a little way to the
south-west lies the miniature Sierra, low, dark, and
284 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
completely forest-crowned, which divides the Park
from the kanyon of the Arkansas ; and over and
beyond that immense kanyon can be seen, in a clear
day, the sharp peaks of the main Range, rising to
awe-inspiring hights in the deep blue of heaven,
and lifting their quite terrible desolation into an at-
mosphere whose perfect purity we love to associate
with something prettier. Colorado affords many
beautiful, many grand, not to say, awful views, but
this is a rare one.
In the Summer months the scenery of the Park
is one kaleidoscopic picture. In its upper portion
the great and unchanging mountains rise abruptly
from its bosom, collecting the snows and distilling
the waters. Here, as we have said, are the mines
and the towns. Lower down the immense spurs or
wings of the Range become low, wood-crowned
ridges, the plateaus between smooth and level as a
floor and covered with a strong, rich turf, in places
along the streams yielding from a ton to two tons of
hay per acre. Everywhere the lawn continues up
the sides of the hills and ridges, searching its way
among the low, scattered evergreen trees, suggest-
ing all of loveliness it does not present. In the
lower portion, except on the stream banks, the Park
is dry, like the Plains, roughly carpeted with a puny
sage and stubbed crisp turf of wiry grass.
On the whole it is well watered and timbered and
the streams are full of trout; it is covered with in-
digenous grasses, the richest in the world, and is
equal in its native state to the production of two .
thousand tons of hay per annum. It is easily ap-
AccESSIBILITY OF THE SOUTH PARK. 285
proached from the Plains through gradually ascend-
ing parks or valleys only second to itself in beauty
and utility. Communication all over and through
it is perfect, since a smooth, hard road can be made
across it in almost any direction without labor—
just by wearing off the grass. Hay seldom brings
more than thirty dollars a ton, and the Arkansas
with its numerous valley affluents, accompanied by
rich alluvial bottoms, enjoying a climate adapted to
all cereal productions common to the temperate
zone, is less than one hundred miles distant over
an easy and delightful road. Entering the Moun-
tains at the base of Pike's Peak, this road follows
the banks of willow-lined streams or winds through,
charming little parks with a rise of but four thou-
sand feet in seventy-five miles.” When the Park
mines shall be known and worked, Canon City will
be no contemptible rival of Denver. It is the
natural entrepot of the mines of Park, Lake, and
Summit counties, the extent and richness of which
are as yet hardly suspected. These counties all
lie at a great elevation, consequently timber is
somewhat sparse and small. But they exhibit
good signs of coal, and are no doubt underlaid to
a great extent with an excellent combustible coal,
such as that found along the eastern base of the
Mountains.f There need be no uneasiness on the
*-
* Inf 1862 a train with the accustomed load—about Iooo pounds
to a yoke of oxen—made the trip from Kansas City to Buckskin in
twenty-seven days, never reshipping or at all lightening the load.
f Prof. Wm. Denton found true carboniferous coal in the Middle
Park, the only place in the Territory it is yet known to exist.
286 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
score of timber and fuel for a great many years at
least. -
At the base of the north-western wall of the Park,
the various strata of the most modern rocks are
together bent upward as one might bend the leaves
of a book, and on these leaves of rock is plainly
written the history of this portion of the world. To
the geological student it is a book of unusual inter-
est, showing, as it does, the regular gradation from
the most recent to the metamorphic rocks. Trav-
ersing the Park, similar phenomena are apparent,
but in less degree, as the upheaval was not so
abrupt nor so great in extent. Rocks containing
recent marine shells and reptiles are found at the
north-eastern”and northern limits, and going west-
ward, each successive layer, to the schists and mica
slates, occurs. The great central axis of the moun-
tain chains alone exposes the oldest of the meta-
morphosed rocks; the newer are folded in regular
succession upon the slopes. And In accordance
with the views of Murchison and Whitney the aurif.
erous districts occur where these rocks are thus
exposed. In this vicinity it is generally true that
the older metamorphic are the auriferous rocks.
There are, however, marked exceptions, and the
investigations of the past three years indicate a
much wider distribution of gold than has hitherto
been recorded. In small quantity indeed it has
been known to exist in various rocks, but here are
some new and old containing the metal in notable
quantity, even as much as the rich ores of other
gold-mining countries. This accounts for the wide
PLACER MINING IN THE PAST. 287
and abundant distribution of stream or placer gold .
in this region. The Park is one vast placer. The
deep and extensive deposits of gravel and boulders
are rich in fine gold. At some time, more or less
remote, an ocean current swept through the passes
from the north-north-west with great and constant
force, and through the abrasion of centuries the
superficial rocks have been transported to the broad,
still basin below, and of course the gold liberated by
their pulverization. Veins were certainly abraded
as well as the country-rock, but large and numerous
as they are, they could have supplied but an insig-
nificant proportion of the gold in this vast field.
There is no ancient diluvium like that of the Sierra
Nevada in this region from which store of gold
could be drawn and newly distributed; all appear-
ances indicate that this deposit originated wholly
aff ovo, from the beginning. ->
These rich placers in 1860-61 formed the great
attraction for the adventurers then flocking into the
country. It was then that Buckskin, Fairplay,
Tarryall or Hamilton, and Montgomery rose like
mushrooms in the night, and were the centers of
that intense life peculiar to new mining regions.
Many gulches and patches were wrought with suc-
cess, and had such a population contained in itself
any of the elements of permanence, the north-
western portion of the Park would now be densely
peopled. But the gold-hunter is of all adventurers
the most restless. The history of California in the
matter of stampedes has been repeated in Colorado,
and with even more ruinous effect. The multitude
288 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
which rushed from all parts of the world to Cali-
fornia in 1849, which followed in succession the
“Gold Lake,” “Gold Bluff,” “Kern River,” “Col-
ville,” and “Frazier River” humbugs in that coun-
try, flocked to Pike's Peak in 1859, and was equally
as feverish in one place as in the other. Few
tarried long in one place. “Ounce diggings” were
abandoned for others reported to yield two ounces.
These were deserted in turn for diggings of said-to-be
greater richness. It was in good degree Salmon
River and Bannock, which soon became Idaho and
Montana Territories, that made the crowded ham-
let in the South Park of 1861 the deserted village
of to-day. Some remained, however, and their
well-wrought placers attest their industry and suc-
cess. Tarryall, Fairplay, and one or two minor
gulches have been uninterruptedly worked, and with
a fair profit. The first of these is estimated to
have yielded since 1859 $1,250,000; the second
$150,000; Sacramento, not wrought the last three
years, $75,000. At present large amounts are an-
nually washed in the above-named and other local-
ities of less note.
During the year 1866 keen men acquired title in
one way or another to large tracts of land, supposed,
indeed known to be gold-bearing, in this, Lake, and
Summit counties. Two or more individuals would
take out a certificate of incorporation under the
General Territorial Incorporation Law, designating
in such certificate their “claim.” Or they would
buy off old claimants and hire men to pre-empt by
the hundred feet (under the miners' district laws)
PLACER MINING OF THE PRESENT. 289
and deed over. In this way nine companies were
formed for the purpose of placer mining in the
Park, which each acquired title as above to suffi-
cient territory to justify the expense of acequias to
bring water, the putting in of extensive bed-rock
sluices or flumes, and the purchase of hydraulic
machinery or steam dredges for moving dirt. The
country may generally be regarded as rich enough
in gold to pay well for washing in this way; and
too poor to pay for washing in Small claims or
patches as heretofore attempted.
Beaver Creek or Gulch empties into the Platte
just below Fairplay. It is about one hundred yards
wide in its lower course, twenty to thirty feet
deep, and pays from the grass-roots. “The Beaver
Creek Mining Company” have been at work here
four years getting a bed-rock ditch and flume in to
the richer portion of the gulch. The flume is
twenty by twenty-four inches in size, three-fourths
of a mile long, and its upper end has just touched
the bed-rock, which will give some idea of the fall
of the gulch. This Company have sold a three-fifths
interest in their property to “The Pennsylvania
Gold and Silver Mining Company,” organized in
Philadelphia in 1866, through Gov. A. Cummings,
and owning the gulch above as high as water can
be brought into it—three miles. Their nominal
capital is $250,000; available for immediate use,
$30,000. About one hundred and fifty inches of
water runs in the gulch, but that is not enough.
A ditch ten miles long bringing water from the
Platte at Montgomery and designed to carry five
I3
290 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
hundred inches, has been surveyed and will be con-
structed at once. Then the Company will have
three miles of a rich gulch to work out, estimated
to contain, from numerous prospects, $500,000.
This is an illustration of what other parties are
doing in Buckskin and Sacramento Gulches, at
Fairplay and at Tarryall. To give an idea of the
extent of these placers, let us notice the latter more
particularly.
Hamilton is situate near the head and in the
western edge of the Park, on Tarryall Creek where
it breaks away from the Range. It is at the en-
trance to one of the best passes through the
Range, and in 1859 was crowded with people. All
the affluents of the creek were staked and claimed
to their extreme sources. A plot was made of the
town of Hamilton, which may be seen at the Ham-
ilton post-office, and is a right pretty map. A huge
gambler's booth, running twenty tables, occupied
the roomy plaza, and five hundred people walked
the streets seeking whom or what they might
devour. All this has departed, the town is dead to
the waist, its seeming early promise having been
broken to the hope. But above and below, and
under and along by and around it, the entire soil
will pay for washing, and with the amount of water
available, cannot be exhausted in a great many
years; so that Hamilton ought to live again, and
doubtless will.
A mile above this town a few men have worked
for seven years, Summer and Winter, sinking and
drifting out and washing the “pay-streak.” Abreast
THE TARRYALL, PLACER. 291 -
of Hamilton the gulch is very wide with little fall.
Below is one of the prettiest sections of the Park,
(it is called by the inhabitants “The Park,” par ex-
cellence) smooth as a floor, strongly turfed, and
descending evenly and regularly perhaps one hun-
dred feet per mile for fifteen miles. Two or three
companies mined within three miles below town
the past season, with hydraulics. One of them
worked into the bank four hundred feet, the pay in-
creasing the further they went, the last week of
their operations realizing an ounce and a half per
hand to the twenty-four hours. The soil is about
twelve feet thick, a dry gravel, very hard but easily
knocked down and dissolved by water. A mile
south-west is Park Gulch, which has also been very
successfully wrought by hydraulics the past Sum-
mer. Tarryall Creek and Park Gulch come together
ten miles below Hamilton, and here parties have
regularly mined since 1860. They are $4-diggings.
Four miles further down is Nelson's Bar, which has
been worked to some extent, though not paying
very well. The creek banks are nearly level and
there seems no good reason why the whole “wash”
on either side to where the bed-rock shall pitch to-
ward other streams, will not pay for handling. This
deposit of gold-bearing gravel is duplicated at Fair-
play, if not at many other places in Park, Lake, and
Summit counties. Indeed the South Park, for ten
or fifteen miles down from its north-western wall,
pans out the color; and with five, ten or a dozen
companies operating to advantage, the annual pro-
duction of gold of the county should exceed what
292 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
it has been in the aggregate since it was settled.
Meanwhile the prettiest portion of the Park will
have been torn to pieces, and rendered of all land-
scapes the most unsightly. It may well be asked
whether it be not worth more for pastoral or agri-
cultural purposes, or even to look at, than the
paltry amount of gold there is in it.
From the town of Hamilton goes the route north-
north-west through what is called “Breckenridge
Pass,” to the mines of the Blue, on the Pacific slope.
It was through this pass, that John S. Jones of
Empire took a train of seven wagons loaded with
twenty thousand pounds of freight in the dead of
the Winter of 1865–6. He was aiming to open a
ranch on Bear River, west of the Middle Park, but
owing to the loss of his stock, was obliged to locate
temporarily on the Grand in the Middle Park.
Perhaps a sketch of his trip would convey the best
idea of the climate, fall of snow, etc., of this Range
of the Rocky Mountains of anything we could give.
The train started from Denver, December 8th, 1865,
and on the 15th had arrived at Slaght's Ranch on
the north branch of the South Platte, the mercury
having ranged since the 12th from 9° to 228 below
zero. On the 17th they were at Hamilton, mercury
at zero, deep snow in the Pass above, more falling,
and high wind. By the 25th they had reached the
summit of the Pass, eight miles above Hamilton,
seven men constantly shoveling snow. Of the last
eight days, on the 18th the mercury stood at 16°
above zero, on the 19th 8° below, on the 20th at
zero, 21st ditto, 22d Io° below, 23d and 24th about
JONES's WINTER PASSAGE OF THE RANGE. 293
at zero, 25th 20° below. The snow averaged thirty
inches in depth, while some of the drifts were
twenty-five feet deep and three hundred long. Hay
was brought from Hamilton and there was little
difficulty in keeping the track open. The next five
days, the mercury standing about at zero, were con-
sumed in getting the train one-half mile down from
the summit on the western slope. On the last day
of the year the mercury marked 18° below zero and
the men were completely, discouraged. A huge
“slide” was made, the “camp and garrison equi-
page” put aboard (the wagons and freight left to be
brought on afterward) and at IO o'clock it started
out, Jones and one other man having broken and
shoveled some sort of a track. Two and a half
miles were made before stopping, the last one in
thick timber where the snow was not drifted. Next
day the camp reached Breckenridge, eight miles
from the summit, through two feet of snow. That
night the mercury sank to 20° below zero. The
extra stock was sent forward fifteen miles, where
the snow was less than a foot deep and the Sunny
sides of the hills were bare, sleds were made for
the mules, and by the 27th of January the wagons
and freight had been brought from the summit
down to Breckenridge. It had been snowing almost
continuously since New Year's. On the 21st and
22d a warm rain fell, settling the snow about a foot.
The loose stock had been driven five or six miles
ahead and arrangements made for some one to come
up from the Park and get them. But from a mis-
understanding no one came, and there being a stiff
294 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
crust on the snow, rendering it difficult for cattle to
get around, they stood still and starved and froze to
death. There was no wagon road down the Blue,
so the freight was packed on mules and ponies
which proceeded on the ice to the Grand. The
sequel of the expedition is of no particular interest
in this connection, but it is soon told. Jones opened
a ranch low down on the Grand in the Middle Park,
but he had not time to fence or watch it, and so,
although the wild flag grass and grain grow there
so rank as to almost hide a horse, he got no crop.
But the main Range of the Continent had been
crossed with a train of merchandise in mid-Winter,
and it is believed that were business carried on,
both sides of the Range, so that considerable travel
would be unavoidable during the Winter, there
would be no more trouble in keeping open a good
sleigh-path than in many sections of the Northern
and Eastern States.
In the mountains bordering the north-western
portion of the Park are found the conditions favor-
able to the occurrence of auriferous veins, and it is
here that the first and most recent discoveries have
been made. Late in 1861, while pay-dirt was still
profitable in Gregory, the Phillips Lode was struck.
The out-crop for several hundred feet in length was
ore decomposed by the elements, the “pay-dirt” or
“top-quartz” of Colorado, the “gossan” of Corn-
wall. Washing with sluices resulted so well that a
Mr. Farrand soon brought in and erected a stamp
mill for the quartz. Other stamp mills and rude
Mexican arastras soon followed, and quartz-mining
QUARTZ MINING OF THE PAST. 295
was inaugurated in the South Park. Most satis-
factory were the first results. Gold came in at
every turn of the wheel, and would doubtless have
continued to do so had the skill and prudence of
miners been among the qualities of the operators.
But the lode was wrought by an open cut and all
from above, so that what was made was in spite of
every disadvantage. When they reached a harder
rock, about forty feet from the surface, and the big
bunch of ore—thirty to forty feet in width—nar-
rowed, and scattered into “strings,” the natural
roasting also having penetrated no further the earth,
they struck cap—that cap which has been discover-
ed in every lode in Colorado which has from any
reason ceased to yield a profit under stamps, and
which cap means, a narrow or pinched place in the
vein, or a change from paying to barren ground.
Such was the success and the end of the working
of the Phillips of Buckskin, the most remarkable
lode in the Park.
The excavation on the lode is estimated at
300,000 cubic feet, and the amount of gold taken
from it at $3 IO,OOO. Other lodes were discovered
in rapid succession and many of them worked, with
varying success. Of these the mention of the
names of a few and their estimated yield, must
suffice. In Buckskin and Musquito Districts, Or-
phan Boy, stamps, $17O;OOO ; Excelsior, arastras,
$45,OOO ; Honeycomb, arastras, $20,000; Bates,
stamps and arastras, $30,000; Evening Star, stamps
and arastras, $30,000. In Montgomery District,
Allen, stamps, $18O,OOO ; Pendleton, stamps and
296 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
arastras, $60,000; Parsonage, stamps, $90,000;
North Star, $47,000.
The limited scale and generally wasteful mode
of mining and milling which prevailed at that time,
moves us to regard these results as wonderful, and
a most flattering augury for the future of the mines
of this section. If the production of a few lodes
so unskillfully managed reached so considerable a
sum, what will it be when the hundreds of equally
as good lodes in the Park region shall have been
made productive 2
The mineral veins in the Montgomery Spur strike
nearly north and south, and crop out plainest on
the edges of the gorges where the affluents of the
Platte break into the Park. They extend without
apparent intermission from Horseshoe District to
Montgomery and beyond. Indeed the Montgomery
Spur continues northward into the Middle Park,
twenty to thirty miles, between two forks of the
Blue, and quartz veins show themselves from Mont-
gomery to its northern point. On the heads of
the main Blue the promise of a rich silver region is
almost as favorable as on the heads of the Snake, a
tributary of the Blue rising considerably further
north-east than the main stream. Silver was often
found in nuggets in McNulty's Gulch in the days
of placer mining.
At the extreme head of the Blue, just where the
water begins to run west, lie Pollock and Silver
Lake Districts. The most noted lode of Pollock is
the “Virginia.” It has been described as a ledge
of whitish rock, fifty feet wide and one-fourth of a
QUARTZ MINING OF THE PRESENT. 297
mile long, streaked with veins of dark ore, about
equally rich in gold and silver, and yielding to the
rude mill of early times twenty dollars a ton. A
company has been organized and is sinking on one
of the thickest of these strings of ore.
The most noted lode of Silver Lake is the “Ver-
mont.” It shows in the face of a mountain for a
thousand feet, and is partially hidden by a pepetual
snowbank. It has a vein of well-burnt quartz six
feet in width, then horse or key-rock, whitish and
bearing gold and silver in small quantities, then
another three foot vein, of quartz. Considerable
of this material was crushed at Montgomery in
1862, paying about eighteen dollars a ton, silver and
gold. The top of it is 13,OOO feet above sea. It is
believed by those best acquainted with this region
that the rich silver belt of Argentine and the Snakes,
after having disappeared for a season, again crops
out on the extreme head of the Blue. As early as
1861 the silver outcroppings of the head of Blue
attracted attention, and companies were formed and
commenced developing some of them, the Brooks
Silver Lode, head of McNulty's Gulch, for one.
Quandary Mountain, covered with bits of silver
ore, was staked off and claimed in patches, and what
was called “The Quandary Lode,” was hunted for
with all the enthusiasm, but little of the persever-
ance that has characterized the search for the
philosopher's stone. Colorado has always been af-
flicted with periodic silver excitements, but has not
yet been able to realize anything from her undoubted
silver treasures. Work ceased on the Brooks’
13 *
298 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
3 y
Lode from the “impecuniosity” of the numerous
OWI101 S.
Among the famous lodes of Montgomery Dis-
trict are the Parsonage, Harrington, Washington,
Pendleton, Putnam, Eldorado, North Star, and Al-
len & Ogden. They all paid well on the surface, and
are opened by shafts IOO to 270 feet deep, from 400
to 800 and 1200 feet in length. A company was
organized in Pittsburgh in 1864 by Lewis Jones on
a portion of the Harrington. They purchased and
sent out a 30-stamp mill, with engine, pumps, &c.,
but have not attempted to do anything further.
Another company, called “The Pioneer,” was or-
ganized in Philadelphia about the same time on
scattered lode property, the great bulk of which
had none but an imaginary existence. After some
pretty costly bungling, including the original pur-
chase and the erection of a mill-building where they
did not want it, this Company got to work right
, about the beginning of 1866. Capt. Daniel Plum-
mer, a miner of twenty years' experience in Supe-
rior, is their agent. He is mining on the Parsonage,
and by adit, and late in 1866 started his new mill.
The latter is 60 by 80 feet in dimensions, exclusive
of boiler-house, has six batteries of five stamps
each, two 20-foot arastras and a set of six Tyrolean
amalgamators. When the mill was started Capt.
Plummer had out, at the mouth of his main adit
and in the mill, 500 tons of quartz and ore which
he was satisfied was worth $100 a ton clear through.
Among the noted veins of Buckskin and Mus-
quito are the Phillips, Prospect, Excelsior, Bates,
SOUTH PARK MINING COMPANIES. 299
Colorado, Sublette, Union-Four, and Dodge-Union-
Four, Orphan Boy, De Mary, Evening Star, Jenny,
Platte, Doucer, Lulu, Payson. Two or three East-
ern companies have been organized for the purpose
of working some of them. “The Sterling City
Gold Mining Company” built a stone mill-building
in Musquito in 1865, designed for thirty stamps.
It has not been started nor much mining done by
the Company, of which J. W. Smith, of Denver, is
the agent. At Buckskin there are two companies
operating—“The Colorado Gold Mining Company
of Philadelphia,” and “The South Park Gold
Mining & Exploring Company.” Prof. Alfred
Du Bois is agent for both, and also for “The Amer-
ican Exploring Company,” another Philadelphia
organization, whose purpose is sufficiently indicated
by its name. The South Park Company have done
little of consequence as yet. The past season they
were excavating two shafts on the Orphan Boy, the
object being to determine whether that and the
Kitty Clyde are the same or separate veins, or
whether the latter is a spur of the former.” But
the Colorado Company have gone in on their nerve,
built a large mill which was gradually getting under
way at the end of last year, taken thousands of tons
of quartz and ore from the Excelsior Lode, and
made other improvements. The Excelsior Lode
crops out along the edge of the gorge north and
Iooo feet above the town. Company own IOOO feet
on it, only 200 of which are they working. The
~ *
* Would’nt it be cruel to divorce the Orphan Boy from his
(sweet) Kitty Clyde P
3OO . THE MINES OF COLORADO.
vein is seventeen feet wide, quartz and dirt, and
averages, without counting in a small but regular
formation of silver of $5,000 a ton richness, $79 a
ton. Very rich copper ore begins to appear 130
feet from the surface. The ore is conveyed down
to the mill through a chute and by self-acting cars.
About 400 feet below the outcrop, a tunnel has
been started in by which it is expected to work the
lode when it shall be finished. At the base of the
hill, another tunnel has been commenced, which is
expected to reach the lode by the time the back of
the upper adit shall have been exhausted. The
mill contains a Hodge & Christie cracker, two sets
of Cornish rollers, and six stone arastras, twenty
feet in diameter, the whole having a capacity of one
hunderd tons a day. It is of wood, the lumber and
timber cut out by the Company's saw-mill. It is
so arranged that the ore moves as desired by its
own gravity. tº
Although in latitude 39° north and having an
elevation above the sea at its head of nearly two
miles, the climate of the South Park is not more
inhospitable than that of New York or New Eng-
land. The average temperature, though not lower
in Winter is a good deal lower in Summer, and it
is also much more equable. The following mean
of the thermometer and barometer for the year 1866,
is kindly furnished us by Prof. DuBois, it having
been determined under his auspices. He writes:
“My barometrical observations were not all made
with a reliable instrument, and therefore only give
approximate results. Taking these, and computing
CLIMATE OF SOUTH PARK. 3OI
the hight of Buckskin above tide-water, we have
IO,488 feet. Observations made the same months
in Denver and in Buckskin, fix the difference of
elevation at 5, 124 feet. These differ so little, as
Denver has an elevation, well ascertained, of 5,317
feet, that we may consider the figure nearly right.
This, with 7,000 feet as the elevation of Mount Lin-
coln above Buckskin, will give, I do not doubt, quite
a low figure as to the hight of that mountain—under
the truth. I think it may be safely stated at 17,500
feet. The observations enclosed are not perfect,
because their number was unequal at different pe-
riods and taken only at morning and evening.”
S U M M A R Y .
on.p. TheRMoMETER BARoMETER.
January, - - - - - I5 22.66 2O.I.98
February, - - - - - 28 18.51 2O. 196
March, - - - - - - 3I 22.79 2O. I45
April, - - - - - - 3o 28.53 2O. I93
May, - - - - - - 3o 33.42 2O.222
June, - - - - - - 3o 42.77 2O.297
July, - - - - - - 9 5 I-75 2O.399
August, - - - - - 28 48.42 20.381
September, - - - - 3O 38.66 2O.295
October, - - - - - 31 30.22 20.265
November, - - - - 30 24. IO 20.157
December, - - - - 31 18.75 20.048
Average for the year, - 32.55 20.233

3O2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Among the romantic incidents which have marked
the brief history of the South Park, are the mur-
derous campaign of the Espinosas, and the Rey-
nolds guerrilla raid. The Espinosas are sup-
posed to have been outlaws from Chihuahua, two
cousins; one was a large, dish-faced, iron-looking,
beau-ideal of a villain, the other, a little fellow of
no particular type. They diversified their journey
northward from Mexico by the murder of two mer-
chants in Santa Fe, and of a soldier at Conejos.
Arriving in the vicinity of Canon City in March,
1863, they signalized a three weeks' lurking in the
bush between there and the South Park by the
murder of nine men. The inhabitants were pros-
trated, blockaded in their houses at last, by con-
sternation. No one knew the character of this
mysterious dispensation of Providence, no one knew
from what concealment the messenger of death
which had never missed its mark might reach him.
After a while Jno. McCannon of Lake County rais-
ed twenty volunteers who elected him their Captain,
and, at the expense of Lake County, started to
hunt down the assassins. He first settled with a
lot of thieves then infesting the county. One of
them was captured, taken from his men by the sol-
diers at Fairplay, and hanged. The rest fled to
Montana and were hanged in due time. Finding a
trail in the lower part of the Park leading toward
Canon City, McCannon with eight men followed it
into one of the deepest kanyons of that rough
region, where he found two horses feeding. Quiet-
ly concealing themselves, the Espinosas soon ap-
THE ESPINOSA ASSASSINS. 3O3
peared and the big one was felled by a shot through
the right side. Rising on his elbow he kept firing
with his revolver, the men having to drop to escape
his yet unerring shot, until a ball was sent through
his head, by a brother of one of his victims. The
little devil clambered up the rocks, hid away, and
finally escaped. The blood-stained wearing apparel
of twelve murdered men, some money and personal
trinkets, a knife and memorandum book were found
on the body of the dead fiend, who was left where
he fell, and in their camp. The little one picked
up another cousin, a mere boy, and hiding in the
Sangre de Christo Pass, carried on the business of
the old firm, although in a rude, apprentice-like
way, until late in the Summer, when, ravens rising
from the offal of a butchered ox they had stolen
disclosing their retreat, they were set upon by a
party of soldiers from Fort Garland and both killed.
Some papers addressed to Gov. Evans concerning
an alleged despoliation of the Espinosa family
by Government officers, together with a book of
prayers and some insane religious raphsodies, were
found on their persons. One of the latter ended—
“the Virgin Mary will be sitting on my head until
I die in her arms, amen Jesus !” The Espinosa
was without doubt one of the worst bandits of
Mexico, and his career in Colorado is one of those
events which give rise to the trite remark that
“truth is stranger than fiction.” . In a paper ad-
dressed to Gov. Evans, he claimed to have killed
twenty-two men, and on that account demanded the
restoration of his property.
3O4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Sometime in April, 1864, James Reynolds picked
up a party of skulkers and deserters from the Confed-
erate service numbering twenty-two, in the vicinity
of Fort Arbuckle, Texas, and started for Colorado,
steering as near as he could for the Spanish Peaks.
Driven to eating their pack animals on the way,
they struck the roads from the States to Santa Fe,
hungry. With the first train they intersected, they
traded a horse for something to eat. The next one,
not showing fight, they captured. Another captured
train gave them ample subsistence and transporta-
tion, arms and ammunition, five thousand dollars in
drafts, a large sum in greenbacks, and two thousand
dollars in coin. Upon this they quarreled and thir-
teen of the party turned back. The rest cached their
plunder and went on through the settlements of Col-
orado, quite civilly, until they got into the South
Park, where Reynolds had formerly lived and borne
a good character. Here they broke loose, captured
the coach from Buckskin to Denver, robbed the mail
and safe, and chopped up the coach wheels. For
several days thereafter they infested the road be-
tween the South Park and Denver, living at the
ranches, stealing, trading, doing foolish rather than
smart things. The people soon got after them, par-
ties of soldiers and bands of citizens from the Park
and from Denver. One night a dozen miners under
Jack Sparks crossed the Range eastward from
Summit County, ran into them on the north fork of
Platte, and fired on them, killing one, named Sin-
gleterry, and wounding Reynolds in the arm. The
band was effectually dispersed, and every individual
REYNOLDS GUERRILLA RAID. 305
member “lit out” for himself, the general direction
being toward Texas, whence they came. Pursuit
was made by the inhabitants, and one, named Hol-
liman, was captured. He turned State's evidence.
This did not amount to much, however, the robbers
easily managing to elude the pursuit of large bodies.
But they had nothing to eat, and five of them were
caught by lying in wait for them at the ranches be-
low Canon City. The other two escaped. They
were first brought before a military commission,
and then ordered to Fort Lyon in custody of Capt.
Cree, Third Colorado Cavalry. At the old Russell-
ville town-site, thirty miles out of Denver, the
wagon in which they rode and their guard fell be-
hind the command a little while watering the mules.
Here “the prisoners,” says the Rocky Mountain
Mews, of that date, “made a concerted attempt to
escape, were fired upon by the guard, and all in-
stantly killed.” In such tragic style ended this
unique performance in the invasion or guerrilla
line.
C H A P T E R XII.
