USA > Colorado > Boulder County > History and production of the gold fields of Boulder County, Colorado > Part 3
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FOURTH OF JULY DYKE
OUT CROP
TIMBER LINE
EAK
. VEIN CROP
ARAPAHOE
1000 FEET FROM SURFACE TO TUNNEL
IORE BODY JJOOFEET, WIDE
$500 FT. FROM SURFACE TO TUNNEL ORE BODY 25 FEET WIDE
KLONDYKE TUNNEL 1500 FT.
NOW DRILLING
26
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
Caribou hill, second to none in the state, as producers in the palmy days of silver in the county.
No mining district has contributed as much mineral wealth to the production of Colorado as Grand Island, having a splendid record of some twenty millions of dollars. Of this amount the greatest part has been taken out of a tract of about one hundred acres on Caribou hill.
Although the mineral production of this section is larger than that of any other individual district of Boulder county, it is the least devel- oped of any, and therefore has the greatest future.
Within two years two railroads have been constructed through this section affording a rare opportunity for economic mining and ready market for its ores. A revolution in conditions has brought a revolution in mining. Gold, silver, copper and tungsten ores are pouring out of the district in car load lots, to which list will soon be added molybdinite. So far as is known no gold-field in Colorado rivals this diversity of min- eral production.
The principal mining camps of the district are Eldora and Caribou, the mines of which will be considered in the order given.
ELDORA
This camp is the youngest in the county and was discovered less than ten years ago. The total gold production to date is about $250,000 dividend as follows:
The Enterprise $100,000
The Village Belle 50,000
Bird's Nest 50,000
The Revenge 50,000
Eldora is the terminal point of the Colorado Northwestern Ry. company, and the ores from Arapahoe peak and all surrounding country are brought to this point for shipment.
Here is also situated the great Mogul Tunnel which extends several thousand feet into Spencer Mountain. This tunnel is owned by Col. S. B. Dick and associates of the Colorado Northwestern Rd. company and will be one of the heaviest shippers of the district to the new railroad, the ore production being estimated at 200 tons daily. ,
CARIBOU THE CARIBOU GROUP.
The history of the Caribou mine is a story of one of the greatest mining excitements recorded in the territorial days of Colorado. It is a story of the greatest producer in the gold-fields of Boulder county and of the greatest silver mine in Colorado. It was discovered by one of those
27
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
peculiar chances of fortune, which have led to the finding of many of the greatest bonanzas in this state.
About the close of the civil war Sam Congor, an old time pros- pector and hunter of Colorado, had discovered a gold vein, in one of his solitary tramps over the forest clad hills near the snowy range in the western part of Boulder county, which he named the Congor, after him- self. Years later Congor drifted to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he was shown some silver ore from the far famed silver mines of Nevada, and was at once struck with its similarity to the loose rock he had stumbled over many times in his solitary hunting and prospecting trips among the hills near Arapahoe peak. The incident revealed a secret to him and he at once returned to Gilpin county, Colorado, where he intrusted it to William Martin and George Lytle, two partners whom he persuaded to ac- company him on a prospecting trip to refind the rich silver ore which he had seen so many times years before, never dreaming of its precious value.
Buoyant with the hope of fortune and adventure, the party set out late in the summer of 1869 in quest of the new ore among those moun- tains in the western part of Boulder county which lead up to the bleak and barren peaks forming the crest of the American Continent. The party discovered the blossom rock at the foot of a large hill and after the manner of prospectors, they followed it up to a point where no more could be seen. Here they began to dig, and each struck a crevice. Congor named his lode the "Poor Man," after his financial condition, while Martin called his the "Caribou," after a rich mining district in British Columbia. Specimens of the ore were taken to Central City and assayed, giving returns which exceeded the fondest hopes of the pros- pectors.
Congor and his partner kept their own counsel and prepared to de- velop their property under the most adverse circumstances during the winter of '69, in face of the fact that the mines were located at an alti- tude of 10,000 feet above sea-level, where the winter storms were severe and continuous. They carried their winter supplies on their backs over a, trail to a log cabin, which they built on Caribou hill and work was con- tinued throughout the long winter, getting out ore for shipment in the spring.
With that courage and bravery, so characteristic of the western miner, they constructed a wagon road through the great forest that then covered the hills to the nearest county road, miles distant, and shipped a wagon load of ore to the smelting works located at Black Hawk Colo- rado which yielded hundreds of dollars.
28
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
News of the strike spread rapidly over the state and then followed one of the first great mining excitements in the history of Colorado. Miners flocked to the new camp by the hundreds and the ground was stalked out for many miles surrounding the discovery.
In the same year the Idaho was discovered on Idaho Hill and $6,000 was taken out within a month in sinking a shaft 20 feet, and then fol- lowed many other fabulous discoveries and the fame of the camp spread far and wide. In the spring of '70 the Caribou shaft was sunk to a depth of 200 feet, and over $70,000 was realized during that season. The Caribou continued to produce handsomely and in the spring of '73 the mine was sold in Holland for three million dollars. From 70 to 100 . men were employed on the mine, per month, and in "74 it produced 1,800 tons of ore of the total value of one hundred and thirty thousand dol- lars. In "75 the yield was over two hundred thousand and the mine was then rated as one of the seven mines of Colorado with a record produc- tion for the year of over two hundred thousand dollars.