Lake County—Its Characteristics, Settlements—Arkansas River—
Mining Districts, Westphalian, Pine Creek, La Plata, Georgia
Bar, Hope, Lake Falls, Red Mountain, Arkansas Independent,
California, and Sacramento–Approaches.
MoUNT LIN colN is the north-east corner-stone of
Lake County. Thence the boundary runs west on
the 39th parallel to the western limit of the Terri-
tory, one hundred and fifty miles; thence south to
the summit of the Uncompagre Mountains, one
hundred and ten miles ; thence east-north-east
along the summit to the main Range; following
that until it curves northward, it jumps across it
and the Arkansas River to the crest of the Mont-
gomery Spur, along which it proceeds to the top of
Mount Lincoln, the place of beginning. Its area is
about sixteen thousand square miles. It embraces
the sources of the Arkansas River, and the course
and tributaries of that stream for about fifty miles.
It also includes the Gunnison Fork of the Rio Colo-
rado. It is with the former section we have chiefly
to do, however, as in that are the principal settle-
ments. On the western slope of the Montgomery
Spur, opposite Buckskin, heads California Gulch,
worked more or less in former times for about five
ARKANSAS PARK. 3O7
miles in length. The settlement here is called Oro
City. The upper Arkansas Valley is so wide, in-
cluding its foot-hills, that it seems, from the summit
of the Montgomery Spur, where the trail from
Buckskin to Oro City crosses, like a not unworthy
sister of the South or Middle Park. Bayard Taylor,
who crossed here in 1866, says of it:
“Our elevation above the sea-level could not have
been much less than thirteen thousand feet. The
timber line was far below us; near at hand we were
surrounded by a desolation of snow and naked rock.
Mount Lincoln, on the north, gathered together the
white folds of the separating mountain-ranges, and
set his supreme pyramids over them ; while far to
the south-east, where the sage-plains of the South
Park stretch for a hundred miles, all features are
lost in a hot purple mist. Before us, however, lay
the crowning grandeur. The ridge on which we
stood slid down, like the roof of a house, to the
valley of the Upper Arkansas, which we could trace
to the very fountain-head of the river, its pine groves
and long meandering lines of cotton-wood drawn
upon a field pearly gray-green. Starting from Mount
Lincoln, the eye follows the central chain—the
backbone of the Continent—in a wide semi-circle
around the head of the valley until it faced us on
the opposite side, and then kept on its course south-
ward, on and ever on, slowly fading into air—a
hundred miles of eternal snow ! Beyond the Ar-
kansas Valley (where there is a pass considerably
below the timber line), glimmered as if out of blue
air, the rosy snow of other and farther ranges,
308 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
º
Westward, seventy miles distant, stood the lonely
Sopris Peak, higher than Mont Blanc.
“New landscapes are often best described by com-
parison with others that are known; but I know
not where to turn for any mountain view at all re-
sembling this in wondrous breadth and extent—in
the singular combination of subdued coloring with
great variety of form.” It is at once simple, sub-
lime and wondrous. With a very clear atmosphere,
the effect might be different ; as we saw it, the
farthest peaks and ranges melted insensibly out of
the line of vision, suggesting almost incredible dis-
tances. There were no glaciers, thrusting down
their wedges between the forests; no great upper
plateaus of impacted snow, pouring their cataracts
from rocky walls, as in the Alps. The snow-line,
though broken by ravines, was quite uniform, but
the snows were flushed with such exquisite color,
and cut the sky with such endless variety of out-
line, that they substituted a beauty of another and
rarer kind. This and the view of the Blue River
Valley, in the Middle Park, are representative land-
scapes, and they alone are worth a journey across
the Plains.”
Across this park of the Upper Arkansas, to the
south-west from Mount Lincoln, Lake Creek comes
down from the main Range beyond, after escaping
from which, it spreads out into two dark sheets of
*Gilpin, speaking of the Sierra Madre, says: “I am unable to
illustrate it by comparison, because it stands supreme and alone,
the standard to which all other mountain masses must be submit-
ted.” In this case the Doctors do not disagree.
ARKANSAS RIVER KANYON. 309
water, together about two miles wide by five long,
and separated by a belt of land one-fourth of a mile
wide, covered with pines. They are called the
Twin Lakes, constitute the most considerable body
of water in Colorado, and give name to the county.
Dayton, the county-seat, is located under the
Range, at their head.
Up the extreme left considerable fork of the Ar-
kansas River is one of the easiest passes through
the Range, opening out on Piney Creek or Eagle
River, which puts into the Grand below the Middle
Park. This pass is said to be three thousand feet
lower than the Berthond Pass. Nearly opposite
California Gulch, comes in Colorado Gulch from the
west, more recently discovered than California, and
worked from year to year with considerable success.
Just below California, on the same side, is Iowa
Gulch, also worked at the present time. It is
twelve miles thence down to the mouth of Lake
Creek, coming from the west, immediately below
which is Cache Creek and Diggings. Then the
mountains seem to crowd the river; the stupen-
dous chasm through which it makes its way be-
comes gorged ; the dividing ridges between the
tributary streams, Clear, Pine, Chalk, Cottonwood,
which come out of the Range at intervals of seven
or eight miles, continue down to the very brink of
the river, probably at one time damming it com-
pletely. On these tributaries, the valley becomes
wider, and below the mouth of Cottonwood, which
is forty miles from the sources of the river, down
to the mouth of the South Arkansas, a distance of
3IO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
twenty miles, farms line the banks of the stream.
They have an altitude of six thousand to eight
thousand feet, are in latitude thirty-eight, are shel-
tered by high ranges of mountains on either side,
accessible only from the South Park, sustain stock
without feeding during the Winter, with irrigation
produce fair crops of vegetables, oats, barley, and
by a diligent use of the entire season, Spring wheat.
The road from the South to the San Luis Parks, via
Trout Creek, the Arkansas, the South Arkansas,
and Poncho Pass, goes through this part of the val-
ley. The soil resembles that of the Parks or the
Plains. From the head of the river to Canon
City, it is an alternation of bar and kanyon, the
bars masses of boulders and gravel more or less
overlaid with a light alluvial soil, and occasionally
belted with pinon orchards which are very pretty
viewed from a distance ; the kanyons dark, rough
and deep passages of the stream through the roots
of the mountain masses. The course of the Ar-
kansas River, in the mountains, is probably not far
from one hundred miles long. Immediately below
the mouth of the South Arkansas commences the
kanyon, par excellence. It is called fifty miles long
and is not impracticable for a wagon road, a con-
siderable portion of it being an open valley like
those above.
Gold is found in the stream and on its south-
western tributaries from the Cottonwood to its ex-
treme sources. A mining district was organized
on the heads of Cottonwood in 1866, called, “West-
phalian.” About thirty lodes have been discovered
MINING DISTRICTS AND LODES. 3II
here, none of them more than fairly struck, the ore,
coarse iron and copper pyrites and sulphurets with
Some galena and zinc, coming to the surface, not
decomposed in the least.
On Pine Creek, twelve miles above Cottonwood,
is another mining district, called “Pine Creek,” not
now worked nor inhabited, and about which little
is known. tº
A short distance above Pine we have Clear Creek,
upon which is a mining district called “La Plata.”
Eight miles up the stream about thirty lodes have
been discovered. Nothing of consequence has
been done on them, but it is known that they pos-
sess the same general characteristics as those of
the rest of the Range. At the mouth of the creek
is Georgia Bar, formerly worked considerably in
Winter with hand rockers, and paying from three
to five dollars a day. This bar, Kelly's Bar, and the
Arkansas River for thirty miles below Lake Creek,
have always been the Winter's resort for grub of
many of the miners of Lake County. Seventy-five
thousand dollars is estimated to have been thus
taken from them. In 1861 a company built a dam
on Lake Creek and flumed the Arkansas River at
Georgia Bar for one thousand feet, at a cost of ten
thousand dollars. They were nearly ready to com-
mence sluicing the bed of the stream, which is very
rich, when their dam gave way and carried off their
flume. The men immediately enlisted in the First
Colorado Volunteers, and no attempt has since
been made to flume the Arkansas, although the
sand for a hundred miles from its source, taken up
3I2 THE MINES OF COLORADO,
on a shovel and panned down, gives a fine color.
This company had obtained as high as $1.50 to the
pan of dirt from the bed of the river.
About three miles above Clear, is Cache Creek,
a creek only by courtesy, or rather by virtue of a
ditch bringing five hundred inches of water during
the rainy season, from the precipitous southern rim
of the Twin Lakes, its whole length, nine miles,
cost of construction, $20,000. Cache Creek is at
the lower end of a park, or bar, three miles up and
down the river in length, and two from the river
west to the mountain in width. A party who were
prospecting the Arkansas River, cached their pro-
visions here, and in that way gold was discovered.
In this park are Cache Creek Gulch, discovered by
Campbell and Shoewalter, estimated production to
date, $30,000; Bertschey's Gulch, discovered by G.
Bertschey & Co., estimated production to date,
$25,000; worked out; Gold Run Gulch, discovered
by Long, West, & Co., has produced $22,000, now
worked out ; Gibson Gulch, discovered by one
Gibson in 1861, has paid to date, $30,000, now
worked by D. Houghton & Co., by bed-rock flume
500 feet long ; Oregon Gulch, discovered and
worked out in 1860, by Thomas & Co., paid $11,000;
Ritchey's Patch, discovered by J. Ritchey in 1864,
now worked by him and others, production to date,
$17,000 ; and Lake Creek Diggings, at the north-
east corner of the park, discovered in 1860, now
chiefly owned and worked by H. M. Severs & Co.,
who are erecting a saw-mill to facilitate operations,
estimated yield to date, $55,000.
CACHE CREEK MINES. 3I3
Cache Creek Gulch is very deep and has but a
slight fall, so that it could not be worked to advan-
tage in IOO-feet claims, as all the gulch was origin-
ally taken up. It soon passed into the hands of
Ramage Brothers & Co., who commenced a bed-rock
flume in 1862. The property has since been trans-
ferred to “The Gaff Mining Company,” J. W.
Gaff of Cincinnati, Wm. F. Bailey and Joseph
Hutchinson, of Aurora, Ind., and Geo. W. Lane of
Denver. Their flume is four feet square and now
some three-fourths of a mile long. They work
about thirty feet in depth by one hundred and fifty
in width. Side-sluices, leading into the main one,
are used when necessary. Mr. Hutchinson lives
at Cache Creek and attends to the business.
There are patch diggings in the points of the
hills bordering Cache Gulch, from which has been
taken to date, estimated, $86,000. It is thought the
whole park would pay for washing, could it be got
at on a large scale, but a scarcity of water is com-
plained of. -
West of this park the range rises abruptly to an
altitude of 3,000 or 4,000 feet, and near its summit
on the eastern slope is Lost Kanyon Gulch, discov-
ered in 1860 by a party of prospectors returning
from the park of the Gunnison River, west of the
Range, and who here became convinced that they
were lost. Of course they prospected—a lost pros-
pector will always find himself when he can get a
fair color-and as good luck would have it they
struck a rich spot. About $60,000 was taken out
in 1861. Next year the pay streak was lost, and
I4 .
3I4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
although hunted for diligently ever since, has not
again been found. So that the spot is doubly lost.
All this section we have last described belongs in
“Hope Mining District.”
On the opposite side of the river a very rich lode
was discovered in 1866, upon which a mining dis-
trict was organized and called “Lake Falls.” A
load of quartz from the said lode, which is called
“Hattie Jane,” treated by Bertola Process, in Clear
Creek County, is stated to have yielded at the rate
of $200 a ton. We have no figures as to the width
of crevice from which the quartz was taken.
Lake Creek empties into the Arkansas at the
upper end of Cache Creek Park. It is five miles
from its mouth to the head of the Twin Lakes,
which we have referred to before. They are beau-
tiful sheets of water and full of trout. South of
them the Range rises abruptly from their very
edge; on the west there is a large bottom and here
is Dayton, the county-seat. Hence to the Red
Mountain at the extreme sources of the creek is
about fifteen miles, in a west-south-west direction.
Red Mountain seems to be in a belt of lodes, some
three miles in width, which here crosses the Range
in the true course— north-east and south-west.
From the top of the Red Mountain at the head of
the left fork of Lake Creek, other red mountains
can be seen both to the east and west. Eight miles
west in an air-line a Boston Company did some work
in 1866, finding similar ore to that found here. This
point is about one hundred miles west of Pike's
Peak. The crest of the mountains crossing the
RED MOUNTAIN MINES. 3I5
belt is mostly a gneissoid rock, sometimes a syenite.
That has been broken and worn off in places, ex-
posing an iron conglomerate of unknown thickness,
with veins of purer pyrites bursting up through it
without much regard to the proprieties. The pebbles
of which the conglomerate is composed are quartz,
and carry as much iron as the cement quartz which
holds them together. Where the cap has crumbled
or been washed off from this conglomerate, expos-
ing it to the elements, the iron has become an oxide,
giving the outside of the quartz a brilliant red color.
This is noticeable as far as the belt can be seen, and
the width so exposed is not less than a mile. In
the streams and where the creek escapes from the
mountains, numerous well-defined lodes have been
discovered, not greatly different in width, lineal ex-
tent, and character of ores, from those of other
parts of the Territory. Like them, too, they vary
in richness. Some of them are absolutely barren
and some contain $100, gold, to the ton, as tests of
which we were personally cognizant, have indicated.*
It is believed the requisite capital has been secured
to establish at once one or two mills in this, called
“Red Mountain District.” There is not now a
quartz-mill in the county nor a shaft more than
thirty feet in depth, although the Berry tunnel near
the head of California Gulch, has been driven one
hundred feet. In this a pay-vein six feet in width
*Ex-Secretary Elbert, of Colorado, had forty-six samples of ore
from forty-three of these lodes assayed by Behr & Keith of Black
Hawk. They varied from $59 to $441 per ton, averaging $138.25.
One sample yielded seventy per cent. of copper.
316 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
is claimed. The ore assays seventy or eighty dol-
lars a ton in gold and silver, and is very rich in
copper. But nothing very definite with reference
to the quartz mines of the county is known.
Since up Lake Creek goes the old Ute Pass from
the Arkansas to the Gunnison River, we may as
well note here that both quartz and placer mines
are known to exist throughout the immense park
which pours into one channel the waters of the
Gunnison. Among the paying gulches discovered
and worked are Taylor's, Kent's, Union, Washing-
ton, and German. Ores were found there quite re-
cently like those which occur elsewhere in the
Territory. But it is out of the world as it were,
and there has been no surplus energy to spare for
the improvement of this vast wilderness, or even
for its exploration.
About twelve miles above Dayton is California
Gulch, divided into three mining districts—“Ar-
kansas Independent,” “California,” and “Sacra-
mento.” It stands second if not first among all
the gulches ever worked in Colorado for extent and
yield of gold. It was discovered by Slater & Co.,
late in 1859, but its richness was not developed
until the next April. Adventurers poured in at
once and it was soon pre-empted in IOO-feet claims
for seven miles in length. Discovery claim pro-
duced $60,000 that season. No's 5 and 6, above,
yielded $65,000. No. 1, below, has paid to date
$55,000. A large quartz vein runs through Dis-
covery and No. I below, from which $216 was
sluiced by three men in 1863 in a half day. No. 4,
CALIFORNIA GULCH. 317
below, prospected from one to ten dollars to the pan
on the pay-streak, and has produced to date $75,000.
No. 5, below, has paid $55,000. No's II and I2 be-
low, paid $26,000. From 13 to 25 the average yield
was $10 a day to the hand. No's 26 and 27 paid
$50,000. No's 28 to 35 paid $15, and 36 to 41,
$25 per day to the man. From 42 to 45 there was
no pay, but thence to 56 the average was $18 a day
per hand. No. 57 never paid anything, nor did any
ground below that, which was but little more than
a mile from Discovery. These figures are given to
show the spotted character of the best gold-pro-
ducing ravines. No's 14 to 18 above, paid $2O,OOO
each. No's 19 to 20 yielded $80,000 in three
months. No. 2 I paid $15,000. No's 22 to 28, as
well as the other claims above Discovery not here
specified, paid from $3,000 to $5,000 each. From
28 to 36 the yield gradually fell off. No. 25 paid
$15,000; 30, $6,000; 31 to 35 inclusive did not pay
wages; 36 paid $3,500. From No. 22 to the head of
the gulch occurs a black cement, one to twelve feet
thick, too loose to blast to advantage, too hard to be
decomposed by water, hydraulics with IOO-feet head
having no effect on it. For the first three years
mining was carried on by sluices, long toms, Geor-
gia and hand rockers, and pans. Since that time,
the claims have been largely consolidated, and
mining done by ground sluicing and hydraulics.
Thus W. H. Jones now owns and works 1, 2, and 3,
below ; Leahry & Co., 26 and 27 below; and White,
Burroughs & Co., 14 to 30 above. The pay streak
in these claims yields from $10 to $15 a day per
3.18 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
man. Not more than half the gulch is considered
worked out. Rich quartz veins traverse it in four
or five different places, though these have never
received any attention beyond pre-empting and
sluicing out their dirt crevices, some of which paid
extraordinarily. A tunnel called the “Berry Tun-
nel,” at the head of the gulch, discovers, a short
distance from its mouth, a strong vein of excellent
ore. Although a few parties still make enough to
support them through the Winter by working in
this gulch during the Summer, its future prosperity,
and this is true of the entire county, must depend
on the development of its quartz mines. Nothing,
indeed, can be more deceiving or ephemeral than
the feverish prosperity of a placer mining country.
California Gulch, which six years ago was infested
by 5,000 to 6,000 people, is now almost deserted.
The relics of former life and business—old boots
and clothes, cooking utensils, rude house furniture,
tin cans, gold pans, worn-out shovels and picks and
the remains of toms, half buried sluices and rifle
boxes, dirt-roofed log cabins tumbling down and
the country turned inside out and disguised with
rubbish of every description, are most disagreeably
abundant and suggestive. May a new and better
and more permanent life be founded upon these
ruins, through the extent and excellence of the
quartz deposits, thus fulfilling that Scripture which
says “the last shall be first.”
Colorado Gulch puts into the Arkansas opposite
the mouth of California Gulch. It is five miles
long and worked more or less its entire length, em-
COLORADO GULCH. 319
t
ploying during the Summer from fifty to a hundred
hands. It is chiefly owned by McCannon & Co.,
De Mary & Co., Long & Co., and Breece & Co.
Each of them now have in bed-rock flumes, sixteen
inches $quare, and from 600 to 1500 feet in length.
It is worked from sixty to one hundred feet in
width, and is from twelve to fifteen feet deep, the pay
being confined to within a foot of the bed-rock.
Gold was first discovered in the gulch 4th July,
1863, and since that time, much of the work having
necessarily been of a preparatory nature, about two
thousand ounces have been taken out.
There are other less important and far less work-
ed gulches in the valley or park of the Upper
Arkansas—among them Iowa (Adams District)
just below and on the same side of the river as
California; and Frying-pan, a tributary of Colorado
Gulch. From Sacramento Flats, three miles above
the mouth of California Gulch, nearly $200,000 has
been taken first and last. The Arkansas River for
seventy miles from its sources, with its tributaries
and bars, is gold-bearing ; and when placer mining
shall come to be conducted on a larger scale and
with more appropriate means, it may and probably
will become, in Lake County, a business of consid-
erable importance.
The approaches to the county are all through the
South Park, and with proper care in laying out and
working the roads, might be made very easy. From
Fairplay to Dayton, crossing the Montgomery Spur
north of the Buffalo Peaks, is about forty miles.
The route goes up a tributary of the Platte by an
32O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
*
easy grade, across a low notch between snow-banks,
and follows down an affluent of the Arkansas, also,
by an easy grade. The true route into the county,
however, is via Canon City and the Colorado Salt
Works, crossing the Montgomery Spur south of
the Buffalo Peaks, where it has not an altitude of
more than five hundred feet above the South Park,
striking the Arkansas at Mayol’s Ranch, twenty
miles below Dayton, thence up or down the river.
There is besides a trail from Buckskin over the
Spur into California Gulch, and it may be said in
favor of the climate at so great an altitude that the
mail is carried over on this trail, weekly, the year
round, by a man sixty years of age.
C H A P T E R XIII.
Summit County—Middle Park—Upper Blue River—Ten-Mile Diº-
trict—Result of Assays—Work Doing—The Snakes–Peru and
Montezuma Districts—Lodes and Companies and Improvements
Going On—Gulch Mining, Union District, Gold Run and Buffalo
Flats—Western Portion of the County.
SUMMIT County occupies all that portion of
Colorado lying west of the crest of The Range
and north of the 39th parallel. It may be entered
by numerous passes from the South Park, from the
Arkansas Park, from the Gregory or Boulder mines,
the most noted of which are the Berthoud, head of
Clear Creek, Boulder, head of Boulder Creek, and
the Breckenridge, head of Tarryall Creek. Through
the latter only, however, is there as yet a passable
wagon road. The Middle Park is the most notable
natural feature of the county. It is perhaps fifty
miles in extent east and west, and seventy north
and south. But at the ends proper the enclosing
ranges shoot in spurs so far and numerous as to .
make it seem largest east and west. From the
Boulder Pass, precisely at its head or east end, flows
down Ranch Creek; from the Berthoud, Moses
Creek; from the Vasquez, Dennis Creek, the last-
14* &
322 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
mentioned passes being twelve or fifteen miles south
of Boulder Pass, and leading from Clear Creek into
the open head of the Park, about twelve miles due
north. A little west of Vasquez Pass is another
called Packard, not much known, from which flows
down St. Louis Creek. These Creeks unite near
the head of the Park and become Frasier River.
Twelve or fifteen miles down, the Grand, formed by
the junction of three considerable streams which
rise in the range between the Middle and North
Parks, bursts into the Park and receives the Frasier.
Lower down, it breaks through a low range of
mountains flung directly across the Park, and re-
ceiving numerous tributaries from the mountains
on either hand, among them the Blue, which rises
near Montgomery and is itself sixty miles long, it
breaks away from the Park to the south-west
through a deep kanyon, and goes out in search of
the Pacific Ocean.
for three-fourths of its course through the Park
the Grand has no first bottom, the fall being too
great for soil to accumulate. But the kanyon dams
the stream to some extent, and for the lower ten
miles it has a rich alluvial bottom perhaps a mile
wide, from side to side of which it winds almost
regularly, itself from two to six feet deep and fifty
yards wide, the water clear, rapid, smooth and cold,
as seen from the neighboring hills, one of the most
beautiful landscapes in the world. The larger trib-
utaries of the Grand—William's Fork and the
Blue, Troublesome and the Muddy—also have
considerable arable valleys, extending five to ten
MIDDLE PARK, 323
miles up from the Grand. The second bottom is
perhaps a hundred feet above the stream beds, is
nearly level, covered alternately with a thrifty
growth of sage brush, and the most nutritious
grasses, among which grow native the white and
red clover, timothy and red-top, and the genuine
Kentucky blue-grass. We have ridden ten miles
in one direction across this table-land. It consti-
tutes the bulk of the open country in the Middle
Park, and is estimated at twenty thousand acres,
unsurpassed by any in the world for pastoral pur-
poses. Among the flowers Bayard Taylor mentions
the columbine, sedum, saxifrage, flame-colored eu-
chroma, pink geranium streaked with purple, orchid,
almost identical with the cyclamen of Italy and
Greece, violets, rose-colored pogonias, blue lark-
spur, scarlet wort, crimson and violet lupins, white
and scarlet star flower, &c. In one of his Middle
Park letters, Taylor says:
“The sun came out, the clouds lifted and rolled
away, and one of the most remarkable landscapes
of the earth was revealed to our view. The valley
of the Blue, which for a length of thirty miles, with
a breadth varying from five to ten, lay under our
eyes, wore a tint of pearly silver-gray, upon which
the ripe green of the timber along the river, and the
scattered gleams of water seemed to be enamelled.
Opposite to us, above this sage color, rose huge
mountain foundations, where the grassy openings
were pale, the forests dark, the glens and gorges
filled with shadow, the rocks touched with lines of
light making a checkered effect that suggested cul-
l
324 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
tivation and settlement. Beyond these were wild.
ridges, all forests; then bare masses of rock streaked
with snow and highest bleak Snow pyramids pier-
cing the sky. From the north to south stretched
the sublime wall—the western boundary of the
Middle Park—and where it fell away toward the
kanyon by which Grand River goes forth to seek
the Colorado, there was a vision of dim, rosy peaks,
a hundred miles distant. In breadth of effect—in
airy depth and expansion—in simple yet most ma-
jestic outline, and in originality yet exquisite har-
mony of color, this landscape is unlike anything I
have ever seen. I feel how inadequate are my
words to suggest such new combinations of tints
and forms. There is great vertical grandeur
among the Alps; here it is the vast literal extent
which impresses you, together with atmospheric
effect occasioned by great elevation above the sea.
You stand on the plains of the Alpine glaciers; a
new vegetation surrounds you ; a darker sky is over
your head; yet the grand picture on which you
look is complete in all its parts, or, if any element
is wanting, its absence is swallowed up in the maj-
esty that is present.” -
The geology of the park is the same as that of
the Plains. Rocks of the most recent Tertiary oc-
cur, although at an elevation of three thousand feet
above the highest Plains on the eastern slope. A
fragment of rock belonging to the Tertiary was
found on the top of Long's Peak, fourteen thousand
feet above the sea. In the Middle Park proper, no
minerals in paying quantities except coal have been
HOT SULPHUR SPRING. 325
*found. The out-croppings of coal are observable
from the head of the Park westward to Utah. Pe-
troleum in enormous quantity in the form of a coal
similar to the Albertine coal of New Brunswick
occurs on the White River near its confluence with
the Green, the veins vertical and traceable for miles
and having a thickness of three to four feet. The
soil in the vicinity of these veins is saturated with
petroleum. The hot sulphur spring on the Grand,
ten Or twelve miles above the foot of the Park, if
not a mineral production is one of the chief attrac-
tions of the Park. A large stream of water, strongly
impregnated with sulphur and about as hot as can
be borne by the hand * issues from a rock formed by
its own sediment and falls ten feet into a big bath-
tub, also its handiwork. During the Summer season
this spring and the adjacent fishing and hunting
grounds are the favorite resort of people of leisure.
Antelope, deer, elk, and bear abound in the Park
and the forests of the surrounding ridges, and the
streams are alive with mountain trout which grow
*Dr. Parry says of this: “The temperature of the water at its
several issues is 112° Fahr., and at the point where it falls into the
basin IIo°. A smaller spring, less exposed to the external air,
shows a temperature as high as 115°. The water is clear, has an
agreeable softness to the touch, and a distinct saline odor. Along
the course of its several streams floats a slimy growth of feathery
conſerva, exhibiting a great variety of colors, including pure white,
red, green and blue. Animal life is also exhibited in these tepid
waters in a small mollusk of the genus Zymnasa. The sulphurous
odor is not very perceptible, and to the taste, though disagreeably
tepid, there is sufficient sparkle to render it not unpleasant. There
is no doubt that the springs possess valuable medicinal properties,
which will be in due time appreciated.”
326 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
to a weight of three or four pounds. The inside of .
the mountain walls of the Park, especially of the
main Range, is heavily timbered, pine below nine
thousand feet elevation, spruce and fir above that
and below twelve thousand where all aborescence
ceases. Grass and flowers grow on the tops of the
highest mountains, except where they so peak up
that there is no place for soil to stick on. The
climate is the same as that of the Plains so far as
extremes are concerned, but more rain falls in
Summer and more snow in Winter, and the mean
temperature of the year is much lower. At the
hot spring the elevation of the Grand is eight
thousand feet, and of course that portion of the
Park above is too high for successful cultivation.
It is valuable only for pastoral purposes. Below
the hot spring and in the valleys of the Bear, Grand,
and White, are large bodies of fine arable land.
The valley of the Green River on the western line
of Colorado is also susceptible of cultivation, its
elevation at the mouth of the White being but four
thousand five hundred feet—about the same as that
of Salt Lake. A tolerable wagon road was con-
structed from Empire to the mouth of the Grand
via Clear Creek and William's Fork, during the
Summer of 1866, making with the efforts of the
season before on the part of the Overland Stage
Company, a passable road for wagons at least going
eastward from Salt Lake to Denver, one hundred,
Some say two hundred miles shorter than the stage
route now traveled. The completion of this road
will open to white encroachment the Middle Park
BLUE RIVER MINES. 327
and all the country of the Grand, Bear, White and
Green rivers, which together constitute a basin,
similar to that of the Great Salt Lake, although
generally much higher and more mountainous.
Away in the extreme south end of the Park,
under the immediate Winter shadow of Mount Lin-
coln rises the Blue River. For the upper twenty
or twenty-five miles of its course its tributaries are
numerous, reaching from twelve to twenty miles
into the encroaching mountains not unlike the ribs
of an open fan. Among these are the Snake,
Swan and French on the left and Ten-Mile on the
right. The latter and the Snake empty into the
Blue opposite each other, twenty-four miles from its
extreme source, and ten miles below Breckenridge,
the county-seat. Ten-Mile Creek has a heavy fall
and sufficient volume to furnish unlimited power
for mills. Ten-Mile Mining District is very large,
taking in all the sections drained by the stream,
which is twenty miles in length. The principal
known mines are twelve to fifteen miles west of
Breckenridge, and easily approached from that
place over good natural roads. At the head of
Ten-Mile, opening south via the east fork of the
Arkansas River, occurs also the lowest pass through
the Range of any known. Here the waters of the
Atlantic might easily be conducted into the Pacific
or vice versa. This is the way wagons came into
McNulty's Gulch in 1861. Besides the latter, upon
which the silver lodes drew attention as early as
1861, Ten-Mile has for tributaries Clinton and Gil-
pin gulches, parallel and three miles apart, four or
328 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
* *
five in length each, and described as “wide, acces-
sible, with an abundance of water, timber and grass,
containing also ledges of slate, sandstone, lime-
stone, marble and indubitable evidences of coal.
Magnetic and bog iron ore also occur. The moun-
tains are steep and high, offering great advantages
for mining by tunnels. The lodes, crossing them
from north-east to south-west, assume the pitch of
the stratified rock on the surface, and become
more vertical as they pass down into the eruptive
granite until in the valleys they are quite perpen-
dicular. The ores are chiefly argentiferous galena,
sometimes associated with pyrites of iron, or with
antimony in a gangue of heavy spar or quartz.
Some of the veins yield true silver ores, among
them the ruby and gray. They are generally strong
and well-marked, often cropping out above the sur-
face for a long distance or lining the bold faces of
the mountains.” In width they are described (this
is the only portion of Colorado we have not per-
sonally examined) as ranging from eight inches to
twenty and even forty feet. The veins of ore
probably vary in width from two and three to four
*The Justice Lode, discovered in 1861 and re-discovered and
pre-empted every year since, on the mountain between Gilpin and
McNulty gulches, is one of these. It crops out on the southern
exposure and well up on the hill for six hundred feet in length and
seemingly one hundred and fifty in width. It is supposed to be
what is called “a blow-out,” which laps over the walls, and the
lower edge having been worn down by the elements, that wall,
against which some slight excavations have been made, was easy
found. The ore is not rich on the surface but grows better very
fast as it comes from a greater depth. It is “claimed” four or five
deep, and recorded as high as No. 100—two miles!—each way.
TEN-MILE SILVER MINES. 329
and five feet. Among the best known lodes of
Clinton, and Gilpin gulches are the Ino, Incas,
Atlas, Oro Fino, Augustine, Boulder, Olympic
No. 2, Blackstone, Balahoo, Uno, Curious, Colo-
rado, Esmeralda, Sublunar, Detroit, & tah, Whit-
tier, Watson, Young, Polygon, Noyes, Newark,
Pomona, Siberian, Saint Regis, Tribune, Merrimac,
Keyes, Hard Cash, Florentine, &c. They have not
generally been much developed. The Merrimac
has a shafts eighty feet deep, and the crevice is
twelve feet between walls—-galena and quartz.
The Polygon has a shaft of the same depth and a
crevice three feet wide. We can only judge of the
richness of these ores by assays, and although that
is commonly a most unsatisfactory test; yet we
have such numbers of them in this instance that
they may safely be taken as a fair indication.
One thousand assays have been made, the results
ranging from $30 to $27,OOO a ton, the average be-
ing $100, and these from surface ores.
A. A. Hayes, M. D., State Assayer of Massa-
chusetts, gives the following returns:
Pyramid Lode, silver, per ton of ore, coin value, $106.17
Merrimac “ {{ & 4 {{ & 4 89.17
Polygon {& 4 & & & {{ 6 & 346. I4
Hard Cash “ & & {& {& {& I40.57
Blackstone “ & 4 {{ £6 £6 111.67
Young & 4 46 & & ( & £& 84.50
Tinsley & & $8 £ 6 £& & 4 231.40
Siberian & 4 &6 & & {{ &g 138.44
Augustine £6 $6 & 6 {{ {{ 287.53
Fred. Eckfeldt, melter and refiner of the Branch
Mint, Denver, certifies that the average result of
33O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
assays made by him of thirty samples of ore from
the Snake River mines was at the rate of $130.80
per ton. Albert Reichenecker, a mining and met-
allurgical ‘...." of great experience in the mines of
Germany, now of Central City, Colorado, certifies
that of seventy-six assays of average ores from the
Snake River mines the aggregate was $9,245, or
$121.64 per ton. The ores of Ten-Mile and the
Snake are the same in character. The working
returns may undoubtedly be put at from $50 to
$IOO a ton.
Galena is one of the most economical of silver
ores, especially where the proportion of silver is so
large, as all of the latter may be obtained by smelt-
ing; or by smelting this ore which contains a large
amount of lead with the pyritous gold ores, the
gold and silver may be obtained from both at a
comparatively small cost. In England galena ores
are smelted for about three dollars a ton. In Colo-
rado it can scarcely cost more than four times as
much, which would still leave a large margin for
profit.
At the head of Ten-Mile and on the Blue is
where nuggets of metallic silver used to be found
in the days of gulch mining, weighing from an
ounce to a pound. Nuggets of gold weighing fifty
pennyweights were also found, and it was not
unusual in McNulty's Gulch for a pit twenty feet
square to yield from $10,000 to $2O,OOO.
The only company at work in the district is that
of Whitney & Whiting, under the able superintend-
ence of A. A. Sawyer, Esq. A party of their men
SNARE RIVER SILVER MINES. 33 I
are engaged driving a tunnel under Fletcher Moun-
tain to the Capitol Lode, intended to strike it 1200
feet from the entrance and Iooo from the surface.*
Tunnels gain nearly a foot in depth for one in length
throughout this region. In addition & the silver
and gold, copper, iron, coal, and especially lead and
salt, must be taken into account in calculating the
resources of the section. With a railroad giving
access to the markets of the world, all these will
become available as sources of wealth. Below
Breckenridge on the Blue are found strong saline
'springs, and within twenty miles of that town occur
extensive beds of excellent fire-clay. The latter,
the coal, and the salt, will be of immense value to
the future of silver mining.
Snake River rises on the western slope of the
Range, opposite the southernmost sources of Clear
Creek, and its mines, which line the upper ten miles
of its course for a width of perhaps two miles, are
only separated from those of Argentine of which
they are undoubtedly the continuation, by the
crown of the mountain, four or five miles over.
Two trails connect the two sections, and this year
will witness the construction of at least one wagon
road between Georgetown on the eastern slope,
already connected by wagon road eighteen miles
long with Central City, and Peru and Montezuma,
the silver towns of the Snake on the western slope,
connected with the outer world via the Snake, Blue,
* On the 1st of January last this tunnel had reached a depth of
160 feet, and was to be driven all Winter and forever by 8-hour
shifts. The progress was two feet in twenty-four hours.
--->
i’
332 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and Hamilton or Ute passes. A good team readily
hauls a ton at once from Denver to Montezuma, on
the South Snake, by this route. Peru is on the
main Snake and about twenty miles via the wagon
road route ºom Georgetown. A railroad is quite
feasible so far into the Mountains as Georgetown,
and hence that town will probably come to be the
base of supplies for the Snake River mines in due
time. Peru and Montezuma each gives name to a
mining district. As remarked before, the mines of
the Snakes and Ten-Mile are identical in character,
as are also the general features of the districts.
During the last season considerable progress was
made in the development of some of the lodes.
An experimental furnace was erected near Monte-
zuma by J. T. Lynch for the purpose of testing the
Suky; a lode remarkable for its strength and the
richness of its ore. His operations were success-
ful as far as they went and are to be continued, and
extended in the future.* The most noted lodes of
Montezuma are the Suky, Cooley, Cooley Exten-
sion, Cooper, Harrisburg, George Washington, Pink,
Broadway, Tiger, City of Philadelphia, City of New-
ark, Lone Star, Ben Franklin, Colfax, and El Do-
mingo. None of them is developed to any very
considerable extent.
In Peru District the Colorado Prospecting &
Mining Company, W. N. Byers, agent, the Non-
pariel Company, Sanderson & Company, and the
Summit County Prospecting & Mining Company,
*Mr. Lynch is now excavating a tunnel to the Suky Lode, and
had reached a depth exceeding one hundred feet in February last.
PLACER MINING ON BLUE RIVER, . 333
Stephen Decatur, agent, are busily improving by
tunnel and shaft various lodes, among them the
Anglo-Norman, Butterfield, Emperor, Aurora, Mal-
abar, Gould & Curry, Elephant, Great Western,
Bouncer, National Treasury, A. McCune, and Rocky
Mountain News. This season will doubtless wit-
ness the erection of smelting furnaces, and a more
satisfactory demonstration of the character of these
veins, which have only been known for two years
and for that reason are not much developed. It is
expected that some of them will prove permanent-
ly silver-bearing. Whether they do or not may be
regarded as of little consequence beyond its bear-
ing on the reduction works to be erected, as they
will no doubt prove profitable gold, if not silver
mines.
It was in 1859 that the first explorers of the
South Park crossed the Range from Tarryall via
the Georgia Pass on to the Swan, a stream fifteen
to twenty miles long, and emptying into the Blue a
few miles above the mouth of the Snake. The first
party consisted of one hundred men, and they were
sorrowfully prospecting the numerous dry and wet
tributaries of the Swan when reports came of mur-
ders by the Utes 6n the western tributaries of the
Arkansas. Not having found the fabled “pound-
diggings,” the prospectors were glad of a pretext for
a general stampede back. But later in the season
more persevering prospectors discovered gold dust
in paying quantity at Gold Run, Galena, American,
and Humbug Gulches, and Delaware Flats. French
Gulch empties into the Blue a few miles above the
334 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Swan. It is twelve miles long, heads in what is
called French Pass, and among its tributaries are
Gibson, Negro and Corkscrew Gulches, and Stet-
son's Patch. Further up, the Blue receives Illinois
Gulch, and still above, a sort of upper and last fork,
Hoosier Gulch. These gulches were all worked
more or less from 1860 two or three years, and at
Gold Run and one or two other localities, extensive
gold-washing operations are still carried on.
It is said that the Weaver Brothers, the discover-
ers of Gold Run, went home from their first season's
work with ninety-six pounds of gold. The gulch
is four miles long, on the south side and near the
mouth of the Swan. Early in the Spring a thou-
sand inches of water flow through it, decreasing as
the Summer wanes to almost nothing. The season
lasts from the 1st of May to the 1st of November.
In 1860 a ditch was constructed, bringing water
from the Blue, six miles. Two years afterward
another ditch, nine miles long and carrying five
hundred inches of water, was constructed, also
bringing water from the Blue. A bed-rock flume
was commenced in 1863 by the Gold Run Ditch
Company, and in that and the succeeding year they
took out $70,000 in gold dust, vºluing it at $18 an
ounce. The flume is two by three feet in size,
1650 feet long, and cost to build and keep in repair
for four years, $6,800. In 1865 the Gold Run
Flume Extension and Quartz Prospecting Company
was organized. At the end of last season they had
built a new flume 1550 feet long at a cost of $6,500
in dust and $5,000 in water. In the last two years
UNION MINING DISTRICT. 335
they took out $30,000 in dust. A creek claim in
Gold Run embraces one hundred feet of the stream
and extends seventy-five either way. A bank claim
is one hundred feet square. Anybody is entitled to
hold one creek claim and a bank claim in each tier
of claims on either or both sides of the creek.
Claims hold good without representation from the
1st of November to the 1st of July. There are
more than eight hundred claims in the district.
Most of the pay has been taken from the west side
of the stream, that bank having been washed off
a thousand feet in width.
Buffalo Flats is in the same district (Union) as
Gold Run; its production of gold is larger. Water
is brought by two ditches from French Gulch. In
the mining season about two hundred people find
employment in the district. Their attention has
been so entirely turned to gulch mining that only
twenty lodes have as yet been recorded, and these
were discovered in gulch mining. They are im-
mense, however; for instance, the Discovery, 44
feet wide, Adelia 43 feet, Inferno, 30 feet, auriferous
and argentiferous quartz, seamed and mixed with
galenous and pyritous ores. The flume last spoken
of crosses these todes, and being sunk eight feet in
the bed-rock, there can be no mistake in their stated
width. It may be doubted however, whether such
extraordinary width of vein is an advantage. It cer-
tainly is not if only the same amount of the precious
metals be distributed through it as in those more
confined. In French Gulch strong, rich lodes occur,
on some of which a good deal of work has been
336 THE MiNEs of color ADo.
done—shafts and tunnels excavated, &c. In 1865
a stamp mill was set up in the gulch, the only one
by the way west of the Range, but it merely started
and has since been idle.
The above description of mining in Gold Run
applies to the business wherever it is carried on in
Summit County, Gold Run and Buffalo Flats being
the most important gulch mining localities.
The basin of the upper Blue, which is twenty to
thirty miles in diameter, is one of the richest min-
eral sections in Colorado. Generally its minerals
consist of silver, gold, copper, lead, iron, coal, salt,
sulphur, and indications are not wanting of plati-
num and quicksilver. There are slates and shales,
marbles and limestones, sandstones, and fire clay.
Timber and water and pasturage are in the greatest
abundance. - -
Communication with the eastern slope is possible
through numerous passes from Georgetown round
to the Arkansas River, and with the western via
Gore's Pass, or the North Park under the Rabbit-
Ears. Of course the fall of snow is deep in the
Winter, not less on the average than one hundred
and fifty inches, and the whole basin suffers an ele-
vation above sea of nine thousand feet and over;
but the Range, though a terrible is not an impassi-
ble barrier, even in Winter; (loaded trains have
twice passed it at the coldest season) and the cli-
mate is not half so disagreeable if it is a very little
colder than the climate of Chicago.
Beyond the Middle Park and this basin of the
upper Blue, little is certainly known of the vast
westERN PORTION OF SUMMIT county. 337
mountain wilderness included in Summit County.
In July, 1860, a party numbering one hundred left
Breckenridge for the purpose of exploring the
White and its tributaries for mineral deposits.
They went up Ten-Mile ten miles, crossed over
south-west on to Piney, down that to its kanyon,
then over on to Roaring Fork, as large as the
Grand, which they followed to its junction with the
latter. Here occur immense hot and cold saline
springs, acid and thermal springs. The party
“claimed” them, crossed the river and struck for
the head of the south fork of White River, which
they followed down to its junction with the Green.
They found no gold in the undisturbed stratified
rocks. Turning to the south-east, they traveled
three hundred miles (estimated) over ashy and
sandy deserts and flat rocks to the sources of the
Animas and Del Norte in the San Juan Mountains.
Down the latter and via Fort Garland to Denver
finished this grand exploring tour, and since that
the greater part of the region within the bounds
of Summit County has been regarded as destitute
of minerals.
15
C H A P T E R XIV.
Processes—The Stamp Mill, In Australia, Lake Superior Copper
Mines, California, Nevada, Colorado–Improvements, Keith’s
Desulphurizer, Crosby & Thompson's, Mason's, Monnier Metal-
lurgical Process—Smelting, James E. Lyon & Co.—Making of
Regulus, &c.
OF the methods in use for getting gold, silver,
and copper out of their gangue Ör matrix, the stamp-
mill is the general favorite in all countries. A
minute description of the process can hardly be
necessary at this day. The ore is crushed fine by
the percussion of heavy iron stamps, and in case
of gold, escapes from the stamp batteries through
screens of any desired fineness, and is carried
evenly over amalgamated copper plates by a gentle
sheet of water, constantly running through the bat-
teries. The gold unites with mercury, which is
put in the batteries and on the copper plates, and
the ore, being lighter and having no affinity for
mercury, runs away. When the mercury becomes
loaded with gold, it is taken up, strained through
buckskin to as small bulk as possible, and then
driven off the gold in the form of vapor by the ap-
plication of heat, when, the vapor having been con-
THE STAMP-MILL IN AUSTRALIA. 339
densed into mercury again in the same operation,
it is ready to be used over.
In Australia this operation has been so perfected,
and mining at the same time so systematized, that,
in large ledges in which the gangue is not combined
with sulphur nor full of substances deleterious to
the action of quicksilver on gold, rock which yields
but two pennyweights ($1.6O) per ton, is made to
pay a handsome profit. The mine from which this
is done consists of the principal portion of the
Black Hill, on the Yandrie—about fifty acres. Tun-
nels have been run into it at different levels, and
connected with the open workings, or shafts. The
average width of the lode is ninety feet, and it has
numerous leaders and feeders. The cost of mining
per ton is two shillings, (English) and of crushing,
two shillings, sixpence. Ninety men and four horses
are employed, 150 tons of fire-wood per week used,
and IOOO tons of quartz, or I5OO of soft casings,
crushed in the same time. The material is con-
veyed into the mill on dump-cars, the mill contain-
ing six batteries of ten 770-lb. stamps each, and
driven by a IOO-horse engine. One man, assisted
by a self-feeding apparatus, supplies the batteries
with quartz. The screens have one hundred and
twenty holes to the square inch, and the crushed
material is conveyed by gentle water currents
through sluice-boxes with quicksilver rifles, and
then over blanket surfaces twenty-four feet long.
The blankets are washed every eight hours in
tanks, which move on wheels, and the rinsings
thus collected amalgamated in revolving barrels.
34O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
containing hot water and a weight of mercury equal
to that of half the ore. The Company have a
small foundery of their own for renewing their
stamp-heads, the average wear of iron in stamps
being one ton a week. “Surely,” says the Eng-
lish engineer from whose report this is condensed,
“what has been done here can be elsewhere, now
it has been shown how to do it. It is a great feat
that quartz averaging less than three pennyweights
per ton can be made to pay thirty per cent. per
annum on a large capital.”
The following conclusions are the result of
twenty-five years' experience in the, Lake Superior
copper mines. The figures of cost are below what
they would be in Colorado, probably one hundred
per cent. ; but the method of mining, the estimates,
facts, and suggestions, modified to suit different
conditions, apply to the business, everywhere. The
first cost of opening a mine, including sinking the
shafts and winzes, excavating levels, cutting plats.
for windlasses, etc., should be counted in openings,
and the openings should be in proportion to the
stoping ground. For each shaft or winze at least
24o feet of levels ought to be excavated, to-wit: A
shaft 70 feet deep opens one lift of ten fathoms,”
at $175 a fathom, $1,750; giving 240 lineal feet or
40 fathoms of levels, at $48 a fathom, $1,920; cut-
* “Fathom,” six feet; cubic fathom, 216 cubic feet. y Eighteen
cubic feet of broken Lake Superior rock weigh a ton, a fathom
weighs 12 tons; I2 feet of unbroken Lake Superior rock weigh a
ton, a fathom weighs 18 tons. The sulphurets of Coloradôware
probably 30 to 40 per cent, heavier, and the gossan as much lighter.
MINING ON LAKE SUPERIOR, 34I
ting plat for windlass and stulling up with eighty
stull-timbers, $255; total cost of opening 400 fath-
oms ready for stoping, $4,000, an average of $10 a
fathom. . Allow for stoping 400 fathoms at $15 a
fathom, $6,000 ; for mills or chutes and sundries,
$400, and we have a total of $10,400, $26 a fathom,
for mining, including openings; counting a fathom
as ten tons of mineral, a cost of $2.60 per ton.
This supposes the whole of the ground opened
to be productive, which is not usual. It also allows
a shaft for every 240 feet of length of vein, which
is more than is necessary. Working shafts, with a
winze between, may be 400 feet apart ; and when
a vein is unproductive it should be avoided as much
as possible and left as a support to the mine. The
cost of sinking a shaft or winze is out of all pro-
portion to that of the excavation of levels, and the
latter again to the cost of simple stoping. Usually,
while a mine is being opened, the main surface im-
provements are making. Two lifts of 70 feet eagh
are as much as can easily be excavated in a year.
It is possible to sink a shaft three lifts, or 2 Io feet
in a year, but it is very seldom done. Stockholders
in mines should be patient during this process, be-
cause the average cost per fathom of opening a
mine compared with that of taking out the ore by
stoping after the mine has been opened, is as five
to one, and it is quite possible for it to overrun the
value of the ore obtained by many per cent. Prac-
tical men shotild avoid more excavating of shafts
and winzes than the proportion here stated. Every
fathom of ground opened should give seven of stop-
342 THE MINES OF COLORADO,
f
ing. To produce one hundred tons of ore per day,
a mine should be opened one thousand feet in
length, and to work to the best advantage, two
levels in advance. To produce fifty tons a day, the
ground worked may be proportionately less. If
the two lifts are kept excavated ahead, two work-
ing shafts, with a winze between and one outside
of each shaft, are sufficient. Winzes are made to
accommodate the ground. A shaft is properly
from six by ten to eight by fourteen feet in size;
where timber is plenty, curbed with timbers twelve
to sixteen inches square; where it is not plenty, a
set put in once in three or four feet and the space
between lagged up. Winzes are the width of the
vein when it is as much as four feet wide, and five
or six feet long.
A skip is used for hoisting the ore, guided by
ribbons if the shaft be vertical, running on ways if
it underlie very much. They vary in size with
the power and scale of working, but usually hold
about twenty-two cubic feet, 2,240 lbs., which, con-
sidering that the skip is not quite filled and that the
rock is sorted upon its arrival at the surface, about
makes a ton of mineral. From a stull the ore is
filled into the skip through a mill ; from a level it
is dumped on a platform and shoveled in, the latter
because the car cannot be filled with sufficient
regularity to connect with the hoisting machinery.
With the top of the skip on the level of the plat-
form, two men shovel in one hundred tons per day.
It ascends from twelve to eighteen feet in a second,
Sometimes the car is hoisted out, as in the coal
MINING ON LAKE SUPERIOR. 343
mines. Wood is used for these railways and cars,
indeed, economy is studied in everything. Wire
rope, a half or three-quarter-inch in size, is found
to be the cheapest for hoisting. The drum round
which this winds should be forty inches in diameter.
Two skips may be used in the same shaft, but if
two shafts can be run by the same engine it is bet-
ter to have a skip in each, and have the descending
aid the ascending one by its weight. The skip
should dump itself and find its way back down the
shaft without help.” A forty-horse engine, using
four cords of wood, will hoist one hundred tons a
day from a depth of less than five hundred feet. In
the Pennsylvania coal mines that amount of power
hoists from the depth mentioned five hundred tons
a day. With a wet mine a separate engine for the
pump is desirable.
Having our mine opened and the requisite ma-
chinery and power for hoisting, the next step is to
get out the mineral. To do this at the rate of one
hundred tons a day requires a force as follows:
For getting the ore down from the stopes, tramming
and filling, which should belong to one contract,
twelve men at $2 a day, $24; for hoisting, landing,
and pumping, one engineer and assistant and one
lander by day, and one engineer by night to run
the pump, $9.OO for labor, $4.OO for fuel, and $1.OO
for lights, oil, wear and tear, &c.; for breaking, pick-
ing, and sorting the rock, five men, each handling
*This is perfectly accomplished by the Williams Elevator, a Col.
orado invention, of which A. J. Williams of Denver is the Western
agent.
344 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
twenty tons a day, $10 ; conveying to the stamps
four men, $8; for crushing and dressing the ores
allow $1.25 a ton, and for barrels, cooperage, and
hauling to the harbor, dockage, and shipping, eight
cents a ton. The latter item may be put against
cleaning plates and retorting in Colorado. Allow
that a miner can break three fathoms in a month
at $15 a fathom, $45, 26 tons of selected mineral,
it will require one hundred miners, stoping, to pro-
duce 2,600 tons per month, cost of stoping per ton
$1.42 I-3. To produce IOO tons mineral per day,
we have then :
For mining (opening), per ton, $2 60 per day, $26o oo
Tramming and filling, & 4 24. & 4 24 OO
Landing, hoisting, 6 & 14 “ I4 Oo
Breaking and sorting, {{ IO & 4 IO OO
Tramming to stamps, {{ 8 & 4 8 od
Stamping and dressing, {{ I 25 & £ I25 Oo
Barrels, teaming and shipping “ 3 {{ 3 oo
Repairs, wear and tear, &c., “ 4O & 4 4O OO
Agency, office, sundries, & 4 9 & & 9 OO
Stoping, & 4 I 42 I-3 “ I42 33
Whole expense per ton, $6 4o 1-3 Per day, #640 33
These estimates have been worked to in the Lake
Superior mines, so that they are no fancy sketches,
but deserve study. The number of men required,
the cost of which is included in the above estimate,
supposing the mine opened, is one hundred to stope,
twelve to wheel and fill, five to hoist and land, five to
break, four to tram, twenty in stamp mill, fifteen for
surface work—together, one hundred and sixty men
to get out, crush, dress, barrel, and ship, IOO tons
of mineral per day in the Lake Superior mines. A
MINING ON LAKE SUPERIOR. 345
mine producing at this rate will use 50,000 feet of
lumber and timber, and 6,000 cords of wood an-
nually, allowing one-fifth of the latter for family use.
Which is equal to clearing sixty acres of Lake
Superior, and from four to five times as much of
Colorado wood-land.
For crushing the ore, a 100-ton mill requires forty
head of 1,000-lb., or fifty head of 800-lb. stamps,
and a IOO-horse engine, using twelve cords of wood
every twenty-four hours, one horse-power being
equal to reducing one ton to the fineness of a
16-to-the-inch mesh in that time. The stamps in
use generally weigh I,OOO lbs, each, and drop sixteen
inches sixty times a minute, each crushing two and
a half tons of trap-rock to the above fineness in
twenty-four hours. It has been found that Frank-
linite iron, mixed with Juniata or Lake Superior
iron, or white chilled iron, or the white waste
around blast furnaces, makes the best stamp-heads.
Of these, which weigh IOO lbs., the average service
each before wearing out is 300 tons. The best
quality will stand sixty or seventy per cent, more
than that, however. Hodge & Christie, of Detroit,
have got the manufacture of quartz-crushing and
mining machinery down to a dot. They make a
horizontal quartz-crusher, worked by an eccentric,
which we do not hesitate to recommend for Color-
ado as superior to any possible arrangement of
stamps. The capacity depends on the size of the
machine and the power applied. That is to say, it
is unlimited. They also make another, a cylinder
crusher, something on the principle of a corn-sheller,
15*
346 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
equal to crushing 250 tons of sulphurets a day.
Both of these machines are followed by Cornish
Rollers, the capacity of which also depends on the
size and power applied. In amalgamation, the
rollers are followed by arastras. Where the ore is to
be smelted, the rollers will pulverize it sufficient-
The Blake Rock Breaker, with a 20-horse en-
gine, is equal to crushing ten tons an hour. Those
who have used both say that Hodge & Christie's is
a better economizer of power than Blake's.
In California, in 1861, there were thirty-eight
quartz mills in operation, producing.six millions in
gold. The average cost per ton of mining was
$5.47, of treatment, $2.65, aggregate, $8. I2. The
average yield was $22.87, leaving a profit of $14.75
per ton. Five years later, the number of mills had
doubled, and were producing eight millions per
annum, with no change in cost. The expense of
mining varies greatly with different mines, and of
milling it is higher or lower according as steam or
hydraulic power is used. “When both mine and
mill are favorably situated,” says Prof. Ashburner,
“it requires quartz yielding eight dollars per ton to
cover the expense of mining and milling. There-
fore, when the vein is of moderate size, say five or
six feet in width, and water power can be employed,
quartz yielding ten dollars per ton may be regarded
as valuable, and affording a certain profit.” The
veins generally dip and strike with the rock strata
which encore them, and which are slate, granite,
and greenstone, equally prolific, and in workable
width vary from a few inches to thirty or forty feet,
MINING IN NEWADA. 347
though it invariably happens that the wider the
vein the poorer it is. The history of the working
of these veins, all and singly, shows great uneven-
ness in the yield of gold from month to month, or
perhaps from year to year, and it is not yet proved
that, in the more permanent veins of California, the
percentage yield of the quartz is less down deep
than on the back or surface.
In Nevada, according to statistics officially pub-
lished within the two or three years last past, the
average cost of quarrying, crushing, and treatment
per ton of rock, is $3O, coin, which is about eighty
per cent. of the gross yield of the rock. The great
mine is the Comstock, a fissure vein of extraordi-
nary width and productiveness, two miles in length,
generally worked out five hundred feet in depth,
that space having yielded in five years ore worth
sixty millions of dollars, sixty per cent. of which
has been extracted and thrown upon the markets
of the world. The rich bonanzas of the surface
having been nearly exhausted, the yield has latterly
fallen off considerably, and most all the companies
have been extensively exploring for new deposits.
In the opinion of eminent mining experts, they will
be found within the limits of profitable working,
which Prof. Ashburner puts, with the ore yielding
thirty-five dollars per ton, at ten hundred to twelve
hundred feet.
In Colorado the cost of milling and mining per
ton used to be five, six, or seven dollars. Since
about the close of 1863, when the backs of the
veins had been exhausted and war prices began to
348 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
prevail, it has been about twelve, coin, and the
average yield not far from twenty-five.* This as
ordinarily worked with stamps. The Keith process
has realized from IOO to 200 per cent. more than
that on considerable quantities of ore, and so has
careful running through stamps, while smelting de-
tects from $100 to $300 value per ton in the best
ores. The common yield under stamps is no cri-
terion of the value, not only because of the refrac-
tory nature of the matrix of the gold, whatever it
is, and it may well be doubted if anybody, even
Hermann, yet knows ; but because at least an equal
quantity of nearly barren rock is always run through
the stamps with the ore, under the impression that
more value is obtained by slow running. The
veins average about five feet between walls; half
of which is pay-rock or ore. They are irregular in
size and richness, as are all other gold veins. It is
believed that some of them extend for miles, but
none is worked to profit more than a half-mile, and
most not near so far—perhaps 1,2OO feet. In Aus-
tralia, California, and Nevada, the precious metals
are held in the vise of a perfectly untractable
matrix to some extent, while in Colorado they are
only found not so held to some extent. Still there
are spots on the Burroughs, Gunnell, Gregory, Bob-
tail, and Bates, which pay something above ex-
penses under stamps. For instance, The Smith &
Parmelee Company got out 5,529 ounces during
the six months ending March 1, 1867, of which the
* Only a careful estimate—there are no statistics on the subject,
nor does it seem likely there will be any soon.
STAMP-MILLS IN COLORADO. 349
Superintendent insists 66 per cent. is profit. Other
companies are selling their best ore to the smelters,
and realizing from $20 to $40 a ton by stamps from
second-quality. But the larger moiety of the really
fine stamp-mills of the Territory are either idle or
unfinished, from the well-founded belief that it is a
waste all around to try to manipulate the deep ores
with stamps. Mr. Hermann, of Swansea, confess-
edly standing at the head of metallurgists, pro-
nounces them “the most wasteful expenditure,” and
the greatest of all Colorado's obstacles to success.
Still the fact remains that we have these mills, on
the ground and in running order, and it must be
confessed not yet badly beaten by any of the so-
called improvements. Perhaps for the backs of
veins and for the deeper ores and rock of second
quality, considering that the first cost is already
incurred and that running them is not expensive
especially in skill, they may be the best treatment.
As used in Colorado they are susceptible of im-
provement. It has been suggested that a mistake
was made in getting so heavy stamps and gearing
them so slow, and that perhaps a stamp weighing
450 pounds and dropping very rapidly would do
more work and make the same ore yield more per
ton. The suggestion is not of much weight, be-
cause if percussion is necessary to amalgamation,
it would be better to have separate batteries, with
light, quick-dropping stamps, for that purpose, than
to lose two-thirds of the pulverizing power as pro-
posed. Power is best economized in crushing by
stamps to have them 800 or 1,000 pounds in weight,
350 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
dropping sixteen inches once a second. The use
of some good rock-breaker on the ore before it is
fed into the batteries would be of advantage, be-
cause it would increase their capacity and save
wear and tear. The use of long blanketed sur-
faces, and of hot water and the barrel amalgama-
tor, as in Australia, might be introduced with little
expense and no doubt with profit. • .
Within the last few years, different parties have
been endeavoring to improve on stamp-mill amal-
gamating by first calcining the ores. Others have
thrown aside the idea of amalgamating, and sought
some practicable method of directly attacking the
ores by fire, as in making an assay. Some account
of both follows. It is a subject the writer approaches
cautiously because of its importance, and because
of the difficulty of determining the truth. He will
confine himself to a statement in popular language
of what the friends of the processes claim for them,
their method of operation in brief, and what has
been done and is doing in each, endorsing by the
way Mr. J. W. Taylor's suggestion, that the subject
is worthy of investigation by a scientific commis-
sion at the expense of the Government.
“The Keith Process” was patented by Keith,
Behr & Keith, in September, 1862. It consists in
bringing the finely-pulverized ore in contact with
the flame of a furnace rapidly and economically,
thus driving off the volatile substances, melting and
aggregating the fine gold into larger and spherical
particles upon which quicksilver readily acts. The
advantages claimed for it are, complete oxydation
4.
KEITH DESULPHURIZING PROCESS. 35 I
and calcination at one operation; economy of labor
and fuel; delivery of the ore in a finely-powdered
state ; all the gold left in particles of a globular
shape and free from combination with other metals
or minerals. The ore is pulverized, dry, by stone-
breakers and ball-crushers. The furnace is made
of brick, the fire-chamber lined with fire-brick, and
consumes one cord of pine wood in roasting thirty
tons, which is the capacity per twenty-four hours of
those furnaces now in use. The cost of the fur-
nace is not above that of any other roasting furnace
of equal capacity. After calcination the ore is
scoured by being passed through a ball-pulverizer,
when it is amalgamated by simple stirring or shak-.
ing. The cost of treatment 1s five dollars per ton.
It saves from sixty to eighty per cent. of the gold
in ores free from galena. The latter it does not at-
tempt to treat. It has been in more or less suc-
cessful operation at the Mammoth Company's mill
in Black Hawk for three years, and in 1866, four
other mills adopted it, which we believe are all
now running. The right to use it is sold for $5,000.
“The Crosby & Thompson Process” claims to do
all that Keith's does, by the use of iron cylinders;
and by the addition of a large condensing chamber,
to catch a great deal of gold so fine as to be impal-
pable that would otherwise pass out of the chimney.
It was introduced in Colorado early in 1865 and a
good many companies adopted it. Of thirty of
these, about one-half set up the machinery, but
none of them has succeeded in making it work,
practically. The difficulty has been in amalgamat-
352 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ing, and within the past Winter they think they
have discovered the hitch and how to overcome it.
The idea is, that soon after its chemical union
with mercury, the gold commences oxydizing and
escaping in the form of a brown powder. The
remedy proposed is, to change the mercury before
the oxydation of the gold has time to begin, and
then to promote such oxydation by the use of water
and stirring, as a means of separating the gold
from the mercury. It remains to be shown on
a working scale and in Colorado that this is
more than an ingenious and plausible theory. And
we think: it remains to be shown, practically, that
the iron cylinders constitute the best method of
roasting the ores. The friends of the process are
very confident, however, of speedy and full success,
and are entitled to credit for uncommon tenacity
of purpose. The whole thing is covered by letters
patent.
“The Mason Process” has been tried to some
extent in Colorado, but so far with no generally
appreciable success. It consists in the use of
superheated steam in connection with the flame of
a furnace, applied moderately at first and increased
by degrees, to the ore before pulverizing, in a fur-
nace not unlike a lime-kiln. A cupola seven feet
in diameter by twelve in hight holds thirty tons, and
using one and a half cords of wood, this charge is
treated in twenty-four hours. In California and
Nevada better success has attended the process
than in Colorado. It roasted $9-rock at a cost of
$I. I2 I-2 per ton, making it yield $25. Chemists
MONNIER METALLURGICAL PROCESS. 353
say that the principle is sound. The cheapness of
its application is a recommendation, if it will only
answer the purpose. There is a controversy pend-
ing in the courts with regard to the right, between
Mason and Hagan. Mason is now further testing
it in North Carolina.
“The Monnier Metallurgical Process,” but re-
cently introduced in Colorado, and not yet fairly
and fully tested, consists in roasting in the presence
of sulphates of soda, iron, or other similar salts, in
a long furnace or muffle. The flame passes under
and heats the sole of the furnace, on which the ore,
mixed with one-tenth its weight of sulphate of
soda, is worked from one to the other end, the heat
being gradually increased as it approaches the point
of discharge. Almost all the Sulphur is expelled,
and the copper and silver salts left in a soluble con-
dition. The after process consists in the leaching
and precipitation of the copper and silver, and the
amalgamation of the gold. The advantages claimed
are, improved roasting furnace, economizing the
heat produced by combustion of the sulphur in a
long chamber; using a powerful promoter of oxy-
dation in the sulphate of soda, an auxiliary in elim-
inating sulphur, and also in preventing in a measure
insoluble forms of the copper and silver so liable
to occur when the ore is roasted alone. It pro-
poses to save all the metals of value, even to the
sulphur, if desired, in the ore. Counting labor and
material three times as high as in the East, a set
of works for treating 350 tons a week by this pro-
cess would be and cost as follows:
354 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
I steam engine and boiler, and house, - $15,000
I rock breaker, sº ºl tº º & 2,000
I double Cornish crusher, - * º 4.OOO
5 arastras, $500 each, - tº- tº tº ; 7,500
48 Tyrolean amalgamators, - ſº * 4,800
Sundries, * * * * * * 1,700— $35,000
6 calcining furnaces, - - - - $75,000
6 evaporating furnaces, - º tº - 54,000
60 tanks and house, wº - - - 30,000
Stack and culvert, - tº & * sº 4,OOO
Sundries, º te sº gº * tºº 2,000— $165,000
—º
Total, - º tº s * * $200,000
The cost per ton of treating the ore at Colorado
prices, when it contains five per cent. Of copper, is
$30.58; when it contains only one and one-half per
cent. Of copper, $22. I 5 ; and when it contains, no
copper $18.31. This is a very liberal estimate of the
cost in Colorado, since it allows fº to be three times
as high as in Virginia, where the process has long
been worked. And that cost is constantly dimin-
ishing, too. A company called “The Monnier
Metallurgical Company of Colorado,” has been or-
ganized in Philadelphia with a capital of $250,000,
for the purpose of introducing and using the pro-
cess in Colorado, and they have commenced opera-
tions.
A patent desulphurizing furnace, which makes
fuel of the sulphur in the ore and uses no other
after getting started, has been introduced at Black
Hawk by James E. Lyon & Co. It is a large chim-
ney, perhaps twenty feet high, down through which,
by means of a self-feeding hopper and an arrange-
ment in the flue of successive courses of fire-tile,
the ore is continuously and slowly sifted. It must
SMELTING WORKS OF LYON & CO. 355
contain 18 per cent. of sulphur, far less than most
Colorado ores. At Swansea they have eight of
these furnaces, requiring three men to attend them,
and roasting thirty-two tons a day. It seems to us
that this furnace must eventually supersede all
others for ores containing the requisite per centage
of sulphur.
We come at last to an important enterprise—the
introduction of smelting, in other words, assaying
by fire on a working scale. The attempt is due to
James E. Lyon, the head of a wealthy co-partner-
ship, prominent in Colorado for many years. In
1864 he took some selected Gregory ore to the fur-
naces near New York city, and finding the yield to
be from $214°to $250 per ton in gold, silver, and
copper, eight-fold the average yield of such ore by
stamps, he thenceforth devoted his whole attention
and energy to the introduction of smelting in Col-
orado. During the year 1865, he erected several
furnaces, with the requisite crushing and dressing
machinery in Black Hawk, which were run with
partial success for nearly a year. Under the advice
of Mr. Hermann, the plan that had been adopted—
fusing and amalgamating by lead and cupelling—
was then abandoned for the simple concentration
by fusing of the ores into regulus, or a matt, weigh-
ing one-tenth to one-fifth the original heft of the
ore, and containing of course all the valuable metal
of whatever kind. It can hardly be necessary for
us to describe the operation, since it is older than the
hills and is in every cyclopedia ever printed. The
rock as commonly taken from the mines, is sorted,
356 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
crushed by rock-breakers, and Cornish rollers,
dressed and washed to nearly pure mineral by vari-
ousingenious contrivances, losing in weight and bulk
in Sorting, washing and dressing perhaps 60 percent,
roasted, and fused, the matt containing the metals
precipitated from the fused mass and the slag allowed
to run off. The calculation has been to transport this
matt to Swansea for separation of its metals, but an
effort is to be made the present year, backed by
ample means and having command of the best skill
in the world, to establish complete works in Colorado.
This will be under the personal supervision of Prof.
N. P. Hill of Providence. An early day will with-
out doubt see the great range of furnaces at Swansea
duplicated on Clear Creek below Golden City, with
a railway winding thence to the mines of Gilpin
and Clear Creek counties through the profound
kanyon of that stream. Competition will ensure
equitable division of the profits between the miner
and smelter, who will each have and pursue his
branch of the business, independent of the other.
By the end of October, 1866, the necessary altera-
tions in the furnace of Lyon & Co., had been made.
There were then three roasting and three smelting
furnaces, each set having a capacity of twenty to
twenty-five tons a day. Besides these they had the
patent roaster noticed before, three American
hearths for lead ores, and one cupel furnace. They
used steam power, and were all the time improving
their arrangement, including crushing and dressing
machinery. Later in the Fall the works were sold
by Lyon & Co., to the Consolidated Gregory Com-
MINE-CAPTAINS-QUALIFICATIONS. 357
pany, with whose great Gregory mine, now in the
best of shape, they were consolidated. They have
from IOO to 200 tons of matt on hand, valued at
$800 to $1,000 a ton, half of which is claimed to be
profit. James E. Lyon is general director of the
Company, and M. B. Hayes, of Central, the agent
in Colorado, while Dr. Johnson, formerly of the
Staten Island furnaces, immediately superintends
the smelting works.
Perhaps we cannot more appropriately close our
account of these efforts at improving the gold-sav-
ing art, than by urging the necessity of employing
a more competent class of men to superintend
heavy and expensive mining operations. Of the
manifold requirements of a good mine-captain, the
first is a thorough business education and experi-
ence, the next a most rigid habit of personally
attending to duty, faithfulness. To these should
be added sufficient acquaintance with mechanical
affairs to know when wood, stone, and iron work are
properly constructed and done; and a knowledge
of mining in all its branches, geology, mineralogy,
chemistry, &c. It may well be that there are few
such men, quartz-mining being a new business, and
hence the great importance of the mining schools,
springing up in different parts of the country.
Successful gold mining depends as often on the
qualities of the operator as on those of the mine.
A California paper remarks: “We have many
successful mines, it is true, but in almost every
instance, the mine is either extraordinarily rich, or
the operator is peculiarly qualified for his position.
*
358 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
It is not an unfrequent occurrence to see an aban-
doned mine sold for a nominal figure, reopened by
the purchaser, and made a splendid success. This
is no chance; the mine had its merits which the
ignorant pretender who was operating it failed to
discern, through a lack of knowledge.” Let min-
ing companies to whom success is an object bear
this ever in mind.
C H A P T E R XV.
Important Mining Legislation—Gregory District Miners' Laws,
Adopted February, 1860–Mining Legislation of Colorado Ter-
ritory—Act of Congress Opening the Mineral Lands to Pre-
emption.
DURING the first Winter in the mines of Gregory
District, the then existing miners' laws were codi-
fied and somewhat amplified. The following is an
act of the Sovereign people in person, approved and
adopted February 18, 1860, “defining claims and
regulating title thereto:”
SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Citizens of Gregory District in
Convention assembled, That all mining lodes of gold, or any other
precious or useful metals, and all mining and other claims, shall be
held under and defined by the provisions of this act.
SEC. 2. That the term CLAIM as used in this district shall be
construed to mean when applied to a lode, one hundred feet run-
ning the length of the same and fifty feet in width; when applied
to a gulch, one hundred feet following its meanderings and extend-
ing from bank to bank; when applied to patch or placer diggings,
one hundred feet square; when applied to tunneling claims, the
entire distance intended to run the same for discovery purposes as
shown by record and the stake at the mouth of the tunnel; when
applied to a quartz-mill claim, the distance of two hundred and
fifty feet square; when applied to a ditch claim, the entire distance
staked out which they intend to run the same, or (as) shown by the
survey and stakes; when applied to a water-claim, the exclusive
right to use water for mining purposes upon any ditch or stream
360 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
not exceeding in distance two hundred and fifty feet; when applied
to a farming or ranch claim one hundred and sixty acres; when ap-
plied to a building claim, forty feet front and one hundred feet
deep.
SEc. 3. That no person shall have more than one lode, gulch,
patch or placer claim in this district except by purchase or dis-
covery.
SEC. 4. That no person shall hold more than one water, build-
ing, farming or ranch claim except by purchase.
SEC. 5. That each discovery claim shall be marked as such,
and all purchased claims shall be recorded, and in either case they
shall be safely held whether worked or not.
SEC. 6. That any claim or claims now held, either by purchase
or discovery, if abandoned for ten consecutive days after being
staked off, shall be forfeited to any person or persons who may take
up the same and work them and not abandon them as aforesaid.
SEC. 7. That no claim shall be regarded as good and valid un-
less staked off with the owner's name, giving the direction, length,
width, and date when the same was made ; and when held by a
company the name of each member thereof shall conspicuously ap-
pear.
SEC. 8. That when members of a company consisting of two or
more shall work one claim of the company, the rest shall he con-
sidered as worked by putting a notice of the same thereon.
SEc. 9. That all mining claims which have been or may be
taken up before the 1st of June next need not be worked until that
date; provided however, that the person who so has or shall take
up a claim as aforesaid shall file with the Recorder for record a
statement thereof, wherein he shall describe the claim and aver that
it cannot be worked profitably for the want of either water or the
proper machinery until the first day of June next, at which time he
believes the said water or machinery can be procured.
SEC. Io. That in all cases when parties shall have complied
with the law as far as possible, priority of claim, when honestly
carried out, shall be respected.
SEC. II. That all contracts of partnerships or agreements
whereby an interest in claims or lands are concerned, and all con-
tracts relating thereto, hereafter made, shall be in writing and give
the name and interest of each of the parties, and when a partner-
ship the firm name also ; and the same shall be recorded before the
first day of April next, or the said contracts shall not be regarded
LAWS OF GREGORY DISTRICT. 361
as binding upon or affecting any but the original parties in any
transaction whatever.
SEC. 12. That all deeds, bonds, contracts, bills of sale, or instru-
ments of any kind relating to the conveyance [of] claims and bonds
shall be witnessed by at least two disinterested witnesses and re-
corded. -
SEc. 13. That when any miner shall hold both a gulch and lode
claim, if one be worked the other may be held without working by
recording the same.
SEC. I4. That any person owning a quartz-mill claim upon
which he has a mill or is preparing to place one, may claim the
right to cut a race or ditch from any stream to bring water to said
mill, not interfering with vested rights.
SEc. 15. That all claims held by laws heretofore in force, shall
be regarded as vested property, and no person shall be disturbed
in the possession thereof. -
SEC. 16. That when water is claimed for gulch or quartz-mining
purposes on the same stream, neither shall have the right to more
than one-half, unless there shall be insufficient for both, when prior-
ity of claim shall determine.
SEC. I7. That if two or more parties wish to use water on the
same stream or ravine for quartz-mining purposes, no person shall
be entitled to use more than his proportionate share of water; but
in case there shall not be water sufficient for all, priority of claim
shall determine the right to such water.
SEC. 18. That when water companies are engaged in bringing
water into any portion of the mines, they shall have the right of way
secured to them, and may pass over any claim, road, or ditch, pro-
vided the water shall be so guarded as not to interfere with any
vested rights.
SEC. 19. That in other questions not settled by the provisions
of this act arising out of the rights of riparian proprietors, shall be
divided [division shall be made] according to the common law.
SEC. 20. . That claims of every kind, except discovery mining
claims, must be recorded unless the same are continuously worked
or used according to law.
SEC. 21. That the rules and regulations observed in mining re-
gions within the United States, relating to digging for gold under
building lots, upon ranch, farming, and other claims, shall be ob-
served in this district.
SEC. 22. That if any person shall locate a tunnel in this district
I6
362 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
for the purpose of discovery, he shall first file a specification of the
same with the Recorder, whose duty it shall be to record the same
upon payment of his fees. The said specification shall state the
place of commencement and the termination of said tunnel, together
with the names of the parties interested therein. A four-square
stake shall be placed at its mouth, having written thereon the same
things hereby made necessary to record.
SEC. 23. That any person or persons, engaged in working a tun-
nel, provided he or they shall comply with the requirements of the
law, shall be entitled to two hundred and fifty feet on all lodes dis-
covered in consequence of the same ; and such parts of the lodes
as they are entitled to in consequence of said discovery shall be
held as discovery claims; provided, however, they do not in-
terfere with any vested rights; and if it shall appear that lodes are
staked off on the line of said tunnel so that the required number of
feet cannot be taken near to the same, they may be taken upon any
part thereof wherever the same may be found vacant.
SEC. 24. That if the person or persons locating a tunnel shall fail
to work the same for twenty consecutive days after the 1st of July
next, they shall forfeit their claims to said tunnel, but not to the
claims they have discovered and held by virtue of discovery before
the time of forfeiture.
SEC. 25. That the person or persons working a tunnel, shall,
after the same is legally located, have the priority of right to all
lodes discovered on the line of the tunnel from the recorded line of
its mouth to its terminus; and shall have the right of way through
all lodes which may lie in the course said tunnel is recorded, staked
out, and worked.
An act of the sovereigns, approved and adopted
February 20, 1860, exempts from levy and sale upon
execution, all tools for mining, bedding, clothing,
cooking utensils, and necessary provisions for three
months; and in case of a man residing with his
family, a dwelling-house not exceeding $500 in
value, and such articles of household furniture as
are strictly necessary, together with a Bible, family
pictures, and relics. Another act, adopted and ap-
proved at the same time, declares that the laws
TERRITORIAL LAW AS To LoDEs. 363
passed on the 18th and 20th of February, inst.,
shall take effect fifteen days from date, and thence-
forth all conflicting laws shall be null and void ex-
cept as to suits already commenced and pending at
that time. -
Upon the organization of the Territory of Col-
orado, its Legislative Assembly hastened to re-
assure the miners against fears of molestation of
their rights by the passage of the following act
“concerning lode claims,” which was approved
November 7, 1861:
Be it enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of Color.
ado Territory:
SECTION I. That the term CLAIM, as used in the mining portions
of this Territory, when applied to a lode, shall be construed to
mean one hundred feet of the length of such lode, surface measure.
ment of the entire width of such lode or crevice; Provided, That
in no [any] case where the regulations of any mining district have
heretofore defined the term claim to mean other than as above de-
fined, nothing in this act shall be so construed as to impair the
rights of any person or persons holding claims under such regula-
tions as may have been heretofore established by the people of the
district in which such claim or claims are situate.
SEC. 2. That whenever any person or persons are engaged in
bringing water into any portion of the mines, they shall have the
right of way secured to them, and may pass over any claim, road,
ditch, or other structure; Provided, The water be guarded [so] as
not to interfere with prior rights.
SEC. 3. That no person shall have the right to mine under any
building or other improvement, unless he shall first secure the par-
ties owning the same against all damages, except by priority of right.
SEC. 4. That if any person or persons shall locate a tunnel
claim, for the purpose of discovery, he shall record the same, speci-
fying the place of commencement and termination thereof, with the
names of the parties interested therein.
SEC. 5. That any person or persons engaged in working a tun-
nel, within the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to two hun-
364 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
dred and fifty feet each way from said tunnel, on each lode so dis-
covered; Provided, That they do not interfere with any vested
rights. If it shall appear that claims have been staked off and
recorded, prior to the record of said tunnel on the line thereof, so
that the required number of feet cannot be taken near said tunnel,
they may be taken upon any part thereof where the same may be
found vacant; and persons working said tunnel, shall have the
right of way through all lodes which may lie in its course.
SEC. 6. That when it shall appear that one lode crosses, runs
into, or unites with any other lode, the priority of record shall de-
termine the rights of claimants; Arozided, That in no case where
it appears that two lodes have crossed one another, shall the pri-
ority of record give any person the privilege of turning off from the
crevice or lode which continues in the same direction of the main
lode upon which he or they may have recorded their claim or
claims, but shall at all times follow the crevice running nearest in
the general direction of the main lode upon which he or they may
have recorded their claim or claims.
SEC. 7. That where two crevices are discovered at a distance
from each other and known by different names, and it shall appear
that the two are one and the same lode, the persons having recorded
on the first discovered lode shall be the legal owners.
SEC. 8. That to determine when the two lodes are one and the
same, it shall be necessary for the person claiming that the two are
the same lode, to sink shafts at no greater distance than fifty feet
apart, and finding a crevice in each shaft, and forming a continuous
line of shafts from one lode to the other, shall be conclusive evi-
dence that the two are one and the same lode.
SEC. 9. That in no case shall any person or persons be allowed
to flood the property of another person with water, or wash down
the tailings of his or their sluice upon the claim or property of
other persons; but it shall be the duty of every miner to take care
of his own tailings, upon his own property, or become responsible
for all damages that may arise therefrom.
SEC, Io. That every miner shall have the right of way across any
and all claims for the purpose of hauling quartz from his claim.
SEC. II. That all claims taken up and recorded by persons who
have, since the recording of the same, enlisted in the army of the
United States, or the volunteer force of this Territory, shall be
deemed and held as real estate for a period of nine months from
the expiration of their term of enlistment or discharge from service;
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION. 365
after which time, if not represented by the said soldier or soldiers,
all such claims shall be forfeited to any person who (may) take up
the same.
SEC. 12. That a copy of all the records, laws, and proceedings
of each mining district, so far as they relate to lode claims, shall be
filed in the office of the County Clerk of the county in which the
district is situated, with the boundaries of the district attached to
the same, which shall be taken as evidence in any court having .
jurisdiction in the matters concerned in such record or proceeding.
This act shall take effect from and after its passage—Laws First
Session, p. 166.
A Territorial act, “declaratory of the rights of oc-
cupants of the public domain, except as against the
United States,” approved November 7, 1861, declares
that the right to possess and occupy any portion of
the public domain, as the same may exist under the
local laws, shall be represented in law and equity
in all the courts and tribunals of the Territory, as
real estate ; transferable and therefore a sufficient
consideration to sustain a promise ; to be ascertain-
ed and determined by the local law, or in the ab-
sence of law, custom of the district where situate ;
to be expressed and described in a declaration of
prescribed form in case of original occupation, and
by a deed in case of purchase; such paper to be
acknowledged by the proper officer and recorded in
the County Recorder's office; this record to be
taken as presumptive evidence of the regularity and
legality of the paper itself in all legal or equitable
proceedings; the burden of proving the contrary to
rest on the challenger. This act was to regulate
the claiming and holding particularly of ranches,
... and the last section provided that gold or silver
lodes or diggings should be excepted from its pro-
366 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
visions, wherever found; that they should be sub-
ject to occupation and enjoyment under the miners'
Mazºws of the district where situate, or if there were
none, then those of the nearest mining district.
A Territorial act “to protect the mining claims
and property of soldiers,” approved November 6,
1861, declares that all claims and property of sol-
diers shall be exempt from levy or sale by virtue of
any of the miners' laws or the judgments of their
courts, until the soldier shall have been legally free
from service one year; provided, a list of such
claims and property, signed with his name, shall
have been left with the Recorder of the district by
the soldier.
A Territorial act, approved March 5, 1864, pro-
vides that the citizen-soldiers of the Territory while
in service and for one year thereafter, may acquire
the same as citizens of the Territory not in service,
agricultural, mining, or other claims, either in per-
son or by agent, the agent to first make affidavit
before some proper officer that it is a boma fide piece
of work.
A Territorial act “to confirm and legalize certain
acts of the people of Colorado Territory,” approved
August 15, 1862, declares “that all judgments and
decisions rendered by any of the so-called Miners'
Courts, Miners' Clubs, or Claim Clubs, or People's
Courts, or Kansas Courts, according to the rules and
regulations adopted by any neighborhood or mining
district within what are now the limits of Colorado
Territory, when both parties made an appearance, ,
or had notice according to such rules, and all the
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION. . 367
executions, writs, processes, sales or proceedings
growing out of or resulting from the same, are
hereby confirmed and legalized.” -
An act supplementary to this provides that it
shall apply only to such proceedings as were had
prior to the passage of the act, and that it shall not
be construed to prevent the filing of bills in chan-
cery to test the equity of cases involving sums of
$250 or more, if filed within one year from the
passage of the act. -
A Territorial act, approved August 15, 1862,
provides for the reviving, by scire facias, of any
unsatisfied judgments of the Miners', People's, or
other Courts, confirmed by the above acts, directing
magistrates with whom properly certified copies of
such judgments may be filed, where the amount
claimed shall not exceed $100, to enter judgment
thereon for the amount due, subject to limitations
and appeal as in other cases.
A Territorial act “concerning arbitrations and
awards,” approved November 7, 1861, makes the
adjudications, decisions or judgments of the Judges
of the People's or Miners' Courts in all controversies
in which the party proceeded against has been duly
notified, except when the action was founded on a
written contract to pay money, of the same force
and effect as adjudications under legal arbitration,
as provided for in this act.
A Territorial act “relative to Notaries Public,”
approved October 24, 1861, confirms all acknowledg-
ments and official acts of Notaries Public holding
their commissions under the Territory of Kansas,
368 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
and also of all Judges or Justices of any organized
Courts.
A Territorial act, passed and approved at the
First Session, authorizes any person holding lots,
lands, or mining claims, either by pre-emption, gift,
purchase of the original claimants, or under decrees
of execution of the People's, Miners', or Provisional
Government Courts, to maintain actions for injuries -
done the possession thereof, except as against the
United States; provided, “it shall be lawful for the
citizens of mining districts to declare an abandom-
ſment of any creek, river, gulch, Öaná, or mining
claim, and a forfeiture of the rights of the claimants
thereto,” in which case, the parties claimant shall
not be entitled to maintain such action for trespass
or injury.
A Territorial act, approved August 15, 1862, pro-
vides that on all lodes to be discovered, claim
No. Three, in one or the other direction from Dis-
covery, shall be set apart for the benefit of schools,
the County Superintendents of Schools to hold the
certificates and to annually report to the Territo-
rial Superintendent, who shall recommend to the
Territorial Legislature what he thinks proper re-
garding their leasing or working.
An act supplemental to this, passed and approved
during the Fifth Session, declares the jumping of
the school claims, or the failure to relinquish upon
the county records the title acquired by such jump-
ing prior to June, I866, a misdemeanor, rendering
the parties guilty of it liable to a civil action for
damages, and subject to a fine of from fifty to ten
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION. 369
thousand dollars. Requires the County Superin-
tendents of Schools to bring civil suits for damages
against all trespassers on the school claims, and
when damages are assessed by juries, the courts to
render judgments for three times the amount of
damages so assessed. Makes it the duty of the
County Superintendents to annually present sched-
ules of the school claims to the several Boards of
County Commissioners, who shall, upon the recom-
mendation of the Superintendents, fix the price for
which each claim may be sold or leased ; fixes the
term of such lease, without renewal, at six years,
and requires ample security of the lessees ; their
payments to be made semi-annually ; and authorizes
said Superintendents to make good and valid title.
Provides that the Superintendents shall give bond,
the penalty of which shall be fixed by the County
Commissioners; provides for the employment of
necessary counsel and its pay out of moneys ac-
cruing under the act; also fixes the pay qf Super-
intendents at ten per cent, of the sum so accruing
up to $3,000 a year, the surplus going to the gen-
eral school fund. Provides a penalty for neglect on
the part of Recorders to record school claims, also
for recording them for jumpers, of from $500 to
$5,000; and declares any sale or conveyance of
school claims except as in this act provided for,
null and void.
An act supplemental to this, provides for the use
and disposal of all moneys accruing to the Terri-
tory under its operation.
A Territorial act, approved March 11, 1864, fixes
16#
37O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the legal length of all lodes to be thereafter dis-
covered, at 800 feet either way from Discovery shaft
on the line of the lode.
A Territorial act, “concerning mines and miner-
als,” approved February 9, 1866, gives to every
discoverer of a lode thereafter, 1,400 feet, lineal
measure, to be called “The Discovery Claim.”
Requires him to mark the point of discovery with
a substantial monument inscribed with his name
and that of the lode, and the date of the discovery,
and to sink a shaft to a well-defined crevice before
recording. Provides a penalty for the malicious
removal or defacement of such monument. Gives
him in virtue of discovery all spurs, off-shoots, dips,
angles, feeders, cross or parallel veins occurring
within twenty-five feet, either way, from the center
of his lode. Extends this last provision to prior
discoverers, except where it would infringe on exist-
ing rights. Provides for the location of IOO feet on
each end of the Discovery claim, to be known as
“No. 1, East,” or “No. 1, West,” one for the benefit
of schools, and the other for a “Miners' Relief and
Territorial Poor Fund.” Provides that Recorders
shall have four dollars for recording and issuing a
certificate of pre-emption, two dollars for entering
the same on any abstract of title, and twenty-five
cents for each transfer thereafter entered on the
abstract, and that the School and Poor Fund claims
shall be recorded free. Directs as to the selling or
leasing of the latter claims, and the disposal of their
proceeds for the benefit of schools, disabled miners
and the poor of the Territory.
TERRITORIAL LEGISLATION. 37 I
In the Territorial Incorporation Law, approved
March 11, 1864, it is provided that the certificate
of incorporation of tunnel companies shall specify
where the proposed tunnel is to be run, where to
begin, course, termination, and the minerals de-
signed to be excavated. Such companies to have
and hold 250 feet on each side of their tunnel on
all lodes discovered by them while excavating it;
IOO feet on all lodes discovered by others crossing
said tunnel after the commencement of the same;
and through all lodes discovered previous to such
commencement, the right of way.
A Territorial act, approved February 8, 1866,
commonly called “The Abandonment Act,” de-
clares all pre-emptions of water-powers, mill-sites,
tunnels, and mining claims, and all rights acquired
under them, void, where the pre-emptor shall have
been absent from the Territory three years and
shall not have had any agent in the Territory to
represent him, and shall not either appear himself
or by proxy and occupy and work said claims within
one year from the passage of the act. Not to apply
to persons absent from the Territory in the United
States' service. -
Such is the more important of the mining legis-
lation of the Territory. It remains to give the
great Act of Congress opening the mineral lands
to pre-emption. It is modestly entitled, “An act
granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners
over the public lands, and for other purposes,” and
is as follows: -
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Uni-
ted States of America in Congress Assembled, That the mineral lands
372 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of the public domain, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby
declared to be free and open to exploration and occupation by all
citizens of the United States, and those who have declared their in-
tention to become citizens, subject to such regulations as may be
prescribed by law, and subject also to the local customs or rules of
miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same may not
be in conflict with the laws of the United States.
SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever any person or
association of persons claim a vein or lode of quartz, or other rock
in place, bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, having previously
occupied and improved the same according to the local custom or
rules of miners in the district where the same is situate, and hav-
ing expended in actual labor and improvements thereon an amount
of not less than one thousand dollars, and in regard to whose pos-
session there is no controversy or opposing claim, it shall and may
be lawful for said claimant or association of claimants to file in the
local land office a diagram of the same, so extended laterally or
otherwise as to conform to the local laws, customs, and rules of .
miners, and to enter such tract and receive a patent therefor, grant-
ing such mine; together with the right to follow such vein or lode
with its dips, angles, and variations to any depth, although it may
enter the land adjoining, which land adjoining shall be sold subject
to this condition.
SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That upon the filing of the
diagram as provided in the second section of this act, and posting
the same in a conspicuous place on the claim, together with a notice
of intention to apply for a patent, the Register of the land office
shall publish a notice of the same in a newspaper published nearest
to the location of said claim, and shall also post such notice in his
office for the period of ninety days; and after the expiration of said
period, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, it shall be the duty
of the Surveyor-General, upon application of the party, to survey
the premises and make a plat thereof, indorsed with his approval,
designating the number and description of the location, the value
of the labor and improvements, and the character of the vein ex-
posed: and upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars
per acre, together with the cost of such survey, plat, and notice,
and giving satisfactory evidence that said diagram and notice have
been posted on the claim during said period of ninety days, the
Register of the land office shall transmit to the General Land Office
said plat, survey, and description, and a patent shall issue for the
LEGISLATION OF CONGRESS. 373
same thereupon. But said plat, survey, or description shall in no
case cover more than one vein or lode, and no patent shall issue for
more than one vein or lode, which shall be expressed in the patent
issued.
SEC. 4- And be it further enacted, That when such location and
entry of a mine shall be upon unsurveyed lands, it shall and may be
lawful, after the extension thereto of the public surveys, to adjust
the surveys to the limits of the premises according to the location
and possession and plat aforesaid; and the Surveyor-General may,
in extending the surveys, vary the same from a rectangular form to
suit the circumstances of the country and the local rules, laws, and
customs of miners: Provided, That no location hereafter made shall
exceed two hundred feet in length along the vein for each locator,
with an additional claim for discovery to the discoverer of the lode,
with the right to follow such vein to any depth, with all its dips, varia-
tions, and angles, together with a reasonable quantity of surface for.
the convenient working of the same, as fixed by local rules: And
provided further, That no person may make more than one location
on the same lode, and not more than three thousand feet shall be
taken in any one claim by any association of persons.
SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That as a further condition
of sale, in the absence of necessary legislation by Congress, the
local Legislature of any State or Territory may provide rules for
working mines involving easements, drainage, and other necessary
means to their complete development; and those conditions shall
be fully expressed in the patent.
SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That whenever any adverse
claimants to any mine located and claimed as aforesaid shall ap-
pear before the approval of the survey, as provided in the third
section of this act, all proceedings shall be stayed until a final settle-
ment and adjudication in the courts of competent jurisdiction of the
rights of possession to such claim, when a patent may issue as in
other cases.
SEC. 7. Azed be it further enacted, That the President of the
United States be, and is hereby, authorized to establish additional
land districts, and to appoint the necessary officers under existing
laws, wherever he may deem the same necessary for the public con-
venience in executing the provisions of this act.
SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the
construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public
uses, is hereby granted. -
374 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
SEc. 9. And be it further enacted, That whenever by priority of
possession, rights to the use of water for mining, agricultural, manu-
facturing, or other purposes, have vested and accrued, and the same
are recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and
the decisions of courts, the possessors and owners of such vested
rights shall be maintained and protected in the same ; and the right
of way for the construction of ditches and canals for the purposes
aforesaid is hereby acknowledged and confirmed : Provided, how-
ever, That whenever, after the passage of this act, any person or
persons shall, in the construction of any ditch or canal, injure or
damage the possession of any settler on the public domain, the
party committing such injury or damage shall be liable to the party
injured for such injury or damage.
SEC. Io. And be it further enacted, That wherever, prior to the
passage of this act, upon the lands heretofore designated as mineral
, lands, which have been excluded from survey and sale, there have
been homesteads made by citizens of the United States, or persons
who have declared their intention to become citizens, which home-
steads have been made, improved, and used for agricultural purpo-
ses, and upon which there have been no valuable mines of gold,
silver, cinnabar, or copper discovered, and which are properly agri-
cultural lands, the said settlers or owners of such homesteads shall
have a right of pre-emption thereto, and shall be entitled to pur-
chase the same at the price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per
acre, and in quantity not to exceed one hundred and sixty acres; or
said parties may avail themselves of the provisions of the act of
Congress approved May twenty, eighteen hundred and sixty-two,
entitled “An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the
public domain,” and acts amendatory thereof.
SEC. II. And be it further enacted, That upon the survey of the
lands aforesaid, the Secretary of the Interior may designate and set
apart such portions of the said lands as are clearly agricultural
lands, which lands shall thereafter be subject to pre-emption and
sale as other public lands of the United States, and subject to all
the laws and regulations applicable to the same.
Approved July 26, 1866.
CHAPTE R xv I.
Geology and Geological History”—Classification of Minerals
found in the Territoryt.
GEOLOGY.
THE Gramitic formation, which is the oldest, formed
by the cooling of the original fiery fluid composing
the globe, may be seen on and beyond the Snowy
Range of the Rocky Mountains in various parts of
Colorado; more abundantly on the western side
of the Range than the eastern. In masses of true
granite, syenite, or porphyry, it makes its appear-
ance on McClellan Mountain, in the Argentine sil-
ver district, where it is seen to have been thrust
through younger'formations to the prominent posi-
tion that it occupies; on the west side of the Boulder
Pass, where massive granitic ranges form the but-
tresses of the Snowy Sierra as we descend to the
Middle Park; and on the western side of the Park,
where it forms the grand mountain wall that en-
closes it. g
Of Metamorphic rocks, gneiss is by far the most
abundant, and most of the gold-bearing veins are
* Prepared by Prof. Wm. Denton of Boston.
f Prepared by Mr. J. Alden Smith, of Trail Run, Colorado.
376 THE MINES OF COLORADo.
found in gneissoid rocks, though they are generally
termed “granite” by the miners. Fine exposures
may be seen near Black Hawk, the lines of strati-
fication marking the mountain side, as stripes do
the body of a zebra.
Resting upon the granite in the Middle Park, on
the banks of Grand River, are exposures of con-
glomerate, probably of Silurian age, overlaid by
sandstones and limestones, probably of Devonian
age, and above this the coal measures of the Carbon-
ferous formation, the only place in the Territory
where true Carboniferous coal is known to exist—
coal that will coke.
Near the Sangre de Christo Pass, the granite is
overlaid by slates and limestones probably of Silu-
rian age, the limestones containing crinoidal frag-
ments, but too small for the identification of the
species. Farther north, the Three Tetons are com-
posed of conglomerates, formed of pebbles, bould-
ers, and large masses of gneiss, granite, mica-Schist,
and hornblende-schist, with gneissoid rocks, slate,
and limestone on their flanks.
Rocks of the Permean age have been discovered
on the Plains in the eastern part of Colorado, con-
sisting principally of limestones, some of which
abound with the characteristic fossils of this period.
The Cretaceous formation is well represented,
especially along the base of the Mountains on the
eastern side. The shells of the inoceramus are
found in a limestone at Boulder City, baculites of
large size in great abundance on the Platte, a few
miles from Denver, while the limestones lying be-
GEOLOGY OF COLORADO. 377
tween Colorado City and Pueblo contain the inoce-
ramus, scaphites, baculites, ammonites and other
characteristic cretaceous fossils. These beds ex-
tend for a considerable distance to the eastward,
and in wearing down under the action of atmos-
pheric agencies, masses have been left in conical
hills, looking like gigantic ant-hills; on these, fossils
can be picked up in great abundance. Between
Pueblo and the Sangre de Christo Pass, the teeth,
spines and bones of fishes, principally of the genera
Ptychodus and Lamna, so common in the cretace-
ous beds of England, are found in remarkable pro-
fusion. The neighborhood of Zan Hicklin's ranch
on the Greenhorn River is the richest locality for
fossils of this description that we ever saw.
In Eastern Colorado, coal measures are found of
Cretaceous age, the shale and limestones accom-
panying them containing the characteristic forms
of this period.
The Cretaceous formation is also well represented
in the Middle Park by baculite beds and sandstone
abounding with the scales of fishes.
The following shows the position of these beds
as they occur on Chalk Creek, Middle Park:

FEET. I
2OO Lava. Agates and chalcedony.
2 Fossil wood in fragments.
4OO White sandstone. Some bones of mammals
Quartzose conglomerate. and birds.
4OO shaivand; tº
y sandstones. Scales of cycloidal fishes.
2O Blue limeºne
5 Fish teeth.
500 Shales, marls. Baculites.
Sandstones. Conchifers and Tucoids.
378 THE MINEs of colorado.
Numbers 3, 4, and 5 are probably Cretaceous;
the rest Tertiary.
From the disintegration of No. 1 proceed the
agates and chalcedonies of the Middle Park. Where
No's I and 2 are disintegrated, agates and fossil
wood lie mixed together on the surface. The slabs
of No. 3 are covered with the scales of cycloidal
fishes, that is, fishes whose scales resemble those of
the salmon and the trout. No. 5 we call Baculite
beds, from the great number and large size of the
baculites found in them.
The Tertiary formation has a remarkable devel-
opment in Colorado. Its thickness as exposed on
the western side of the Rocky Mountains, from the
Parahlamoosh Range, which is composed of Ter-
tiary lavas, to the junction of White and Green
Rivers, is ten thousand feet. Included in this are
coal measures, containing many thin veins of coal,
beds of gypsum, thin beds of limestone, and above
these, petroleum shales at least a thousand feet in
thickness, abounding in fossil leaves and insects,
the shales containing them occurring at points sixty
miles apart; above them brown sandstones and
conglomerates having a thickness of from twelve
hundred to fifteen hundred feet and containing
silicified wood, turtles, and bones and teeth of large
mammals. The following is the order in which
they lie in the valley of the White River:
TERTIARY SERIES-MIDIDLE, PARK,
379
FEET. I
2.oOo (? ſº e
,000 (?) §. €. Seen, but not examined.
2 |Bones of Mammals, Tur-
I,200 |Brown sandstones, alternating ties. Deciduous leaves
with blue shales and beds of and insects in the lower
conglomerate. shales. Perpendicular
veins of petroleum coal.
3 -
I,000 |Petroleum shales, varying from Insects. Leaves of decidu-
a cream color to black. One] ous trees.
bed, 20 feet thick, resembles
cannel coal.
º . .4
800 |White or light brown sand-
stones. . .
White shales, on which are rip-
ple marks. - -
Brown shales and shaly sand-
StoneS.
e ... 5
1,000 Thick white sandstones and Brown sandstones weather-
brown shales. ed into cavities. .
Thick brown sandstones.
6
Coal Measures. e s
2,700 Sandstone, limestone, shales, Limestone contains conchs
blue, brown and black. Un- and Small gasteropods.
derclays. Beds of coal, or
Lignite. - e º
Brown sandstones and shales, Two wide expansions of
very soft. | White River Valley have
Coal in several beds, with un- been made where the
derclays. Soft shales are.
White sandstones, with alter-
nating blue shales.
7
1,400 |Compact red sandstones.
White sandstones.
Red sandstones, shaly and mi-
C2CeOllS. Fragments of shells in the
Thin, fetid limestones. limestone.
8
3oo Yellow, soft sandstone.
200 Gypsum.


The thickness of the various beds is merely es-
timated ; in no case measured.
380 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
The upper beds are found near the junction of
White and Green Rivers in Utah; the lower ones
near the Parahlamoosh Range where they are cov-
ered by immense beds of lava; in some places,
especially on the eastern side of the Range, alter-
nating with beds of white and very friable sandstone
lying in a perfectly horizontal position and rising to
a hight on the top of the Range of about I.3,OOO
feet.
The groups 8 and 9 and the lower part of 7 make
their appearance in valleys on the eastern side of
the Range, the lava having been poured out appar-
ently during the time of the Lower Tertiary coal
Iſlea SUITeS.
Specimens of fossil insects from No. 3 were sub-
mitted to Mr. Samuel H. Scudder, Secretary of the
Boston Society of Natural History, who has made
fossil insects a special study. The following is his
description of them :
“This is the fifth discovery of fossil insects in
this country, if some tracks and an apparent larva
in the Triassic rocks of the Connecticut Valley be
correctly referred to insects; but it is the first time
that they have been found in the Tertiary beds of
America. These were obtained by Professor Den-
ton on a trip of exploration west of the Rocky
Mountain Range not far from the junction of White
and Green Rivers in Colorado.
“The specimens were brought from two localities
called by Professor Denton, Fossil Kanyon and
Chagrin Valley, lying about sixty miles apart. The
rocks in both cases are the same ; above are
FOSSIL INSECTS. 381
*
beds o- brown sandstone, passing occasionally into
conglomerate, and thin beds of bluish and cream-
colored shale alternating with the sandstones, all
dipping to the west at an angle of about 20°. These
contain fossil wood of deciduous trees, fragments
of large bones, most of which are solid, and tur-
tles, some of which are two feet in length and
perfect. Professor Denton considers this sand-
stone as probably of Miocene age. Beneath these
rocks are beds of petroleum shale, a thousand feet
in thickness, varying in color from a light cream to
inky blackness; these shales are filled with innu-
merable leaves of deciduous trees, and throughout
their extent the remains of insects abound. The
specimens brought home are about fifty in num- .
ber, many of the little slabs containing several dif-
ferent species of insects upon them. The number
of species amounts to about fifty also, although a
number of specimens are so fragmentary or imper-
fectly preserved as to be difficult and often impossi-
ble of identification.
“The most abundant forms are Diptera, and they
comprise indeed two-thirds of the whole number,
either in the larval or perfect state; the others are
mostly very minute Coleoptera, and besides these
are several Homoptera, an ant belonging to the
genus Myrmica, a night-flying moth, and a larva ap-
parently allied to the slug-caterpillars or Limacodes.
“The perfect insects among the Diptera are
mostly small species of Mycetophilidae, a family
whose larvae live mostly in fungoid vegetation, and
Tipulidae whose larvae generally live in stagnant
382 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
water; there are besides some forms not yet deter-
mined, of which some are apparently Muscidae, a
family to which the common house-fly belongs.
The larvae of Diptera belong to the Muscidae and
to another family, the latter of which live during
this stage in water only—none of the larvae, how-
ever, belong to the species of which the perfect
insects are represented on these stones. The
Homoptera belong to genera allied to Issus, Gype-
na, Delphax, and some of the Tettigonidae.
“A comparison of the specimens from the two
localities shows some differences. They both have
Mycetophilidae, but Fossil Kanyon has a proportion-
ately greater abundance and variety of them. Fos-
sil Kanyon has other flies also in greater number,
though there are some in both ; but Myrmica, the
very minute Diptera, and the minute Coleoptera are
restricted to Fossil Kanyon. On the other hand all
the larvae, both the Diptera and that which appears
to be a Limacodes, were brought only from Chagrin
Valley. -
“Of course the number of specimens is too small
to say that the faunae of these two localities are dis-
tinct, although the same species has not been found
to occur in both, and the strata being 1,000 feet in
thickness, there is opportunity for some difference
in geological age, for new collections may entirely
reverse the present apparent distinction. Neither
is it sufficient to base any satisfactory, that is
at all precise, conclusions concerning their age.
Enough is before us however to enable us to
assert with some confidence that they cannot be
GEOLOGY. 383
older than the Tertiaries. They do not agree in the
aggregation of species with any of the insect beds
of Europe, or with the insects of the Amber Fauna;
and, since they have been found in Europe in con-
siderable numbers only at rather wide intervals in
the geological record, we should need more facts
than are at our command by the known remains
of fossil insects to establish any synchronism of
deposits between Europe and America. Much
more satisfactory results could probably be reached
by a comparison of the remains of leaves, &c.
Anything more than a very general statement is
therefore at present quite out of the question.”
The country in which these are found is a most
remarkable one. From the summit of a high ridge
on the east, a tract of country containing five or
six hundred square miles is distinctly visible. Over
the whole surface is rock, bare rock, cut into ravines,
kanyons, gorges and valleys, leaving in magnificent
relief terrace upon terrace, pyramid beyond pyra-
mid, rising to mountain hights, amphitheatres that
would hold a million spectators, walls, pillars, towers,
castles everywhere. It looks like some ruined city
of the gods, blasted, bare, desolate, but grand “be-
yond a mortal's telling.” Originally an elevated
country, composed of a number of soft beds of
sandstone of varying thickness and softness, under-
laid by immense beds of shale, it has been worn
down and cut out by rills, creeks and streams, leav-
ing this strange, weird country to be the wonder of
all generations.
In this region is found a deposit of petroleum
384 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
coal, scarcely to be distinguished in any way from
the Albertite of New Brunswick. In lustre, fracture,
and smell, it appears to be identical, and would yield
as much oil as this famous oil-producing coal. It
is in a perpendicular vein three feet wide, and was
traced from the bottom of Fossil Kanyon, near Cur-
tis Grove, White River, to the summit level of the
country, a thousand feet in hight, and for nearly
five miles in length, diminishing in width towards
the ends of the vein. Its description and analysis
is thus given by Dr. Hayes of Boston :
“Black, with high lustre like Albertite, which it
resembles physically; specific gravity I.O55 to I.O75.
Electric on friction; breaks easily, and contains .33
of one per cent, moisture. It affords 39.67 per
cent. of soluble bitumen when treated with coal
naphtha, and after combustion of all its parts I.20
per cent. of ash remains; IOO parts distilled afforded
bituminous matter, 77.67; carbon or coke, 20.80;
ash left, 1.2O ; moisture, .33; total, IOO.OO. It
expands to five or six times its volume, and leaves
a porous cake, which burns easily.”
The vein is in an enormous bed of sandstone,
No. 2 ; and its walls are smooth. Beneath the
sandstone are the petroleum shales No. 3, one bed
of which, varying from ten to twenty feet in thick-
ness, resembles cannelite, and would, it is thought,
yield from fifty to sixty gallons of oil to the ton.
This bed was traced for twenty-five miles in one
direction, and was seen at points sixty miles apart
in another, and it no doubt extends over the entire
distance. If so, in that single bed are twenty mil-
GEOILOGY. 385
lion million barrels of oil, or a thousand times as
much as America has produced since petroleum
was discovered in Pennsylvania. There are few
beds of coal that can compare with this in the
amount of bituminous matter which it contains, or
in the great value that it possesses as an article of
fuel. The Tertiary beds of Colorado are as rich in
fuel and gas-making material, as any coal region
with which we are acquainted ; though it is more
than probable that the petroleum now in the shales
and petroleum coals came originally from the oil-
bearing coral beds of some much older formations.
On the eastern or Atlantic side of the Mountains
are Tertiary coal measures, containing beds of coal
and beds of iron ore of good quality.
At Golden City one bed has been exposed, which
owing to upheaval stands nearly vertical, and has a
thickness of from ten to twelve feet. About twenty
miles north of Denver, on Coal Creek, there are
several exposures of thinner beds but still workable.
This Tertiary coal is destined to play a very import-
ant part in the future history of Colorado. The
available wood in the mining regions exhausted, as
it soon must be, to these subterranean supplies all
parties must come at last. Houses, furnaces, loco-
motives must depend upon it, and before many
years pass its consumption will rise to a million tons
annually. These Tertiary coal beds probably ex-
tend to the northern boundary of the Territory,
which is by no means their limit in that direction.
Above them are beds of sandstone and conglom-
erate, abounding in fossil palms, firs, and various
I7 -
386 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
resinous and gum-bearing trees, together with mod-
ern exogens. Perfect trunks of large size are some-
times found lying on the Plains, where they have
been left when the rock that held them was disin-
tegrated. Between Denver and Golden City many
fine specimens may be found; still more on a low
range of sand hills about twenty miles south of
Denver, and still finer specimens are brought from
the South Park.
In the Middle Park, west of the Grand River, is
also a coarse sandstone passing into conglomerate
and containing silicified wood. Above it are beds
of trap; and where this has disintegrated, chalce-
donies and agates are found ; principally moss
agates, as they are called, but which are really
chalcedonies containing oxide of manganese in a
dendritic form. The rock originally holding them
was a lava poured out of some long extinct volcano;
this was full of vesicles or hollow places produced
by gas or vapor, and in process of time these were
filled with extremely fine particles of silica, separa-
ted from the surrounding rock, forming the ordinary
chalcedonies. In some cases a small quantity of
oxide of manganese has been carried in with the
silica and this crystallizing in an arborescent or
tree-like form has produced the appearance of moss
in the chalcedony, and thus have been formed the
beautiful moss agates which strew the plains of the
Middle Park. -
The lava beds of the Plains, as seen near Golden
City, Boulder City, and other localities, seem to be
the most recent Tertiary deposit of Colorado, and
GEOLOGY OF COLORADO, 387
bear witness to the terrible volcanic eruptions, that,
at no very distant period, geologically speaking,
devastated the country. The hot soda springs at
Idaho, where the water has a heat of about 94°, the
hot sulphur springs of Middle Park, ranging from
92° to II.4°, and the boiling spring of the San
Luis Park still bear witness to this stormy time.
The Drift period is represented by immense ac-
cumulations of boulders and gravel in the valleys
of almost every mountain stream, though ice did
not produce as much effect during that period, as
the hight of the mountains and their latitude would
naturally lead us to expect.
HISTORY.
A State as young as Colorado can hardly be ex-
pected to have a history, and yet, older than all
written history, older than the human race, it has
a history stretching through the ages from the fiery
beginning of the globe, and indelibly impressed on
the rocks that compose it.
The mountainous portion of Colorado is without
doubt the oldest; as old, doubtless, as the Silurian
period and probably much older; though it must
not be supposed that the Mountains were then as
high or as broad as at present. The backbone of
the Continent was indicated but not fully formed.
Mountain chains are gradually elevated, and not
“flirted up,” as we once heard a gentleman of great
pretensions term the process by which the Rocky
Mountains were upheaved—that, too, while he was
looking at their snowy peaks and rocky buttresses
388 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of various geologic ages. Formed as they are by
the cooling of the globe and the shrinking of its
crust, immense periods of time must have been oc-
cupied in lifting these enormous masses to their
present hights. The general outline of the Moun-
tains was probably similar to their present outline;
but as in the foetus, the features are marked by lines
that give but a hint of what they are to be, so the
bare, jagged ridges of quartz and granite at that
time were mere indications of the lordly Mountains
that now tower to heaven—the crest of a mighty
Continent.
As early as the Silurian period, the Mountains
consisted of separate chains, and inland seas marked
the spots where the Parks would eventually be.
The ocean occupied the valley of the Rio Grande
and passed up to the head of the San Luis Valley,
then much wider than now, at the same time laving
both eastern and western slopes, and probably com-
municating with the inland seas between the two
ranges. In consequence of this, the Rocky Moun-
tains must have been long, rocky islands, wearing
down continually by the flow of a thousand streams,
caused by incessant rains; for with the ocean on
every side, and evaporation proceeding more rapidly
than now, owing to the thinness of the earth's crust,
the rains upon these mountain islands must have
been incessant and violent.
The conglomerates in the Middle Park and San
Luis Valley, which we attribute to the Silurian age,
consist of large pebbles, and sometimes boulders,
principally of granite, gneiss, and quartz; they in-
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 389
dicate the force with which water swept down from
some old mountain chain, occupying a position at
one side of that held by the present Mountains,
and carried them into the ocean; their fragments
constituting a large portion of their successors.
A process of upheaval and degradation must have
been carried on simultaneously for many millions
of years. Just as in a forest, the individual trees
die and fall, and from their dust arise new trees
and the forest continues for ages, so has it been
with the Rocky Mountains, pulled down by torrents
and upheaved by contraction of the earth's crust,
and so probably will it continue to be, though in
the future the process will necessarily be a slower
One.'
During the Devonian period, there seems to have
been less violence; the conglomerates contain
smaller pebbles and the limestones and shales in-
dicate quiescent seas and more abundant life.
Tucoidal impressions abound in a water-line of this
age. -
The Mountains were steadily growing, spreading
principally east and west; the Parks were elevated
and the water in time drained off, leaving swamps
where seas had been, so that in the following
Carboniferous period, there sprang up, abundant
vegetation whose accumulated remains, buried by
inflowings of the ocean, formed in time the coal
beds of the Middle Park, the only carboniferous
coal known in Colorado. : .
During the Permean and Oolitic periods, we
know as yet but little of the history of the moun-
390 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
tainous portion of Colorado; but east of the Moun-
tains, the sea covered the country and limestones
of great thickness, abounding with characteristic
shells, were deposited. -
Of the Cretaceous period we have a full history.
The ocean again laved the Mountains on both
sides, the ranges being several miles narrower than
at present; for we find rocks formed at the sea-
bottom during this time occupying summits two or
three thousand feet above the level of the plain.
The Parks were again occupied by inland seas, for
the elevation of the mountainous portion of Col-
orado was not by steady uplift; but uplifts appear
to have been followed by subsidences and these
many times repeated before the mountain ranges
were fully formed. The Middle Park probably
communicated with the Western Ocean through the
Gore Pass, then a strait like that of Babelmandel,
between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. In
the ocean, then covering three-fourths of Colorado,
fishes and shells of many species abounded ; the
wonderful profusion of their remains along the base
of the Mountains from Colorado City southward to
the Spanish Peaks tells loudly of this life swarming
in waters that must have been warm and shallow.
The Plains to the south and south-east of Colo-
rado City are strewed for a hundred miles with fos-
sil shells of the Cretaceous period, especially bacu-
lites, which by persons unacquainted with their
nature, are called fossil fishes.
Near to the Sangre de Christo Pass, thin beds of
calciferous or limy sandstone alternate with the
()
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 391
limestones and contain immense numbers of bones
and teeth of fishes. Weathered slabs may be seen
at the foot of the Sierra Mohada or Wet Moun-
tains, on which a hundred perfect teeth might be
counted, many of them flat and folded teeth, which
formed a pavement for the jaws, enabling their
possessors to crush the shells and crustaceas on
which they fed.
The sea which occupied the Middle Park and
communicated with the great Western Ocean, con-
tained many baculites and some conchiſers.
Towards the latter part of the Cretaceous period
the Parks seem to have been again elevated, the
communication with the exterior ocean cut off,
never to be renewed, and brackish lakes, abounding
with fish, subsequently becoming fresh water lakes,
took the place of the previous interior seas.
During the Tertiary period, a large swamp existed
at the foot of the Mountains on the eastern side,
occupying the position of Golden City and Denver,
and extending for hundreds of miles north and
south—north into British America and south into
New Mexico. In this swamp a rank vegetation
must have flourished for a long period, vegetation
of a much more modern character than that of the
coal measures, consisting largely of coniferous trees.
In time, an immense mass of vegetable matter ac-
cumulated, and was covered with clay, sand and
pebbles, swept down from the neighboring Moun-
tains; and thus that remarkable Tertiary coal for-
mation was produced, which may be seen at Golden
City and on Coal Creek and other places in the vi-
*
392 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
cinity, with its coal beds, under-clays and iron ores,
bearing a great resemblance to the Carboniferous
coal measures. *
On the western side of the Mountains a similar
condition of things seems to have existed, and coal
beds were formed resembling those on the eastern
side, but changes of level caused the formation of
a greater number of toal beds of less thickness.
After the deposition of the coal measures, lakes
of fresh or brackish water covered most of the west-
ern and central parts of Colorado, as well as the
Valley at the foot of the Eastern Range, the higher
grounds adorned with palms and other tropical
trees, many of them resinous and of strange aspect, .
while some were of more modern appearance, es-
pecially those on the Mountains.
Succeeding the quiet of the Cretaceous and
early Tertiary periods, which must have continued
for ages, came a stormy time, strongly marked
in the rocks of this age. Fire and water united
to leave an indelible impress on the land. The
Mountains were again elevated, carrying with them
the beds made at the sea-bottom during the prece-
ding age. Accompanying this rise must have been
earthquakes rending the Mountains and volcanoes
pouring out fiery streams. A large part of the
Middle Park was a sea of fire, for it was during
this time that the traps whose frowning battlements
are visible near the hot sulphur springs, and cover
So large a portion of the Park, were formed.
During the same period, but previous to this,
went of the Western Range, successive beds of lava
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 393
were poured out over a large area, some under water,
until their aggregate thickness amounted to thou-
sands of feet. Largely swept off by denuding agen-
cies, these beds lie exposed on the western side of
the Tumbianaw Valley, presenting an enormous wall
having a hight of at least three thousand feet
above the valley and a length of more than twenty
miles. Westward these beds extend for many miles,
forming the Parahlamoosh Range. Where are the
volcanoes from which the lava that formed these
immense beds flowed 2
Along the base of the Eastern Range similar
streams were poured out, but have been denuded
to a still greater extent. A portion of what must
have been an immense bed can be seen near Golden
City, forming a small mesa or table-land known by
the name of Table Mountain. The lava here is
two hundred and fifty feet thick. Similar beds
must have extended over the country between .
Pike's Peak and the Spanish Peaks, though carried
off since that time, leaving one outlying mass in
the valley of the Huerfano, which is a striking object
for a radius of many miles; looking as it does, like
an immense pillar erected in the valley. It has
given the name of Huerfano (the Spanish for or-
phan), to the river that flows past it, the Park in
which the river rises, and the valley in which it
IllſlS.
Connected with these volcanic disturbances
were numerous hot springs, the water of which,
containing silica in solution, traversed the ground
everywhere, and petrified the wood that was buried
17*
394 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
in its vicinity. Hence the beautiful specimens of
petrified wood so common in almost every part of
Colorado, except the Mountains, and the solid trees
silicified to the heart.
During the middle part of the Tertiary period a
large lake covered Western Colorado, extending
also into Utah. Into it flowed numerous streams
carrying fine mud, and at one time immense quan-
tities of petroleum issuing probably from numerous,
and powerful springs. The land was covered with
trees resembling the oak, maple, willow and other
modern trees, and still others that are now extinct.
Insects by myriads hovered around the margin of
the lake, turtles swam in its waters and aquatic
pachyderms, somewhat resembling the tapir, lived
in the rivers that supplied it and fed upon the nu-
merous plants on their margins. The water of the
lake was probably brackish, it contained but few
mollusks, but abounded in turtles having thick, bony
shells. The amount of sediment carried into it was
so great that beds were formed at the bottom from
two to three thousand feet in thickness. This
could only have been accomplished by the gradual
sinking of the lake bottom, which probably coin-
cided with the elevation of the mountain ranges
east and west of it.
The Tertiary period was followed by the Glacial
or Drift period. On the Plains Proper there are no
evidences of drift action, and it is rare to meet with
unequivocal evidences of this even at the foot of
the Mountains on the eastern side. But we do not
travel far up the mountain gorges before abundant
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 395
evidences of “glacial action” present themselves.
On the Fontaine Qui Bouit, three miles above Col-
orado City, and at the foot of Pike's Peak, are im-
mense granite boulders, lying near some remark-
able soda springs, and a little below them are lateral
moraines, principally composed of large boulders,
left by some glacier that once passed down a small
valley and joined near there a larger one which
traversed the valley of the Fontaine Qui Bouit.
At the present time the highest peaks of the Rocky
Mountains in that latitude lose their snowy cover-
ing every year, though but for a short time.
In a small but beautiful park on the South
Boulder, and about six miles below the snowy peaks,
are beds of boulders from thirty to forty feet high,
cut through and exposed on both sides of the river,
the bed of which is full of them, and hence its
name. On South Clear Creek, a few miles above
Empire City, many rocks have been exposed by the
workmen in making the new road over the Berthoud
Pass. On the surfaces of some of them, glacial
striae are distinctly visible. This is the only place
in Colorado east of the Snowy Range where we
have seen them ; their general absence is remark-
able. The evidences of glacial action increase as
we ascend to the Snowy Range. The valleys are
no longer bounded by rocks that are rough and
craggy, as they are in the lower portions, but they
are nearly as rounded and smooth in their outlines
as the chalk downs of England, or the glacier-planed
hills of Massachusetts. -
West of the Middle Park, on the flat summit of
&
396 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the Parahlamoosh Range, I found rocks planed and
plowed into deep furrows, whose direction was due
west, and these continuing down the side of the
mountain into the valley of the White River, which
contains numerous terminal moraines, brought by
contributary glaciers proceeding from the high
lands on both sides, but principally on the south.
These moraines are visible at the mouths of the
creeks flowing into White River, for a distance of
sixty miles from the top of the Range.
It seems plain, that during the Drift period the
Rocky Mountains were not only covered with snow
on their higher summits, but the valleys were filled
with snow and ice, which never melted, but pressed
down the mountain gorges toward the plain; thick-
est and most glacial in character nearest the Moun-
tains and on the Pacific side ; becoming thinner,
and occupying but the bottoms of the valleys as
the glaciers descended; melting at last into numer-
ous streams laden with debris, which they swept on
to the Plains.
Since that time the climate has moderated and
the Western Range, possessing at one time the
most rigorous climate, has so far changed that
pines grow on it 2,OOO feet higher than they do on
the Eastern Range. The glaciers have disappeared
from the valleys, and the snowy patches on the
Mountains alone remain to remind us of the im-
mense ice fields of the by-gone times.
METALS AND MINERALS.
Agate—Called by the Greeks and Romans
Achates, from a river in Sicily, now the Dorillo,
METALS AND MINERALS. 397
near which it was found. It is one of the forms in
which silica presents itself nearly pure. It is a
variegated chalcedony, the colors being distributed
in spots, clouds, dendritic delineations or concentric
lines. The lines take straight, circular, and zigzag
forms; when the former it is called ribbon agate,
when the latter, fortification agate, from its resem-
blance to the angular outlines of a fortification.
These lines are caused by the edges of the differ-
ent layers of chalcedony, and the layers are the
successive deposits during the process of its for-
mation. Moss agate, or mocha stone, is usually
a brownish agate, with dendritic delineations of a
brownish-black color and caused by an oxide of
iron or manganese ; but sometimes the moss is
green, yellow, or red. The green is supposed to
be due to oxide of chrome, and the yellow and red,
to iron. Moss agates are found in the greatest
abundance at different localities in Colorado, but
the best are from the Middle Park. Those found
in the South Park are generally of inferior quality.
When the stone is very pure and transparent, with
moss clearly defined and not too much of it, the
moss agate makes a beautiful gem, and is much
used in jewelry, for brooches, ear-drops, gents'
rings, sleeve-buttons, etc. Very fine gems of this
stone, after being cut, are sold for $5 to $10 each,
but the ordinary stones for 50 cents to $2 each.
Rarely, one is found of exceeding beauty that will
sell for $50, and very rarely, as high as $75. The
different varieties of agates are very common in
most all parts of the world, and in the rough state,
398 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
possess little or no value, except to collectors.
Many of them make fine gems, but the value is
generally given them by the work put upon them.
Besides being used as gems, they are cut into cups,
handles for swords, ladies' parasols, knives and
forks, small mortars for chemists' use, and into a
variety of ornamental trinkets, the most famous of
which is the Mantuan vase, at Brunswick. The
colors in the ribbon and fortification agates may
be darkened by boiling the stone in oil, and then
dropping it into sulphuric acid. A little oil is ab-
sorbed by some of the layers, which become black-
ened or charred by the acid.
Actinolite—Has been observed in some few local-
ities—is quite plenty in Bergen District, near Bear
Creek.
Alabaster—In small quantities, of a brownish
color, near Mount Vernon. When of pure, snowy
whiteness, fine texture, and slightly translucent,
alabaster is cut into vases, candle-sticks, statues,
and a variety of ornaments. For these purposes it
is of considerable value, when very fine. It is so
soft as to be easily cut or carved with common cut-
ting implements.
Albite—Occurs sparingly in Banner District,
Clear Creek County.
Alum—Has been found native on the Foot-hills,
near Mount Vernon.
Soda Alume—Sulphate of soda, is found in abund-
ance in several localities in the South Park, Middle
Park, and other places. Iron alum, sulphate of
iron, can be found as a green, or greenish-white
METALS AND MINERALS. 399
incrustation on piles of tailings, and about old shaft
houses all over the country. It is the copperas of
the drug shops, and is a result of decomposing iron
pyrites. &
Aluminite—Alum stone, is also found near Mount
Vernon. -
Amazôh Stone—Elk Creek, five miles from the
old St. Louis Ranch, with Orthoclase, smoky quartz,
aventurine (?), micaceous iron and anhydrite—the
latter rare. This stone is a green variety of feld-
spar, and when pure, and of a clear, bluish-green
color, makes a very pretty gem, resembling tur-
quoise. It derives its name from having first been
observed in the possession of a community of fe-
male warriors, on or near the head waters of the
river Amazon. Many of them were engraved with
the symbols of Aztec worship. The stone is very
abundant in some parts of New Mexico.
Amethyst—So named from a Greek word because
it was supposed that cups made from it would pre-
vent the liquor they contained from intoxicating.
It is a purple, or bluish-violet variety of quartz crys-
tal, often of great beauty. Its color is due to a
trace of the oxide of manganese. When large, pure,
clear, and finely colored, the amethyst is highly
prized as a gem. It should always be set in gold.
Amethysts have been found in many different
localities in Colorado, and in some places quite
abundantly, though generally of a very inferior
quality, both for transparency and color, and of no
value except to the specimen hunter. Some small
ones of a very fine quality are occasionally found
4OO THE MINES OF COLORADO.
in Nevada. The writer obtained a few there in
the Fall of 1864 that were very brilliant, of a deli-
cate color, and when cut, exceedingly beautiful.
Some quite fine ones have been found in York
District, also at Mill City, on Deer Creek, and in
many other places.
Anhydrite—Specimens in the writer's cabinet, of
a very beautiful wine-red color, and very transpar-
ent, found near the head of Elk Creek—rare.
Antimony—Occurs as a sulphuret, and probably
in other forms, associated with the sulphurets of
copper, iron, lead, zinc, etc., in many of our gold
and silver mines.
Arsenic—Also occurs occasionally in our mines
the same as antimony. Neither of these metals
has been found in the native state, in the Territory,
within the knowledge of the writer.
Aragonite—Foot-hills, near Golden Gate—fine
specimens. -
Asbestus—A small specimen in the cabinet of
the writer, obtained on the Snowy Range, between
the Boulder and Berthoud Passes.
Aventurine Quartz (?)—From Elk Creek, five
miles above the old St. Louis Ranch. This stone
is sometimes used in jewelry under the name of
gold-stone, but the artificial imitations of the stone
are far more beautiful than the genuine aventurine.
The specimens from the above locality in the writer's
collection, show white scales, instead of yellow, which
is the usual color.
Aventurine Feldspar—Head of Elk Creek, with
Amazon stones.
METALS AND MINERALS. 4OI
Baryta—Occurs as a sulphate, (heavy spar) in
many of our gold and silver mines. Specimens
in the cabinet of the writer, from the Cooley Lode,
Snake River, and from the Sante Fe, Virginia
Kanyon. -
Beryl—From Bear Creek, below Harrington's
saw-mill.
Beryl, Emerald and Aquamarine—Are all one
and the same mineral species, and only distin-
guished from each other by their different shades
of green, or by the delicacy of the crystals. The
emerald includes the rich, deep-green variety, and
owes its color to the presence of oxide of chrome.
Beryl includes the pale, yellowish-green variety,
which is colored by oxide of iron. Aquamarine
includes clear, transparent beryls, of a sea-green,
or pale-bluish or bluish-green tint. Both the eme-
ralds and aquamarines make beautiful and valuable
gems. An aquamarine in the possession of the
writer, obtained in Albany, Maine, in 1862, was
pronounced, by the lapidary who cut it, to be fully
equal in purity and brilliance to a first-water green
diamond. The finest emeralds and aquamarines
come from Grenada, where they occur in dolomite.
A crystal from this locality, two and a fourth inches
long, and two inches in diameter, is in the cabinet
of the Duke of Devonshire. It contains numerous
flaws, and is therefore but partially fit for jewelry,
but is valued at 150 guineas. Another and finer
specimen, but about one-fourth less in size, is in
the collection of Mr. Hope, of London, and cost
24,500. No specimens of the emerald or aquama-
4O2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
rine varieties have yet been found in Colorado.
The largest beryls known were found at Acworth
and Grafton, N. H. One from the latter place
weighs 2,900 lbs.—is four feet in length, with one
diameter of thirty-two inches, and another of
twenty-two. Another is estimated to weigh two
and a half tons. The writer has often seen them
at Albany, Maine, measuring two to three feet in
length, and eight to twelve inches in diameter.
Bismuth—Like arsenic and antimony, occurs
in many of our mines, but has never, within the
knowledge of the writer, been found native.
Ligneous Coal—Found at Golden City, Boulder,
and all along the base of the Mountains, the width
of the Territory.
A/&ertime Coal—A large vein, discovered by Prof.
Wm. Dénton, of Boston, on White River, western
portion of the Territory. -
Bloodstone, or Heliotrope—Found sparingly in
the Middle Park. It is a deep-green variety of
jasper, slightly translucent, containing spots of red,
which have some resemblance to drops of blood.
The red spots are colored with iron. When the
stone is very fine, and the spots well defined and
distributed, it makes a very pretty gem for seals
and rings, and is much used for those purposes.
There is a bust of Christ in the royal collection at
Paris, cut in this stone, in which the red spots are
so managed as to represent drops of blood. Mo
very fine specimens have, as yet, been obtained in
the Territory.
Brucite—James Creek; rare.
METALS AND MINERALS. 4O3
Cairngorum Stone—Head of Elk Creek, five
miles from old St. Louis Ranch. It is a smoky-
tinted quartz crystal, and was formerly used by
the ancient Scots as a jewel. The lighter shades
are sometimes extremely beautiful, and are still
used to some extent for seals, tops of claymore
hilts, etc.
Calcareous Spar—Near Mt. Vernon, also at Ber-
gen's Ranch, in fine, brownish-white crystals.
Carmelian—White, very fine, from the South Park,
and flesh-red, rare, from the Middle Park. The
finer varieties are quite extensively worked in India
and Germany, beads, bracelets, seals, rings, studs,
marbles, chess-men, etc., being made from it. The
Japanese cut great numbers into beads of the form
of the fruit of the olive. It is a very common stone
in many localities in this country, but owing to the
expense of cutting, it is not regarded as of any
commercial value, except to collectors.
Chalcedony—Very beautiful specimens from the
South Park, five miles from the Salt Works ; in the
mammillary, botryoidal, and stalactitic form. The
finer varieties of this stone, owing to the number
and beauty of their shades of color, and the high
lustre they have when polished, are much esteemed
as ornamental stones, but their great hardness ren-
ders them very difficult and expensive to work.
Like carnelian, it is quite common in many localities,
but very few specimens of extraordinary beauty have
ever been found in this country. It is frequently
met with, of a flesh-red color, lining cavities in
some of our deep mines.
4O4. THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Chrysoprase—Middle Park— rare, An apple-
green chalcedony, colored by nickel.
Chlorophame—Argentine Lode, Bergen District.
Chlorite—Trail Creek—foliated and radiated va-
rieties. º
Derbyshire Spaz.-Argentine, Ozark, and Wiscon-
sin Lodes, Bergen District.
Egeran—Near Genesee Ranch, on Bear Creek—
fine specimens.
Copper—Native—This species has been found in
but few mines in the Territory. The Gregory at
Black Hawk, Tennel and Kelley at Trail Run, and
a few others are examples. Some very fine cabinet
specimens of dendritic, or moss copper, have been
taken from the Narragansett mine, on the Gregory
Lode.
Copper Pyrites—Sulphuret of Copper—This min-
eral is one of the most common and best ores for
gold. It is what is generally called by the miners,
“yellow iron,” in contradistinction to common iron
pyrites, and it nearly always carries a good per cent-
age of gold. Very fine specimens may be obtained
from the Gregory, Bobtail, Briggs, Williams, etc.,
at Black Hawk, and from the Gunnell, Burroughs,
Kansas, etc., about Central City, and from nearly
all the deep mines in the country.
Erubescite—Is occasionally met with in most of
the mines affording the above species, but is not
nearly so abundant.
Tetrahedrite—Gray Copper — Silver Fahlerg—
Malachite and Liberty Lodes, near Bear Creek.
Red Copper Ore—Malachite Lode, Bear Creek,
METALS AND MINERALS. 4O5
four miles south of Genesee Ranch. . Tenorite, or
black copper, from the same mine.
Blue Vitrio!—Sulphate of Copper—Spanish Bar.
Malachite—Green Carbonate of Copper—Malachite
Lode, Bear Creek, with red copper ore, and copper
pyrites. Earthy variety very abundant, but no
finely crystallized specimens have yet been found at
that locality. Some small but very fine specimens
of mammillary, crystalline malachite have been
found in the Kelley and Champion Lodes, at Trail
Run. It is a very valuable ore of copper; when
abundant and pure, it yields, seventy-two per cent.
copper. This mineral, in the crystallized form, is
susceptible of a very high polish, and is much
used for inlaid work, and to a limited extent for
jewelry. It makes beautiful gems, but owing to its
softness is not much prized. Very large masses are
sometimes obtained in Siberia and Russia, which
are worked into slabs for tables, mantel-pieces, etc.,
and are of exquisite beauty, owing to the delicate
shadings of the radiations and zones of color. At
Versailles there is a room furnished with tables,
vases, and other articles of this kind, and similar
rooms are to be found in many European palaces.
Agurite—Blue Carbonate Copper—Champion, Kel-
ley, and Tennel Lodes, Trail Run; Running Lode,
Black Hawk, etc.
Chryoscolla—Silicate of Copper—Champion and
Kelley Lodes, Trail Run, in small, but beautiful
botryoidal masses. .
Velvet Copper Ore—from the Kellev Lode, Trail
Run. -
4O6 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Copper Glance—Liberty, Pocahontas, and other
lodes, Bergen District. *
Epidote—Trail Creek, crystallized ; also head of
Russell Gulch, near Wilson's mill, Bergen District,
and other localities.
Feldspar—Fine crystals on Elk Creek, five miles
above the old St. Louis Ranch. Also, at the same
place, some beautiful and rare pseudomorphs, after
specular iron.
Float Stone—Beautiful specimens have been taken
from the Mammoth Lode, near Central City.
Flos Ferrè—Foot-Hills, near Golden Gate.
Fluor Spar—In large cleavable masses, of various
shades of color—white, green, purple, pink, in veins
with galena and gray copper ore, in Bergen District,
near Bear Creek. Also with silver ores on James
Creek. Sparingly in small crystals in a lode oppo.
site Half-Way House, Virginia Kanyon.
Fire-Clay—Golden City, at Bell & Co's brick
works ; Middle Park, South Park, Bellemonte Fur-
nace, etc.
Garnet—Precious garnets are found in quantities
in the sluice boxes of the gulch miners in the South
Park, and also west of the Range about Brecken-
ridge and other places. They are usually quite
small, however, and of no value as gems. A few
specimens, in the cabinet of the writer, presented
by Mrs. Hall, of the South Park, are of a beautiful,
deep, wine-red color. Ferruginous garnets occur
in great abundance at Trail Creek, in Bergen Dis-
trict on A. F. Post's Ranch, head of Russell Gulch,
and many other places, associated with epidote,
METALS AND MINERALS, 4O7
white quartz, calc spar, and sometimes copper
pyrites. Some beautiful cabinet specimens in the
collection of the writer, are from the Trail Creek
locality. Dodecahedrons as much as six inches in
diameter have been found at Post's Ranch. Gar-
net, in its most perfect forms, when cut and pol-
ished, makes a very beautiful gem, and resem-
bles in color, lustre and transparency, the Oriental
ruby. It is met with in various colors—red, brown,
black, yellow, white and green. The deep, clear-
red variety is called precious garnet, or almandine,
and is the variety mostly used in jewelry. The
manganesian garmet, is also of a deep-red color, but
is usually impure and full of fractures. The deep-
brown variety is called aplome, one black is called
melamite, and another is called £yrenaite—a light
cinnamon-yellow variety, containing 30 to 38 per
cent. of lime, is called cinnamon stone, or essonite.
Another emerald-green variety is called ouvarovite,
and another of a paler color is called grossularite.
The best precious garnets come from Ceylon and
Greenland — cinnamon stone from Ceylon and
Sweden—ouvarovite from Bissersk, in Russia, and
topazolite from Piedmont. The garnet is the car-
buncle of the ancients—also supposed to have been
the hyacinth. The alabandic carbuncles of Pliny
were so called because they were cut and polished
at Alabanda, hence the name almandinze, now in
UISC.
Gold—Crystalline gold has been very rarely
found in the Territory. Some very beautiful ar-
borescent masses were shown us, a short time
408 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
since, by Mr. Lowe, of Fairplay, which were washed
out of his claims the past season. Judge Costello
also showed us a few—larger, but not so fine. Some
very beautiful and singular specimens were also
taken from the Leavitt Lode, near the Kip & Buell
mill the past Summer, but as the writer was not
fortunate enough to obtain one, an accurate descrip-
tion cannot be given of them. The gold was in
coarse, stringy masses, in some cases only united
to the gangue by one or both ends, the wires stand-
ing out from the quartz, from half an inch to more
than an inch, forming a sort of net-work of angles
and circles, the wires covered with a drusy, sili-
cious coating.
Gypsum—South Park, in a large bed, some ten
miles north-west from the Salt Works. Also in fine
arrow-head crystals, and fibrous masses near Mount
Vernon, and on the Cache-a-la-Poudre.
Graphic Granite—Near Colver's saw-mill, Beaver
Creek. - -
Płornblende—In gneiss, also in nodular masses,
at Trail Run, and on Clear Creek, near Idaho.
Hyalite—Middle Park, near the Hot Spring—
I31 C.
Idocrase—Near the Malachite Lode, Bear Creek.
Iron Ores—Iron occurs native, or alloyed with
nickel in meteorites, but has never been so found
in any mines. Its most abundant ores are its oxides
and sulphurets. Bi-sulphurel-iron pyrites—occurs
in nearly all our mines, either massive or crystal-
lized. Some beautiful cabinet specimens of this
mineral, in large cubes, have been taken from the
METALS AND MINERALS. 409
S. P. Chase, Hill House, Kingston, and other
lodes. A specimen in the author's collection,
from the Kingston Lode, is associated with brittle
silver.
Magnetic Pyrites—Bobtail Hill, near Running
Lode. -
Specular Iron—Cache-a-la-Poudre, St. Vrain's,
Elk Creek, and other localities. \
Micaceous Iron—Elk Creek, five miles above old
St. Louis Ranch.
Red Hamatite—Bellemonte Furnace, Boulder,
Golden City.
Red Ochre—Bear Creek, below Harrington's
mill.
Şaspery Clay Iron—Champion Lode, Trail Run.
Brown Haºmatite—Golden City, Bellemonte Fur-
nace, etc.
Brown Ochre and Yellow Ochre—Near the sur-
face, in many of our gold-bearing veins. Bog. Iron
Ore, also found in the same way, though not so
COIIll]] OI). -
Titanic Iron — Ilmenite— Quartz Hill, head of
Russell Gulch, and numerous other localities. It
is this, together with magnetic iron, that ſorms
the black sand, found so plentifully by the gulch
miners.
Magnetic Iron—Quartz Hill, Quartz Valley, and
other localities. -
Alzezirize—North Clear Creek, below Black Hawk.
Spathic Iron—Carbonate of Iron—Some beauti-
ful cabinet specimens of this mineral have been
obtained from the Eureka and Griffith Lödes, Cen-
18 tº
4 IO | THE MINES OF COLORADO.
tral, and Running Lode, Black Hawk, also from the
Freeland, Trail Run. -
Blue Iron Earth—Trail Run, Golden Belt Lode.
Washingtonite—Near Dory's Ranch.
9 asper—Is found in abundance in the South and
Middle Parks, in many instances forming whole
hills in the latter place. It takes various shades of
color, as red, brown, yellow, green, black. It ad-
mits of a very high polish, and when of fine colors,
is a handsome stone for inlaid work, but is rarely
used as a gem. The black variety is called Lydian
stone, or touchstone, and is used for testing
the purity of gold, by marking upon it with the
gold under test, and comparing the color of the
mark left on it, with that of alloys of known char-
acter.
Lead–Galena—Sulphuret of Lead–Occurs in
very many of our gold and silver-bearing lodes.
Beautifully crystallized cabinet specimens come
from the Calhoun Lode, Leavenworth Gulch, also
from the Running Lode, Black Hawk, and Gardner,
Quartz Hill. Beautiful and rich specimens of the
fine, granular variety come from the Whale Lode,
Spanish Bar; also, mixed with copper and iron
pyrites, from the Freeland, and Holman, Trail Run.
Minium—Oryd of Lead–-Sparingly in the Free-
land Lode, Trail Run. -
Anglesite—Rarely, in the Freeland Lode, Trail
Run.
Caledonite—Abundant in the Freeland Lode,
Trail Run, and sparingly in the Running Lode,
Black Hawk.
METALS AND MINERALS. 4 II
Pyromorphite—In many so-called “lead crevices,”
near the surface.
Lignite—Coal mines along the base of the Moun-
tains.
Limestone—Mount Vernon, Golden City, Boulder,
South Park, Middle Park, etc., in inexhaustible
supply.
Meteoric Iron—A large mass discovered by Jas.
L. Wilson, of Golden City. It was found in the
bed of a deep kanyon, near Bear Creek, four miles
south from the Genesee Ranch, on the 13th day of
April, 1866. The following is Mr. Wilson's de-
scription of this mass: “It is singular in form, 22
inches long, 16 inches wide, and I2 thick. Four of
its sides are flat, and two rounded. This form in-
dicates it to be a fragment of a much larger mass.
It is magnetic—weight about 600 lbs. The force
with which it struck the rocks at the time of its
fall, had battered one end, and so shattered it as to
enable us to break off a piece that weighed II lbs.
Its composition appears to be the native metals of
nickel, cobalt, iron, and a trace of copper, unequally
distributed in the mass. In one part nickel and
cobalt are largely in excess of the other metals,
while in other parts iron forms the chief ingredient.
These metals are aggregated and highly crystallized.
A coating of the oxide of iron half an inch thick,
has taken the place of the shining black crust ob-
served on aerolites when they first reach the earth.
The less oxidizable metals of nickel and cobalt
still remain in their metallic state in this coating
of iron rust.” The mass is now in the collection
4. I2 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of Prof. Shepard, of Amherst College, Massachu-
SettS. -
Molybdenite—Leavitt Lode, near Kip & Buel
mill ; rare.
Mineral Rosin–Langford & Company's coal
mine, Boulder.
Manganese—Occurs in many of our mines, espe-
cially in dendritic delineations—“forest rock,” as
it is called by the miners.
Mica—Abundantly distributed throughout the
mountains, but rarely in large crystals. A beauti-
ful and very perfect crystal in the collection of the
author, from near the Genesee Ranch, on the
Mount Vernon and Idaho road, is three and a half
inches long, by two wide and one thick.
Onyx-Middle Park, on the west side of Grand
River and Willow Creek, associated with jasper,
chalcedony, and fortification agates. Onyx is the
material used for cameos, the figure being carved
out of one layer and standing in relief on another.
Very few if any specimens fine enough or of the
right kind for this purpose have been found here.
Opal—Semi-Opa!— A variety of Opal, of a milky
white color, and very transparent, is found in a lode
of gold-bearing quartz, near Idaho, Clear Creek
County. It occurs in thin seams, and in lumps
distributed through the crevice. Some small pieces
show a very decided opalescence, and a pale bluish
shade of color when cut, but do not reflect any play
of colors. They are of no value as gems.
Petroleum—Canon City, Bear Creek.
Plasma—South Park, near the Salt Springs.
METALS AND MINERALS. 4I3
Porphyry—Some very beautiful specimens may
be obtained on the agate patches, in the Middle
Park, also in the South Park, and on the Arkansas
River, above Cache Creek.
Puddingstone—Middle Park, near the Hot Spring.
Quartz—This very common and abundant min-
eral is found in all our mines, and from the Foot
& Simmons, Gregory, Briggs, Bobtail, and some
others about Black Hawk and Central Cities, very
beautiful groups of crystals, with cubes of iron
pyrites, have been taken. Some very large crys-
tals, from three to six inches in diameter and some-
times partially covered with micaceous specular
iron, have been found on the head waters of the
north fork of South Platte. Very fine smoky crys-
tals have also been obtained on Elk Creek. Some
very beautiful specimens of rock crystal have been
found on the divide between the Platte and Ark-
ansas Rivers, near “Dirty Woman's Ranch.” Rose
quarts occurs on Bear Creek, near West's Ranch,
and probably in many other places in that vicinity.
Salt—South Park, twenty miles south-east from
Fairplay, where there are extensive saline springs,
and works already erected, capable of manufac-
turing IO,OOO lbs. per diem.
Sard–Sardonya–Middle Park, also near Golden
City, and Mount Vernon. Sardonyx, when fine, is
much used in jewelry, for cameos, seal rings, etc.
No very fine specimens have been obtained in
Colorado.
Satin Spar—Near Mount Vernon, associated with
alabaster, and arrow-head crystals of gypsum.
4I4 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Schreibersite—Specimens in the writer's collec-
tion, from the Colorado aerolite. -
Serpentine–South Park—observed by Prof.
Du Bois. -
Silicifted Wood—Middle Park, South Park, Cherry
Creek, near Denver, Kiowa Creek, and the Plains
generally, from Julesburg to Canon City. A large
number of stumps of trees, completely silicified,
and two to four feet high, and ten to forty inches in
diameter, are reported on the Arkansas River; and
the writer has seen, on Kiowa Creek, a log com-
pletely silicified, twenty inches in diameter, and of
undetermined length, as it was in the bank of the
stream, with one end protruding a few feet. Many
specimens obtained in the South Park, petrified
with chalcedony or agate, and very transparent, are
exceedingly beautiful when sawed across the grain
and polished, they retaining all the texture and
grain as perfectly as in the original wood. Some
fragments that have evidently been branches or
roots, having knots in them, are remarkably beauti-
ful. Wood opal occurs sparingly in some local-
ities.
Silver—Native—Native silver, containing a
small per cent. of gold, has been found in the Ful-
ton Company's mine, on the Crystal Lode, in Vir-
ginia Kanyon. It occurs in the form of very fine
wires, and in branches, or “snarls” in cavities,
about ninety feet below the surface. This is the
only mine in Colorado, within the writer's knowl-
edge, in which native silver has been found.
Silver Glance—Sulphuret of Silver—Kingston
METALS AND MINERALS. 4. I 5
Lode, Russell District, Herkimer, Georgetown, and
in several lodes on Snake River. .
Brittle Silver Ore—Sulphuzet of Silver and Anti-
mony—Kingston Lode, Russell District.
Ruby Silver—Snake River silver lodes.
Horm Silver—Chloride of Silver—Argentine and
Snake River Districts. - -
Embolite—Chloro-Bromide of Silver—Peru Dis-
trict, Snake River.
Sulphate of Soda—South Park, ten miles north-
west of the Salt Works.
Talc—This very common mineral occurs to a
greater or less extent in nearly all our mines, and
may be detected by its foliated structure, gray or
greenish-white color, and greasy feel. Beautiful .
cabinet specimens of indurated talc, of a fine dark
green color, very hard, and having crystals of sul-
phuret of iron disseminated through them, may be
obtained at the Ogden Lode, at Montgomery.
Tourmaline—In feldspathic veins, near the Guy
House, Guy Hill, black and green.
2inc–Blende—Sulphuret of Zinc-Occurs more
or less in nearly all our gold-bearing veins. It is
the miner's black facé. Beautiful cabinet specimens
are obtained from the Running Lode, Black Hawk,
Gunnell, Eureka, Prize and others, near Central
City. Also associated with chalcedony, and re-
sembling the moss agate, in the Calhoun.
Smithsonite—Carbonate of Zinc–Occurs in many
of our mines. Beautiful cabinet specimens, dotted
over with pentagonal dodecahedrons of iron pyrites,
occur in the Running Lode, at Black Hawk.
C H A P T E R XV II.
Agriculture—The Valley—Climate, Soil, Irrigation—Crops and
Production per Acre—“The Great American Desert” Abol-
ished—Native Fruits, Culture—Pastoral Quality, Buffalo, Cattle,
Horses, Sheep, Dairy Products—Game, Animals, Birds, Timber.
Of the Plains in general it may be said that they
are characterized by great horizontal expansion and
aridity of climate. We shall not linger longer on
their eastern and central portions than to note that
railways are fast superseding the Tartaric caravans
of the past in their trade and travel, and the fifet
that they may one day be thickly peopled under the
revivifying influence of water procured from arte-
sian wells. A considerable change in their distin-
guishing features is apparent as the Mountains are
approached. Where that great barrier rises ab-
ruptly from their bosom as a continent from the
waste of ocean, it sends out headlands and exhibits
reefs and islands which diversify the surface con-
tour, and produce a marked change in the climate,
soil, and vegetation. This section has an elevation
of 5,000 to 7,000 feet, but is sheltered from the far-
sweeping winds of the Plains outside. It catches
, a share of the mists and rains that moisten the
CLIMATE OF THE WALLEY. 4I 7
mountain slope, and receives into its thirsty ex-
panse the more copious tribute of melted snow
from the Range. It occupies a break in the prog-
ress of commercial transportation such as favors
the growth of large cities.
This is what we have termed “The Valley.” It
embraces three-sevenths of the Territory, in round
numbers thirty million acres, of which about one-
sixth can be irrigated, that is to say, cropped. The
rest is available as pasturage. Its climate is not
very dissimilar to that of the same latitude in the
Eastern States, except that it is much dryer. The
mean temperature of Denver and St. Louis is about
the same, but at Denver it is higher at noon and
lower in the morning and evening than at St. Louis,
the average difference of the extremes for the month
of January, 1863, being 25.1° at the former, and only
8.7° at the latter. The barometrical and thermo-
metrical changes of the two places nearly corres-
pond, only they occur from one to two days sooner
at Denver than at St. Louis, just as they do at St.
Louis one to two days sooner than on the Atlantic
coast. The scanty meteorological statistics of Den-
ver indicate, also, that the fluctuations of the mean
atmospheric pressure and mean temperature are less
at the base of the Mountains than at St. Louis, giv-
ing a calmer atmospheric ocean, fewer and less
severe storms, which conclusion is sustained by ex-
perience. The average annual fall of rain and snow,
counting ten inches of snow as one of rain, in the
Valley, is twenty inches. Tender plants in the high
mountains are not injured by a degree of cold which
18+
4.18 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
freezes still water half an inch thick. The air is
so clear and pure that the range of vision is almost
infinite. There are points in Colorado where a
well-defined mountain horizon, more than one hun-
dred miles distant, may be seen by the naked eye.
There are all but three hundred and sixty-five days
of sunshine in the year. Clouds are the exception,
storms rare, and fogs never known. Such an at-
mosphere must be especially tonic. People live
and work IO,OOO feet above the sea. The rainy
season of the Mountains—May, June, and July—
favors the Valley with an occasional shower, but
outside of that, rain seldom falls. Frost may be
expected to the end of Spring and by the 15th of
September, giving a season as long as that of New
England and New York.
In the warmer months, under the noon-day sun,
the air of the Valley often becomes oppressively
hot, but toward evening it rises and gives place
to cooler currents from the Range. Here is the
place for those toilers of the brain whose ner-
vous systems are shattered and who are dying for
want of sleep. Even a remorseful conscience fails
to banish sleep in this climate, a fact which is com-
mended to the notice of moral and religious teach-
ers. About the middle of October, Snows begin to
fall, and to the first of January a snow that will
last two days may be expected every two weeks.
In January the fall of snow is more plentiful, it lies
on longer and is accompanied by severer cold, while
February is usually pleasant and is improved by
the farmers plowing for Spring crops. Thence to
soil. AND IRRIGATIon. 419
the rainy season, the snows are, heavier than in
. January but more transient than in November and
December, and melting quickly, or rather being ab-
sorbed by the porous soil, and as quickly renewed,
they start or prepare the ground for the new
crop. A snow storm is always succeeded by a cold
night, and that invariably by a bright warm day.
The mercury has been known to mark 32° below
zero at one o'clock in the morning, and 68° above
within twelve hours. It will sink to IO* below, five
or six times in a Winter. Absence of moisture
prevents these cold spells from nipping the flesh.
Men team it all over this region the year round,
always camping out, and seldom suffering incon-
venience. This would be impossible if the indica-
tions of the thermometer are to be taken as they
are in the East.
The soil of the Valley rests on calcareous rock,
but the wash from the granite mountains above
negatives the special inference that might be drawn
from that. On the borders of the numerous streams
it is sand, ashes, and decomposed vegetable matter.
On the plateaus between it is sand and gravel, stiff-
ened by a more or less friable clay. Properly sup-
plied with moisture, lowland or upland, it exhibits
a strength rarely equaled by any other soil.
It has been observed by historians that rainless
countries—those in which man can control seed-
time and harvest—are most conducive to the rapid
increase of the race. Such are Egypt, Mexico, and
Përti, the three singular and solitary birthplaces of
civilization. Artificial watering by méans of main
42O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
canals or acequias, and a net-work of smaller ones
reaching and fertilizing every acre of the whole face
of a country, is called irrigation. The Valley is
one broad smooth plateau, tipped up just enough
by the Mountains to give water a gentle flow over
it. It is cut by numerous streams with great fall
and carrying abundance of water. Taken from the
mouths of the kanyons on a grade of four feet
per mile, the chief canals soon achieve the highest
ground between the streams, and are thus carried
for long distances, supplying all the land below
them. Their construction is mostly accomplished
with the plow and scraper, each adjoining land-
owner contributing his quota of the expense and
having a perpetual right to the water at the addi-
tional tax for repairs. In this way acequias thirty
miles long and watering 20,000 acres have been
constructed. The Surveyor-General estimates that
there were 136 miles of irrigating canal made in
1866, at a cost of $1,000 per mile. The main arter-
ies in operation, each farm arranges its separate
system so as to leave no spot unblessed and so that
no swift currents shall carry away more than they
bring. For the small grains the ground is flooded;
for corn and potatoes the water is run between the
rows; and for fruit trees it is allowed to flow con-
stantly a few feet distant. The attention of one
man is required during the operation, which lasts
perhaps a month on a large farm and in an average
season. All this is extra labor and expense, very
true, but it has its advantages. A philosophical
farmer of Colorado says of it:
CROPS AND PRODUCTION. 42 I
“I have kept an accurate account of the extra
expense of irrigation ; but when I consider that
the soil is made to yield its utmost capacity with
uniformity, and that the hands irrigating can
always do extra work enough to pay expenses, I
am decidedly in favor of systematic irrigation, and
never shall own a farm without facilities for irriga-
ting a considerable part of it. To the advantage
alluded to may be added, that the soil is constantly
being enriched by the sediment of, and the salts
and earths held in solution by, the water, which is
never allowed to escape from cultivated land, but
is kept on till it is absorbed. There need be no
injury from the protracted drouths of sections more
favored in general by rain.”
Considering that the average crop of wheat is
twice as large in Colorado as in the States, and
that it brings a higher average price in a home
market, we think no more need be said in palliation
of irrigation. The freight tariff in favor of the
Colorado farmer can hardly ever be less than a
dollar on a bushel of wheat or corn.
The average crop of wheat is twenty-five bushels
per acre,” twice that of Illinois or Ohio. Ten
acres of wheat have produced 8oo bushels, and
of oats more than one thousand. Barley is the
favorite crop, however. It makes regular and
liberal returns spite of all the pests common to new
countries and particular to Colorado. It is rather
cold for corn on the Platte waters, but it is a sure
crop, yielding thirty bushels per acre, on the waters
*Calculation of Surveyor-General John Pierce.
422 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
of the Arkansas. Single fields of 2,000 acres may
be seen in the growing season in south-eastern
Colorado. Vegetables of all kinds produce enor-
mously, shading all other countries in that respect—
California alone excepted. Five hundred bushels
of potatoes have been harvested from a single acre.
Cabbage heads weighing thirty pounds, and turnips
half as heavy, are not unusual. A lady, recently
arrived in Denver, sent her little boy to market for
“a small cabbage.” He returned presently with a
16-pounder, the smallest he could find in town.
At the first annual fair of the Colorado Agricul-
tural Society—September, 1866—there were on
exhibition turnips weighing fifteen pounds which
were grown in the heads of the gulches I,000 feet
higher than Central City. There was altogether
one of the finest displays of mammoth vegetables
and roots, of large, ripe, plump grains, and we
might add, of fast roadsters, that ever was seen.
Even those best posted as to the agricultural ca-
pacity of the Territory looked on in wonder. So
long does it take to explode a false idea once firmly
established. The present generation were taught
in school that next to Sahara “The Great American
Desert” was the largest and worst in the world.
The old emigration to California and Oregon sent
back only confirmation of this teaching. Ten years
ago, that desperate man who was forced to risk a
trip across the Plains, bade farewell to the scenes
of childhood, regarding the chances of life and death
in the “desert” as about equal. The enormous re-
turns of California and then of Mormon farming
NO AMERICAN DESERT. 423
were slow of circulation and slower of credence.
The first Pike's Peakers were so impressed with the
“desert” idea that their safe arrival in the Moun-
tains no less astonished than challenged their pro-
found gratitude. They were not buried by the
snow the first Winter, and this so increased their
bewilderment that they failed of noticing the heavy
burden of grass on the streams and the fine condi-
tion of stock in the Spring. So that late in 1859
the finding of two accidental but perfect heads of
wheat in a garden at Denver was regarded as an
important public event, marking an era in the his-
tory of things. Possibly there might be an oasis
in this “desert.” The feeble attempts at farming
on the best bits of moist ground in 1860 were so
successful that those personally cognizant of them
were driven entirely from the “desert” theory.
Next year the business considerably enlarged.
Aceguias were dug and most of the low land brought
under cultivation. Two years later, that is to say,
five years after the finding of gold, it was discov-
ered that the uplands, by the aid of irrigation,
would produce as bountifully as the river bottoms,
when the “desert” theory was finally dismissed in
Colorado, and farming took its rightful place, as
the second if not the first great industry of the
new State. In the year 1866, 50,000 acres, as
near as could be determined, were under cultiva-
tion, and the grain crop was estimated by compe-
tent authority at 1,500,000 bushels, a surplus over
the consumption of a people numbering at the out-
side 50,000. This surplus was chiefly wheat. At
424 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the end of the year wheat was worth $1.80 per
bushel in Denver; corn, $2.8o; buckwheat flour,
$17 to $20; Spring wheat flour, $8 to $10; corn.
meal, $6 to $8.
The native fruits of Colorado are a small, worth-
less thorn-apple; a large, pleasant plum, trees rather
shy bearers; small, black, acid gooseberry in abund-
ance, not of much value; cherry, called “choke,”
really a pleasant fruit, size of large wild cherry,
black, heart-shaped, free from insects, quite as good
as the Morello, bushes large and prolific; currants,
black, yellow, and red, black the best, a large,
pleasant, acid fruit, superior to many cultivated
varieties, bushes large, hardy, and good bearers,
furnishing fruit for six weeks; raspberry, good size,
red, juicy, fine flavor, makes a choice wine, bush
twenty inches high, very prolific and continues in
bearing for six weeks; the strawberry and whortle-
berry, the former ripening in altitudes where it
freezes every night of the year according to Fah-
renheit, abundant in some parts of the Foot-hills,
just beginning to be cultivated, sold in 1866 at $3 a
quart; the whortleberry not found much below but
plenty at an elevation of 9,000 feet. It is said that
wild grapes grow in the southern portion of the
Territory, and a small variety of the common red
cherry in some of the parks and kanyons of the
Foot-hills. Apples, peaches, grapes, and pears are
raised by the Mexicans in the San Luis Park, and
something in that direction has been accomplished
on the Arkansas. On the Platte, seedling plums,
peaches, and apples made a most thrifty growth
FRUITS AND FRUIT CULTURE-LOCUST.S. 425
the past season, and about $20,000 worth of pear,
apple, and peach trees, raspberry and blackberry
bushes, grape and strawberry vines, were set out in
the Fall. Fruit growing is yet in its veriest infancy.
It took the settlers three years to learn that they
could farm at all, and two more to discover the im-
portance of the interest, and the Territory is but
eight years old. From the full success of fruit
culture in Utah, in about the same altitude and
latitude, there is reason to hope everything from it
here.
The greatest pest of the Colorado farmer is the
locusts, which swarm occasionally as when the Lord
plagued Egypt, consuming every green thing. Some
years they are the only full crop that is raised.
Little is known of their habits, one side of their
astonishing appetite. This would seem to indicate
a tape-worm in the stomach, and sure enough a
story of something of the kind is seriously told.
They are not permanent residents of the Territory,
but pay it visits, not particularly like those of an-
gels. They have no especial “calling” season,
they make themselves at home, whether it be
Spring, Summer, or Fall, sometimes staying, most
unfashionably, through all three. They lay their
eggs in the ground in the Fall, and wherever they
happen to do that, the young crops of the next
year will be eaten as fast as they grow by the wee
locusts. When they have grown wings they fly
away, to the great joy of their compulsory hosts.
The fact that they will not deposit their eggs in
moist ground points out the remedy. Irrigation at
426 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
the period of deposit will keep them from making
an incubating bed of the cultivated land, and a
judicious arrangement of canals and use of water
during the early Summer will keep the little wing-
less pests off. As the country is more widely cul-
tivated they will probably cease to be a serious evil.
Such is the case in Utah.
We come at last to the most important resource
of the Valley—its broad, pastoral acres, numbering
25,OOO,OOO.” Its native grasses are many and rich,
the buffalo and bunch varieties being equal to oats in
the sheaf. Starting with the sap-snows, they attain
their growth by the end of the rainy season, and then
ripen into hay, standing. On this stuff large herds
have made four hundred pounds weight per head in
a Summer. With a fresh range for Winter, they
come into market in the Spring better beef than the
seven-months-stall-fed stock of Iowa and Illinois.
Oxen, worked till in single file they hardly cast a
shadow, run on this grass a few weeks and become
beef. But the best illustration of the pastoral ca-
pacity of the Plains is their own countless aborig-
inal cattle. They live through the Winter and
through all the Winters to a most tough old age, and
there are a good many of them although few to
what they were. w
Between the years 1826 and 1836, according to
Fremont, they roamed from Independence to the
Fishing Falls of the Columbia River, fancy free.
* Artesian wells are turning the Desert of Sahara into a garden
of fertility; so they would “The Great American Desert,” in so far
as there is any such thing.
NATIVE CATTLE OF THE PLAINS. 427
In the year 1824 they filled the Green and Bear
River valleys, descending on the Colorado to the
mouth of White River, and ranging thence north-
ward beyond Lewis's Fork of the Columbia, the
Meridian of Fort Hall limiting them on the west.
In 1836 they began to diminish very fast through-
out this section, and in 1840 they had abandoned
all the waters of the Pacific north of Lewis's Fork.
Five years later, the “Buffalo Wallow” had con-
tracted to what was designated as “The Great
American Desert” on the old atlases. A curious
desert indeed, sustaining nearly as many of these
huge quadrupeds as could stand upon it. Now,
the buffalo are confined to the Smoky Hill and
Republican Forks of the Kaw, rarely straggling
on to either the Platte or Arkansas, within two
hundred miles of the state line of Missouri, or the
base of the Mountains. It is doubtful if there
exist as many to-day as used to be slain in a season.
The chief business of the old trading posts was in
their skins. The number of robes annually traded
for by the American, Hudson's Bay, and other fur
companies, was ninety thousand, and this tells not
half the story of their destruction. It will be seen
that the buffalo had passed away before the dis-
covery of gold and silver in the Rocky Mountains.
It is not certain that they were much fewer in 1866
than in 1856. But with railways running through
and settlers occupying their last limited range, they
must soon utterly disappear unless all slaughter of
them in mere wantonness shall in some way be
prevented. There is little sport in hunting, or
428 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
*
rather in killing, buffalo. You ride stealthily on to
a great herd, and while they are taking alarm and
getting under motion, you knock over two or three.
It is something like killing snow-corraled deer with
a hatchet, more of cruelty than sport.
Well, the existence of buffalo proves the fine pas-
toral quality of the Plains, the best of which is the
Valley of Colorado. When the buffalo of forty
years ago shall have been replaced by domestic
cattle, and the Indians, antelope and wolves by
horses and sheep, the idea of a “great American
desert” will doubtless be finally dismissed by the
whole world, as it should be. Stock not only thrive
in Winter without feeding, they are driven to the
Eastern market in the Spring, and constantly im-
prove. With a route five hundred miles wide they
do better to move ten miles a day than to remain
in one place. The raising of stock has not become
much of a business yet, because it has been cheaper
to buy and make beef of the train oxen. These
usually arrive out in June pretty thin, and rather
than drive them back with no load, their owners
sell them low. Last Summer five thousand head
of this stock were bought at Denver by Iowa
farmers to drive home and feed during the Winter.
Early frosts cut the corn in the north-west, the
price doubled in a few days, and that badly frosted
this speculation. Cattle bred on the Plains ma-
ture youngèr than elsewhere. Fall calves are not
checked in their growth by the Winter as in the
East, and they commonly become mothers at
eighteen months of age, a precocity which argues
CATTLE, HORSES, AND SHEEP. 429
a healthy and rapid development. It is estimated
by those in the business that there are one hundred
thousand head of horses and cattle in the Territory,
and there are large flocks of sheep in the southern
portion. These sheep were never shorn until 1866,
and but few were then, from the lightness of the
fleece, the coarseness of the wool, and the distance
to market. The Mexican sheep is small and hardy,
economical in its use of wool, wearing merely a little
hempen stuff on its back. No pains was ever taken
in breeding, and the article can barely be called a
sheep, either in quality of mutton or wool, or in
fecundity. The first cross of an improved breed
increases the size, doubles the yield of wool, and
restores prolific power, indicating that as a basis
for extensive sheep-breeding, the native stock, if we
may so call them, cannot be excelled. The only
drawback to the business is the wolf, and he is fast
disappearing. The conditions of climate and soil
could not be more favorable. It is high and dry,
there is little snow or severe cold, the grasses are
short, sweet, and rich. Only second to its adapta-
bility to sheep, are its advantages as a dairy country.
Butter and cheese, unsurpassed in quality and of
home production, are proportionally as cheap as in
the East. The first cost of cows is high, from $60
to $100, but their keeping amounts to very little.
On the whole we believe we are safe in affirming
that there is no such country for stock as this.
Of the game and wild beasts native to the valley,
the Indian is the most prominent, useless, pernicious,
and costly to hunt. Indians and railways do not well
430 THE MINES OF COLORADO,
agree, and as the country bears more of the latter
it will less of the former. With an able and honest
administration of their affairs in Colorado, no se-
rious trouble need be apprehended in the future.
Next to the Indian come the grizzly, cinnamon and
black bear ; and after them the cougar or mountain
lion, the big white, or buffalo wolf, the shaggy
brown, the black, the gray or prairie wolf, and the
coyote, wachunka-monet, or medicine-wolf of the
Indians; the buffalo, noticed before ; the elk, black
and white-tailed deer ; the antelope and mountain
sheep; lynx, wild-cat, badger; four varieties of the
hare; the silver gray, the cross, the red, and the
swift foxes; mink, pine marten, and beaver, and
the prairie dog. The latter resemble the fox-squir-
rel, their flesh is tender and palatable, and their oil
very superior in quality. They live together in
subterranean villages, seem to have a communal
system of government and things, whether founded
on Divine right or the consent of the governed, has
not been discovered. They locate their towns with
out regard to the vicinity of water, sometimes in
places where none is to be seen and subject neither
to rain nor dew. It is gravely doubted by some
writers whether they make the same use of that
fluid as other animals—the drunkard excepted.
The large prairie wolf used to be a characteristic
feature of the Plains, but like its fellows, the buffalo
and Indian, is fast passing away.
Of game birds there are the wild turkey, moun-
tain grouse, sage hen, prairie chicken, ducks, geese,
Swans, ptarmigan, &c. The sage hen is only found
GAME, BIRDS, TIMBER. 43 I
west of the Range which is true also of its favorite
food, the sage bush. The ptarmigan exists only in
the frosty breath of the Range, being white when
the snows mostly fly and turning partially brown
when they melt and run off.
Of timber the principal varieties are pine, hem-
lock, spruce, cedar, fir, cotton-wood, box-elder,
quaking-aspen. There is a little scrubby oak, and
willow and alder-bushes on every brook. Nearly
one half the Territory is more or less timbered, the
trees generally thin on the ground and small.
C H A P T E R XV III.
Recapitulation—Mills and Mining Machinery—Production of
Gold—State Organization—General Statistics—Newspapers—
Railways on the Plains—Population, Society.
THE steady progress in material and social de-
velopment of all the gold-producing States and
Territories is sufficient evidence that on the whole,
mining for the precious metals pays. This, too, in
spite of the heavy drawbacks incident to starting
anew—to creating and establishing the industries
of civilization in the isolated wildernesses. In the
body of this volume there are notices of the mines
and works of 165 companies, firms, and individuals,
now operating in Colorado. Most if not all of them
have valuable mine property, which must prove, in
the general advance of the country, a valuable in-
vestment. The present condition of this property
is superior to what it ever was before. In the old
mines shafts have been straightened, enlarged, and
timbered, pumps put in, steam machinery and mills
erected. Shafts and galleries have been excavated,
by means of which ores can be produced to the
QUARTZ MILLS AND MACHINERY. 433
best advantage. Costly experimenting with the
refractory pyrites has been carried on, and much of
value learned. In opening the newer lodes, the ex-
perience of the past is brought in play; work is
planned and executed as it should be from the start.
This preparatory work is still in progress, and the
production of gold is not a fair indication of what
is doing.
There are ninety-five stamp-mills in the Territory,
containing 1,700 stamps, varying in weight from
500 to 900 lbs. each. Nearly all these are in good
repair and might be started within a month if de-
sirable. There are forty-one mills designed for the
Keith, Dodge, Mason, Bertola, Crosby & Thompson,
and processes other than stamps, of equal average
capacity with the stamp-mills, and many of them
fine, substantial structures. There are twelve large
mills in an unfinished state. There are twelve
mine-pumps, varying in size from four to nine inches,
in operation, and six more under way. There are
forty steam hoisting rigs on mines, besides the
great number in which the same engines drive a
mill and do the hoisting, and besides innumera-
ble horse-whims and hand-windlasses. There are
miles upon miles of shafts, levels, adits, tunnels,
winzes, inclines, etc., excavated and in shape to
be used. Forty mills are now running, realizing
from twenty to thirty thousand dollars' worth of
gold per week.
With regard to the production of bullion, chiefly
gold, by the Territory up to June 30, 1866, official
Mint returns furnish the following:
I9
434 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Deposited at the Mint of the United States, Phila-
delphia, - te nº * = * gº * - $5,641,886 91
Deposited at the Branch Mint, San Francisco, - 60, I52 Oo
dé 6 & £ 6 New Orleans, tºº 3,437 20
as & & ** Dalonegha, Ga., - 35,345 84
{{ § { 66 Denver, Col., wº 957,917 25 g
66 “ Assay Office, New York, • - 5,702,635 od
Total, * ſº tº ſº sº gº * $12,401,374 2O
Deposited at the Mint and Branches of the United
States and the Assay Office of New York, in
1859, - - - - - - - - $4,171 7o
In 1860, tº * e gº tº † = * * 599,846 30
“ 1861, - * ºr * º - - *g - 2,091, 197 I7
“ 1862, * tºe gº tº tº * - - 2,035,416 50
$& 1863, - - * tº * * ſº “º mº 2,893,336 87
{{ 1864, tº º gº gº p. º * * 2,136,684 69
“ 1865, - - - - - - - - - 1,622,249 45
“ 1866, º tº tºs tº. º sº - - 1,018,471 52
Total, - - - - - - - $12,401,374 20
“A careful examination of the gold mines in the
United States,” says Gen. E. M. Barnum, of Idaho,
“and of statistics showing its final destination,
gives decided evidence that, by as near an approxi-
mation as practicable, the amount of deposits at
the mint and branches of the United States, em-
braces only one-third of the total product of the
mines.” In support of this proposition, Gen. Bar-
num states that for the twelve fiscal years ending
June 30, 1866, the average annual deposits at the San
Francisco Branch Mint amounted to $17,000,000;
and that three times that sum very closely approxi-
mates the total annual yield of California during
that period, according to the best authority. Bullion
was first taxed under the Act of June 30, 1864, the
impost being one-half of one per cent. ad valorem.
PRODUCTION OF GOLD. 435
By the Act of March 3, 1865, the tax was increased
to three-fourths of one per cent. Its collection is
required of the assayers in all cases, and the assay
must be stamped on all bullion melted. The official
statement of the aggregate receipts from this tax
shows the bullion crop of the United States to
have been for 1865, $73,560,937, and for 1866,
$81,389,541. Now, the total amount deposited at
the Mint and branches during the year 1865
was $27,982,849.09, and during the year 1866,
$31,91 I,719.24, but a little more, in each case, than
one-third the total yield. It is likely that enough
bullion escapes the tax to make the rule perfectly
good. Accepting it as such, therefore, we have
$37,2O4, 122.60, as the bullion yield of Colorado
to June 30, 1866, which is probably not far from
the truth.
The silver mines of Snake and Clear Creeks are
growing in importance as they are developed, and
must soon become a rich and unfailing source of
revenue. Smelting for argentiferous and galenous
ores, has been introduced, and the making of régulus
for the cupriferous and auriferous pyrites. The en-
largement of the latter, both in capacity and scope,
may be said to be already under way. The opening
of the mineral lands to pre-emption by the Gov-
ernment must have a beneficial influence, giving,
as it does, absolute security to mining titles. The
law is given in Chapter XV. of this work. Its de-
tails may require alteration from time to time, but
it extends the principle that has obtained in the
disposal of the arable to that of the mineral public
436 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
lands, which is enough to begin with. It is a con-
cession to the settlers by the Government that can
never be taken back.
Near the close of the Thirty-eighth Congress, a
bill was enacted in response to a petition of the
Colorado Legislature, enabling the Territory to or-
ganize a State government and enter the Union.
Under its provisions a convention met in Denver,
July 4, 1864, and framed a constitution. Owing
somewhat to bad management of the enterprise,
but more to its evident prematurity, it was rejected
by the people on the second Tuesday of October
following. Next Spring the civil war suddenly
ceased, returning a million men and enormous
transportation to the field of productive industry,
the Indian war on the Plains had died out, the new
mining companies and several new methods of
treating ores seemed to have got well under way,
gold had fallen to 130, agriculture had been fairly
established, railways were building across the
Plains—the aspect of affairs was very different from
that of the year previous. After brief agitation,
all parties joined in another attempt to organize a
State of the Union. A convention met in Denver
in August and framed a constitution, which was
adopted by a majority of I55 on a light popular
vote. Suffice it that a State was fully organized,
that application for admission into the Union was
made at each session of the Thirty-ninth Congress,
granted, and vetoed by President Johnson. What-
ever the final fate of this attempt at Statehood, the
effort must go on until it is successful. The popu-
*
GENERAL STATISTics. 437.
lation of the Territory is compact, self-reliant, well
organized, socially and politically, enterprising, and
ambitious, and spirited as it can be ; the interests
of the Territory are in good degree national, it oc-
cupies a commanding position as regards the Rocky
Mountains, it is going ahead in.everything, it is in
the nature of things for it to become one of the
family of States. With a Government title to the
mines, bringing them under control of the State
with its laws and courts, mining and all that de-
pends on it will assume as permanent a character
as can be desired. In 1865 the taxable property
amounted to about nine millions; in 1866, to about
eleven millions. The mines, belonging to Govern-
ment, have never been taxed, and do not appear in
this valuation, which they would more than double.
In 1865, 140,000 acres of farming land were taken
up; in 1866, 251,000; in the first month of the
current year, 23,000. The internal revenue tax
for 1865 was $130,000; I866, $141,000. The in-
come tax return was about $40,000 for each year,
and the licenses taken out, exceeded in amount
those of many of the States. There were 25o
buildings erected in Denver last year, at a cost of
$500,000. The First National Bank of Denver
drew ‘Eastern exchange, from May 10, 1865, to
November 1, 1866, to the amount of $11,822,000.
The postal receipts for last year footed up $33,000,
a larger figure than in many of the States. It
would have been much larger but for that invidious
law which compels the Territories to pay letter
postage on everything carried by mail within their
438 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
borders. Congress ought to undo this mean dis-
crimination against the Territories.
The existence of sufficient arable land and the
inauguration of a system of farming commensurate
with the home demand for sustenance, has been
fully noticed. Also the establishment of iron man-
ufacture. In the altered sandstone which is tilted
up on edge along the base of the Mountains, occur
thick cellular bands, and also bands of bituminous
shale, which are no doubt the storehouses of petro-
leum. From Canon City northward one hundred
miles, surface indications of its presence below are
abundant. A full set of machinery for boring wells
and refining the product arrived at Canon City in
1866, and steps have been taken to thoroughly
prospect for oil, sections near and at Golden City.
No doubt is entertained of the capacity of the
Territory to supply itself with petroleum. Bands
of limestone which burn easily and make a strong
quicklime, are associated with the petroleum rocks,
and crop out plentifully near Golden City. Within
the Foot-hills a short distance, on Bear Creek, oc-
curs a cluster of copper veins, among which there
is one of great extent and richness, called the
“Commercial Lode.” It is vertical, cutting the dip
and strike of the strata at a considerable angle, has
been traced continuously four thousand feet, and
after being concealed for a mile and a half by allu-
vium, outcrops again for a number of rods. The
gangue is quartzose, invaded by fluorspar at a depth
of fifty feet; the ores, green malachite, silicate, red
oxide, and yellow sulphuret; and a trial shaft fifty-
NEWSPAPERS, 439
five feet in depth shows a uniform thickness of vein
of eighteen feet. This lode and its outlyers is but five
miles from the coal mine of Wheeler & Company, and
in its immediate vicinity, all the materials necessarily
used in the reduction of the ore to metal exist in
plenty. The Mountains and Parks present many
saline springs; one in the South Park has been
improved, and is equal to the production of ten
thousand pounds of salt per diem, and, by increas-
ing the size of the evaporating surface, any higher
quantity for which there may be a demand. There
are twenty saw-mills and as many flour-mills in the
Territory, two tanneries, and there are parties
engaged in the establishment of paper and glass
manufactories.
Denver has for many years supported two news-
papers, each daily and weekly. Up to the great
flood of May, 1864, these were “The Rocky Moun-
tain News,” and “The Rocky Mountain Herald and
Commonwealth.” On that occasion the former,
having been founded on the sand, was washed
away, and the proprietors proceeded to further
fulfill the Scriptures by realizing Pharaoh's dream
of the lean kine; for, stripped of all they had in
the world, they bought and swallowed “The Com-
monwealth,” and were then leaner than before.
Having the whole lot to themselves for about a
year, however, they picked up fast and got fat again.
Then was started “The Denver Gazette,” daily and
weekly, a Democratic print, F. J. Stanton, editor
and proprietor, which has since gradually gained
ground, and correspondingly improved in tone and
44O THE MINES OF COLORADO.
appearance. In January of the current year, a
third daily and weekly journal, the former called
“The Denver Daily,” the latter, “The Christian
Radical,” was started in Denver by Luther M.
Kouns and Daniel Schindler. The first is inde-
pendent, the second religious. There are two jour-
nals, each daily and weekly, published in Central
City. “The Miners' Register,” Republican in poli-
tics, was founded by Alfred Thompson, David C.
Collier, and Hugh Glenn, in the Spring of 1862.
Subsequently Thompson and Glenn sold out and
a Mr. Wells became associated with Collier in its
ownership. In the Fall of 1865 Wells was bought
out by Frank Hall, so that the editors and proprie-
tors are Collier and Hall. “The Colorado Times”
has a more varied history. It is a combination of
two newspaper establishments one or other of which
had been run for a time in Denver once, in Golden
City twice, in Canon City and Black Hawk each
once, before the end of 1863. In the Fall of that
year it failed for the severalth time. Through the
agency of Lee, Judd & Lee, the writer and Frank
Hall started it afresh November 30, 1863, as “The
Colorado Mining Journal,” daily and weekly, at
Black Hawk. Three years later to a day it passed
into the hands of an association called “The Times
Publishing Company,” who changed its politics
from Republican to Democratic, its name from
“Journal” to “Times,” and removed it to Central
City. Henry Garbanati and O. J. Goldrick are the
editors. In December, 1866, Capt. George West
established “Thé Weekly Colorado Transcript”
RAILWAYS OF THE PLAINs. 44I
at Golden City, independent in politics. During
the Legislative sessions, which are supposed to be
held at Golden City, the Territorial Capital, though
they most always are not, it is published as a daily.
A small weekly paper called “The Boulder News,
or Progress” is published at Valmont, in Boulder
County. A monthly, called “The Sunday School
Casket,” and edited by the Rev. B. T. Vincent, is
published in Denver. It is not the least patronized
and successful of these journalistic enterprises.
None of them has a large circulation, but their
prices for work are high enough to give them a
good living.
The construction of a railway along the Platte
Route during the Summer of 1866, at the rate of
twenty miles a week, has reduced freights to Col-
orado fifty per cent, of their previous average.
Three hundred and five miles of track west from
Omaha were laid last year, accepted by the Gov-
ernment Commissioners, who report it thoroughly
constructed and equipped with all the necessary
turn-outs, buildings, rolling stock, etc., of a first-
class road; and 224 miles more, carrying it to the
base of the Black Hills, are contracted for and
under process of construction since March 20, at
the rate of two miles per day. It is generally con-
sidered settled that the road will leave the South
Platte at the north-east corner of Colorado, and
go up Lodge-Pole, a tributary stream, to the Black
Hills, which it will enter I 12 miles north of Denver;
but it is not yet built, and it is so incontestably in
the interest of the Company to make Denver a
19%
442 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
point on it, thus securing the trade of Colorado and
New Mexico against all after comers, that it is im-
possible to believe in the stupid folly of not doing
so until one sees it. If they do run straight west,
however, a branch will soon be built via Denver,
Golden City, and the Clear Creek Kanyon, to
Central City, Empire, and Georgetown.” Mean-
while, Wells, Fargo & Co.'s overland stages will
connect with the cars at Julesburg, mouth of Lodge-
Pole, 180 miles from Denver, only thirty-six hours'
ride on the best managed stage-line in the world.
Through competing fast-freight lines the cost of
wagoning over this space, on a hard level road,
will be but a trifle in excess of the usual railway
tariff. #
The Union Pacific Railway, Eastern Division, is
also fast approaching Colorado. The track is al-
ready laid to Salina, confluence of the Saline and
Smoky Hill Forks of the Kansas, nearly two hun-
dred miles west from Kansas City or Leaven-
worth, and but about four hundred from Denver.
It is hoped and expected that half the interven-
ing distance to Denver will be overcome the
present season. As soon as grass grows parties
will be sent by this Company to survey the moun-
tain passes thoroughly, they hoping to find a way
through instead of havingº to turn them at either
end. Stage, express, and fast-freight lines, con-
* A company called “The Central Colorado Pacific,” is already
organized for this purpose, the bonds of which it is believed will be
guaranteed by the Pacific Company, thus enabling construction to
commence very soon.
TRANSPORTATION OF THE PLAINS. 443
nect with this road at its constantly advancing
terminus, running to Denver, Salt Lake, and
Santa Fe. Some idea of the westward movement
of merchandise, may be obtained from the Quar-
termaster General's report to the Secretary of War
for the year ending June 30, 1866, which exhibits
the transportation on account of Government, and
the rates paid per hundred pounds per hundred
miles. The rates from the Missouri River to
northern Colorado, Nebraska, Dakota, Idaho, and
Utah were $1.45; to southern Colorado, Kansas,
and New Mexico, $1.38, with an addition from Fort
Union in New Mexico to posts in that Territory, in
Arizona, and western Texas of $1.79 per hundred
pounds per hundred miles. The total number of
pounds transported was 81,489,321 or 40,774 6-IO
tons, at a cost of $3,314,495.
For the current year proposals have been invited
for carrying to these posts, on Government account,
fifty million pounds. The books of the railways
will soon give us full statistics of the Plains trade,
exclusive of that via the Missouri, Columbia, and
Colorado Rivers, and the California Division of the
Pacific Railway,” something which we have noth-
*This railway is completed to Cisco Station, 93 miles east of
Sacramento, (elevation above the sea, 5,911 feet,) and within about
12 of the summit of the Sierra Nevada, the intervening distance
graded, elevation of summit, 7,050 feet. The heaviest grade east-
ward from the summit is 90 feet to the mile, the average, 40. From
the base of the Sierra Nevada to that of the Rocky Mountains is
almost a natural grade. The cost thus far is $9,000,000. China-
men are employed as laborers, at $30 a month, fifty per cent.
cheaper than white labor. The road is to be completed to Virginia
444 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
ing yet but the wildest guesses at; nor, had we
anything near correct, would it be of much use,
because the railways ought presently to double and
quadruple the figures. Once finished to the base
of the Mountains, it cannot be long until these rail-
ways will have penetrated, either themselves or by
branches, into the heart of the best mining counties
which constitute the Great Mineral Belt. Half a
dozen streams offer facilities for this—Boulder, Clear
Creek, and the South Platte can be followed up on
a water grade of not more than one hundred feet
per mile into Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek, and
Park, the great mining counties. *
The price of labor, provisions and supplies has
fallen off thirty to fifty per cent. of its range of
1864–65. The effect is seen in the increasing ac-
tivity in mining, and the larger production of gold
from week to week. In the three best months of
1866, it was about $2OO,OOO a month. This in-
crease is not likely to be seriously checked again
by an advance in prices, because everything is
City, 156 miles east from Sacramento, this year, and to Salt Lake
City, 429 miles further, in two more years. The following are over-
land distances:
MILES.
From Omaha, via Union Pacific Railroad and branch, to
Denver, - - º tº tº ise º ſº º 630
From San Francisco, via Omaha, to St. Louis, - º 2,31 I
From San Francisco, via Omaha, té Chicago, - * 2,392
From San Francisco, via St. Louis, to New York, º 3,385
From San Francisco, via Chicago, to New York, - - 3,291
From San Francisco, via St. Joseph, St. Louis, and Cin-
cinnati, to Washington, * tº tº tº º 3,210
From San Francisco, via Chicago and Harrisburg, to
Washington, - - - - - - - - 3,233
MAGNIFICENT MINERAL RESOURCES. 445
tending to bring them to a reasonable level and
keep them so by removing the causes of their
former ruinous fluctuations. Railways will make
the Mississippi the base of supplies so far as the
miner is concerned. A swarm of locusts, a freshet,
hail-storm, hurricane, or severe frost, an attack on
some defenceless wagon by lawless Indians, will
not greatly effect such a base of supplies. And if
the farmers of Colorado cannot successfully com-
pete with those of Iowa and Missouri, which they
would hate to acknowledge, they can abandon farm-
ing and go to mining. For there is ground enough—
the hay-stack is big enough and the needles suffi-
ciently numerous to outlast the eyes of many gen-
erations. Not that nearly all of its area has not
already been flown over; it is because it has been
flown over and not lighted upon that it is still
unknown. Only the most accessible and easily
made available spots are occupied, and they are to
the grand whole as Rhode Island and Delaware to
the family of States. It would seem to be impos-
sible, indeed, to exaggerate on the subject of the
mineral region of Colorado. It is all but limitless
in surface area and enjoys a climate to which, at the
same altitudes, no other part of the world can begin
to approximate; is abundantly supplied with water,
timber, and fuel; is accompanied by a noble dower
of arable and pastoral lands sequestered within its
rugged bosom and forming an apron to the east-
ward containing thirty millions of acres; is cen-
trally located as regards the western half of the
Continent; is nearer than any other to the grain
446 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
t
producing Mississippi Valley; abounds in grand
and picturesque scenery; in thermal springs, wild
fruit, game, and fish; is easily accessible through-
out its varied extent, and is blessed with the purest
atmosphere, the bluest of skies, and the brightest
and most constant of Suns.
For the six years that annual elections have been
held, the popular vote has averaged 7,000. Count-
ing five persons for each voter would give a popula-
, tion of 35,000, exclusive of 6,000 or 7,OOO Indians.
William Hepworth Dixon says, in his very accurate
“New America,” that there are twenty men to one
woman in Colorado. It may have been so or half
so in Jefferson. When Colorado was organized in
June, 1861, a census was taken, which showed a
preponderance of the stronger sex of about four to
one. Since that there has been no authoritative
census, but at the Territorial Sunday School Con-
vention of June, 1866, representing neither the
Mexican nor the mass of the rural population which
together constitute three-fifths of the whole, be-
tween 1,500 and 2,000 scholars were reported.
Where, in a population of 35,000, there are 4,000
or 5,000 school children, there can be no terrific
disparity in number of the sexes. Still there is a
great lack of women in the mines. There are too
many young men vegetating in shabby hotels and
loose-jointed cabins like cellar onions in Winter,
growing gray between the memories of the past
and the hopes of the future, wasting the present.
This is not well for the health, morals, and general
welfare of the community. Not that, as a class,
*
WANTED–WOMEN. 447
they lead dissolute lives. In one of his Colorado
letters, Mr. Bowles says: “Most agreeable of all
our experiences here are the intelligent, active,
earnest, right-minded and right-hearted young men
and women we meet ; people, many of whom have
been here for years, but, instead of losing anything
of those social graces that Eastern towns and cities
are wont to think themselves superior in, have not
only kept even pace in these, but gained a higher
play for all their faculties, and ripened with oppor-
tunity and incentive, and necessary self-reliance,
into more of manhood and womanhood.” But the
fact remains that love, chastened and consecrated
by marriage, is so prime a necessity of our many-
sided human nature, that it cannot be generally
ignored for any considerable period with impunity.
But what is to be done 2 Shall we have another
cargo of Yankee girls assembled to serve as a
Summer's theme for the coarse wit of the Conti-
nent 2 It is clear that the Colorado men are not
going to make a raid on the Eastern as the Romans
on the Sabine women. Opportunity does not serve.
Neither can Eastern women be expected to go
through the scattered settlements of the West
hunting mates.
But a middle course might be adopted. That is
to say, the young men of the West might make in-
dividual forays on Eastern women without getting
worse than a Sabine war on their hands, and now
that the East is annexed to the West by railways,
every Western woman might have her female rela-
tives with her a good part of the time. Thus
448 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
might the sexes become more evenly distributed.
Women would not be starving on two cents a day
in the East while two dollars were vainly awaiting
them in the West. It would be possible, after a
while, to keep female waiters at a Western hotel, at
some rate. And best of all, less of that painful and
outrageous thing would be seen—the fruit before
the flower—girls keeping young company at fifteen,
married at sixteen, and weighed down with the
cares of maternity at seventeen, which is not un-
common in Colorado.
Nor is the society of the Rocky Mountains behind
that of the East in the graces and charities, nor
yet much in the frivolities. Mr. Bowles says:
“Never was progress in wealth, in social and polit-
ical organization, in the refinements of American
home life, more rapid and more marked than in the
brief history thus far of Colorado.” Property and
life are as secure in Colorado as anywhere. There
are churches, schools, and charities, lyceums, libra-
ries, institutes, and lectures, concerts, fairs, theatri-
cals, donations, calico, dinner, and card parties,
billiards, fast horses, and “going East” in the line
of social enjoyments. No social talent need rust
for want of use. The shops furnish the latest
Eastern fashionable beauty or abomination, the
periodical literature, new books and music and
news of the day, while the markets are as good as
any, except in the fruit line. Aged people, con-
firmed invalids, cripples, beggars, helpless, idiots,
and insane, are almost unknown. Perhaps the in-
cident most peculiar to the country is the large at-
SOCIETY. 449
tendance at the last rite to some comparative
stranger suddenly cut down, unprepared, by death.
Every woman in the community seems to imagine
herself the mother or sister of the deceased, and
these are the most human scenes of the whole
world. The expense is provided for, no one knows
how. In the same way cases of destitution from
sickness are relieved.
From its position and character as metropolis,
Denver is frequently honored by distinguished vis-
itors, public officers and men of affairs, scientific
and literary men and artists, and it always enter-
tains them with spirit. Its resident population is
bright and energetic, eager in their pursuit of busi-
ness and pleasure, their style and fashion, by some
mysterious means, full up with the East. Perfect
roads radiate from Denver in every direction, and
no other town of its size can turn out so many good
roadsters. Not to have a fast nag is not to be
“fast” in the mildest sense of the term. Gambling
used to be a licensed vocation, parading its attrac-
tive temples on the Broadway of the town, but
within a year it has been compelled to hide itself.
When the great acequia which is to give grass,
flowers, fruit, and shade, shall be in operation, Den-
ver will be one of the pleasantest of residences.
Rambles in the Mountains, riding, hunting, bathing,
fishing, berrying, camping out, living on air, puts
new cheeks on old bones and paints them the rich-
est brown.
Finally, there is a nameless, indefinable charm
in the constitution of Rocky Mountain society.
450 THE MINES OF COLORADO.
Whether it come of the incongruity of its original
materials, drawn from every part of the Union, from
much travel, from attrition of many and widely-
differing ideas and consequent enlargement of
view, from out-door life and resulting health and
vigor, from the exciting nature of business, from
contempt for postage stamps and pennies, from
that isolation, which, while it has compelled people
to open their hearts to each other, has forced the
same style of living on rich and poor alike, -
whether from any or all these, or from the fact that
beneath that sky of Heaven with its far horizons,
in presence of those colossal hills, and overlooking
the dry beds of nameless oceans, the soul expands,
and, freed in good part from the restraint and
guidance of custom, creed, and law, and thrown
upon its native mettle, rarely fails of finding in its
deeper springs a stronger incentive to noble en-
deavor, so that GREAT is the adjective ever on the
tongues of the people, and to be great, ever in their
thought, we know not. Certain it is that those
who have lived there long enough to become at all
acclimated are loath to leave and anxious to return.
A DV ER TISE MENTS.

£he #othp ãountain fleus.
Published Weekly and Daily, Sundays excepted.
BYERS & DAILEY, Editors and Proprietors,
Denver, Colorado.
Book and Job Printers,
PRINTING, B00K-BINDING,
And Blank Book Manufacturing Establishment,
FACILITIES FOR DOING
#1 aim or Éir namental job fºr inting
Unequaled in the West.
Large #. Show Cards, Posters, Circulars, Bill-heads, Receipts, &c.,
neatly printed to Order. Blanks of all kinds constantly
On hand and for Sale,
whº miners genister,
Published Daily and Weekly (Sundays excepted), at
Central City, Colorado,
COLLIER & HALL, Editors rand Proprietors.
Republican in Fº but chiefly devoted to mining intelligence. Pub-
lished in the heart of the mines of Colorado, its facilities for ob-
taining reliable information in reference to mining and
indred interests are unsurpassed by those
of any Colorado journal.
L’rinters, BOOk-binders,
AND BILANEK BOOK MANUEACTURER.S.,
FACILITIES FOB DOING
flain or Éir namental job fºr inting
UNEQUALED IN THE WEST.,
Large Fancy Show Cards, Posters, Circulars, Bill-heads, Receipts,
&c., neatly printed to order.
IBlanks of all kinds on hand and for sale.
10AVID C. COLLIER. FRANK HALL,
A DV E R T IS E MENTS.
IBIOIDGE & CHIERISTIE,
LETROIT, IMICHIGALN,
Manufacturers of High and Low Pressure
ENGINES AND Boilers,
For Boats, Mills, Crushing, Stamping, Pumping and Holsting purposes.
Patentees and sole manufacturers of
HODGE'S PATENT ROCK BREAKER,
Improved Cornish Crushing Rollers, with Shells (or wearing faces) of
“Franklinite” Iron, Improved Starºping Machinery, “Frank-
inite” stamp shoes, Cormistºcket, ºni ślunger
Pumps of all sizes, Hoisting Machinery and
Gearing, Hand-power Hoisting Winches,
Jack Screws, Bolts º,
And all kinds of CAST and WROUGHT IRON WORK fºr MINING PURPOSES
Furnished at short notice, together with
PLANS FOR BUILDINGS AND WASH FLOORS.
All work made of the best materials, and by mechanics thoroughly
acquainted with mining work in all its details.
SAM?L F. HODGE. THOS. S. CHRISTIE.
GEO. E. CRATER'S
General insurance, #eal Estate,

azzzzzzeżec,
ANID COLLECTIN G. A. G. E. N. C. Y.
AGENT FOR,
THE WASHINGTON LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK,
The Accident Insurance Company of Columbus, 0.,
AND THE PHENIX, CONTINENTAL,
Metropolitan and Manhattan Fire Insurance Companies,
Of New York.
With an aggregate Capital of more than Ten Millions of Dollars
GEO. E. CRATER, . . DENVER, ... COLORADO,
AD VERTISE MENTS.
GEO. T. CLARK & C0,
Central City, Colorado.
Aſh.
Buy Gold Lust, Coin,
Hºullion and Exchange,
2^. Æh a .
v- w y wr
Sell SIGHT DRAFTS on the principal Cities of the
United States and Europe.
ACCOUNTS KEPT WITH MINING COMPANIES
TUPON LIBERAL TERMS.
Clºſiſ]S Billſ|{{{l iſ IIS Will IEEEWB III]]|| Atlâſſiſſ.
The business of the House will be under the personal super-
vision of
w
GEORGE T. CLA FREX,
Late Cashier of the First National Bank, Denver.
..º. º.
* =
REFER TO
Fourth National Bank, New York. Fourth National Bank, Chicago.
Isett, Kerr & Co., Bankers, “ Clark & Co., Bankers, Leavenworth.
First National Bank, Denver.

AD V E R T IS E M ENT S.
JNO, HARPER. ALEX. STEEL. HENRY HOUSMAN.
HARPER, STEEL & CO.,
Wholesale and Retail Dealers in
HARDWARE, UUTLERY,
Stoves, Plows,
A N ID IMI I IN IN G T O O L S.
AND MANUFACTURERS OF
TIN, SEIEET IRON,
§nd Čopper §are,
Denver, . . . . Colorado.
TAPPAN & CO.,
Wholesale and Retail Dealers in
EI A R D W A R E,
Quart, Miu Furnishings,
#ubber faching and Éelting,
#ire 3rms ami 3mmunition,
TABLE AND POCKET CUTLERY,
AllNID AGRIC UTL TUI: AL IMPLEMENTS.
Lenver and Central Cities,
00I 0 RAI) 0.
A DW E R T I SEM E N T S.
Warren Hussey & Co.,
D E N V E R , . . . CO L OF A D O,
-AND-
Central City, Colorado.
*—a - *––a.
w_----P
BIussey, Dahler & Co.
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH,
Virginia City and Helena, Montana,
IBA INTIEEER.S,

AND DEALERS IN
£xchange, Éold Étist,
GOVERNMENT VOUCHERS, &c.,
DR.A.W. SIGHT DRAFTS
On all Eastern Cities and Missouri River Towns, and on Salt Lake City,
Utah, and Wirginia City and Helena, Montana.
D}|Siſs TBlºgTH]]|}l tº III HDISBS Bāşī āli Wāsī.
3foreigh $4,544e.
Attention, is particularly called to our unrivaled facilities, for drawing
Sterling Bills, payable in any part of Great Britain and Ireland.
tº Collections attended to promptly. §§
AID V E R T IS EM EFNTS.
W. A. H. LOVELAND, .
Golden City, Colorado Territory,
Wholesale and retail dealer in
(§rºtºries, ºrgwigiung,
Feed, Liquors,
#rg Goods, furnishing Goods,
IN A IT, S a n d IIR O N.
A large and well chosen stock of GENERAL MERCHANDISE
kept constantly on hand.
TEIE O. R. STORE,
Central City, Colorado,
Has on hand the largest and most complete assortment of
Fashionable clothing,
Gents’ Furnishing Goods
To be found in any establishment west of the Mississippi.
*
wº-
BEST BRANDS LIQUORS AND CIGARS ALSO ON HAND.
A. JACOBS & CO.
A DV ER, TIS E M ENTS.
The First flational Bank
OF DENVER.
DESIGNATED DEPOSITORY
WAND
Jº INTAINT (GIAT. A. GIG-INT* "S
TJ nited States.
Paid in Capital, . . . . . $200,000
Limit, . . . . . . . . . 500,000
-*-
-v-
J. B. CHAFFEE, President, H, J, R06ERS, Vice President.
D. H. MOFFAT, Jr., Cashier,
—º-
§up amb §ell §obernment jouchers,
Coin, Gold Dust and Exchange,
SIGHT DRAFTs DRAWN ON
New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Missouri River Cities and Towns;
and also on all the principal Cities of Europe.
AEP Collections will receive personal and prompt attention.
AEG" Subscriptions received for all the popular loans of the Government.
*º
Corner of Blake and F Sts., Denver.
D. H. M0FFAT, Jr., Cashier.
A D V E R T IS E M E N T S.
The Crosby & Thompson Process
º the ore for amalgamation by desulphuriz-
Nº. ing, by burning it in cylinders (over a furnace) revolv-
ing on hollow, perforated axles, through which air is supplied.
The vapor from the ore is forced through spray for condensa-
tion, and the ore is then free from sulphur, &c., without any
loss of gold. It is then polished and pulverized in a ball pul-
verizer, and is ready for amalgamation. In amalgamation
about 500 lbs. of quicksilver is used in a bath, the prepared
ore being forced through it by hydraulic pressure, insuring
positive contact and perfect amalgamation of all the gold.
The whole process is practical, economical, durable, and of
ample capacity. For particulars see
J. WETHERBEE, Agen,
INo. 11 Pheniac Building, Boston.
A N E E ER .
THE LEADING!
(ſlothier and fatter
-OF-
Denver, . . . . . Colorado,
Keeps a complete stock of
EReady-made Clothing,
Best French, Scotch, and American Goods
Always in the latest styles, and sofd at one price. His motto:
“Qwick. Sales and Small Profits.”
ADVERTISE MENTS.
“ºffe ºieſirasſia ºepuſſicaä,”
PUBLISHED AT OMAHA, NEBRASKA,
IB A. L. C. O M B E & C O.
Daily, $10.O.O. VVeelrly, $2.50. In advance.
FVERY STYLE OF
#Iain, tºrnamental, #ook amb 3ob #rinting
IEacecwted with taste and dispatch.
As an Advertising Medium.
The REPUBLICAN affords superior advantages to business men
Advertisements and subscriptions Solicited.
IEIIL L Y E ER,” S
T IN ITIE ID S T A TIES
^iiting souritaſ.
ESTABLISHED IN MARCH, 1852.
NOVV IN ITS THIIIETIETE I VOLUIMI.E.
IS PUBLISHED
E V E R Y W E D N E S D A Y
B Y J O H. TST IT II, I., Y FIR,
At 51 New Street, New York City.
PRICE, FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM,
A DV ERTIS EMENTS.
|
ailm and ūethin 3rts 1:233,
Atchison, . . Kansas.
A zºº. A.
vuz v.
T THIED ID A-II L. Y. ET I R. E. E. E." IR, ESS
Is the oldest and largest daily newspaper in Northern Kansas. It is pub-
lished every evening (Sundays excepted), and contains the latest tele-
graphic dispatches up to the hour of going to press.
TERMs.—Delivered in the city, by carrier, for 25 cts. per week. By mail,
$8.00 per year.
THLE VVIEEECILY I FIREE E RIESS
Is published every Saturday morning, and furnished to subscribers for
: per year. Each number contains about twenty columns of reading
matter.
We have a corps of correspondents in all parts of the State, on the
Plains, in Colorado, the Gold Mines, and Washington City.
To persons who desire to be informed of the resources of the West, and
of the inducements to emigrate to Kansas and the Mountain Territories,
THE FREE PRESS will be found a most valuable source of information.
TO ADVERTISERS,
The large and increasing circulation of THE FREE PRESs makes it a valua-
ble medium for advertising. All letters should be addressed to
F. A. ROOT dº CO., Atchison, Kansas.
IEstablished, _, so ( > we e May, 186(O.
Mining and Scientific Press
Published every Saturday by
ID E W E Y & C O.,
F A. T E INT T A- G- E IN T S >
IBOOk and Job Printers,
SAN FRANCISCO.
TERMs, IN ADVANCE.-One year, $5; six months, $3. Back volumes, to Janu-
ary 1, 1864, furnished at $3 per volume.
Each number of the PRESS contains sixteen pages of staty-four columns (size
of Harper's Weekly), embracing a variety of reading of direct value to the
progressive citizens of the Pacific Coast. Our columns contain a liberal
discussion of the different methods of
S A V IN G. G. C. L. D,
All new discoveries in the treatment and development of precious ores and
metals, and illustrations of new machinery and inventions.
DEWEY & CO., Publishers,
505 Clay, Corner Sansome Street, San Franciseo.

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