On account of the prohibitory smelting rates existing at that time, a large silver mill was erected on middle Boulder Creek at Nederland, four miles distant from the mine, where all the ore produced by the Caribou was reduced to bullion. Up to 1876, the Caribou had produced upwards of a million dollars, and from "72 to '76 the pay roll amounted to from $12,000 to $15,000 per month. In this year the property bceame involved and passed into the hands of Denver parties David H. Moffat becoming one of its principal owners. Eben Smith, whose name has been identified with some of the greatest mining ventures of the state, was made superintendent of the property. From 1876 to 1893, the Caribou, the No Name and the Sherman were operated as a group, con- tinuously and without interruption, 100 to 1,500 men being on the pay roll, and they well ranked as the leading silver producers of the state. It is estimated that during this time the Caribou group paid in divi- dends to its owners over $7,000,000, and its gross production per annum often amounted to as much as $2,000,000.
The total gross production of the No Name, Sherman and Caribou, up to the time the properties closed down in '93, is conservatively esti- mated at twenty million dollars, of which amount one and one half mil- lions is known to have been produced prior to 1876. This production en- titles the Caribou to rank as the greatest mine in Boulder county.
Like all of the famous silver mines in Colorado, it was closed down by the great silver panic of 1893, following the demonitization of silver and its pumps were "pulled." The property was never operated until the year 1903, when leasers worked the mine above the tunnel level.
29
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
The low grade ore mined from the Caribou averaged seventy ounces in silver, one quarter of an ounce in gold, twelve per cent in copper and six per cent in lead or a total value of over fifty dollars per ton at present prices.
The high grade ore ran fabulously high in silver and many of the "old timers" have specimens of almost pure native silver that were taken from this property. The shaft on this property is only 1,000 feet deep and the territory below this level is virgin ground. Some of the richest ore ever taken from the mine came out of the lowest levels, and it goes without saying, that it has a great future.
POORMAN.
This property lies parallel to and just north of the famous Caribou mine on Caribou Hill. In 1874-5 it yielded 152 tons of ore of the gross value of $21,504. Its record production to date is over a quarter of a million dollars. Hon. Neil D. Mckenzie of Boulder, Colorado purchased this property from the original locater soon after its discovery, and the fortune which he realized from its operation affords but one of the many romantic instances of large fortunes accumulated by Boulder citizens. Mr. Mckenzie still owns and operates the property at his pleasure.
BOULDER COUNTY MINE. Record Production $500,000.
The Boulder county lode is ranked as one of the greatest bonanza properties of the county. It was discovered in the spring of 1870 in the height of the excitement over the famous Caribou. It was named after the great county in which it was located, but is destined to become none the less famous. In this property is found a combination of gold and silver ores, the gold predominating. It is situated at Cardinal, about one mile east of the famous Caribou, and marks the dividing line be- tween the gold and silver belt. The mine produced from a purely sur- face ore chute between the years of 1870 and 1880, a half million in gold, according to the best information obtainable from those acquainted with its early history.
After 1880, the property was closed down and remained idle for a period of almost twenty years. In 1900 T. N. Barnsdall of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, purchased the property with the Boulder county ranch, embracing over 1,200 acres. Mr. Barnsdall had ample means as well as confidence in the future of this bonanza property, and in 1902 began its systematic development by means of shafts and tunnels, which has been prosecuted steadily for the past two years. No ore has been
30
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
shipped except that taken out in development work. The ore blocked out during this time warrants the statements that the mine will be one of the greatest producers in the county and may prove in time a second Caribou. The new branch of the Colorado Northwestern Ry. company, runs directly past the entrance of the great 3,000 foot drainage tunnel now nearing completion and the property is capable of producing for an indefinite period, many thousand tons of gold ore monthly, at a large profit on each ton. The owner has refused to sell his mine at an ad- vance of many times his investment, and the remarkable result obtained in the making of this dividend payer is only one out of the many produ- cers of the county, calculated to make the gold fields of Boulder county one of the greatest in the state.
Note :- For the production of the Caribou group, see Fossett's book on Colorado chapter 36. Jas. Cowie and S. A. Giffin of Boulder, place the production of the Caribou alone at a minimum of ten million dollars. Mr. Cowie was for years secretary of the company operating the Caribou and is a high authority. Mr. Giffin is the attorney for the present owners, and has seen a large part of the returns. For the production of "Poor Man," we refer to Hon. Neil D. McKinzie. As to other mines of the district M. F. Leach, A. M. Selfridge of Boulder, the Eldora Record and the Daily Camera.
THE KLONDIKE.
This property lies west of Caribou and near the Continental Divide and was discovered about 1871. It was located on the Fourth of July dyke, or "mother" lode on which the famous Caribou and Sherman lodes are situated. It is famous for the production of ore so fabulous in value that the owners were able to carry it on their backs three miles to Caribou over a trail and ship it at a large profit. Thousands of dollars were taken out of a shaft not over fifty feet deep, but no accurate data as to its production can be obtained. No mine in the county has been the subject of as many legendary tales of rich treasures as this one. It is now the property of the United States Gold Corporation, whose Klon- dike tunnel will cut the lode 1,000 feet in depth some time this year.
FOURTH OF JULY.
This lode was discovered in 1870 and was named after the day on which it was discovered. It is famous because it lies on the crest of the Continent. It is also located on the famous dyke bearing the same name. The property passed into the hands of a corporation three years ago. The latter has driven a tunnel almost a half mile in length, at a cost of
3I
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
over $100,000, to develop the property at a great depth. The result has amply justified the expenditure as the property will be one of the great producers of the country.
Among the other great mines of the district with their production may be mentioned :
Production.
The Bluebird
$150,000
The St. Louis (shipping.)
50,000
The Belcher, (working) 20,000
The Idaho 20,000
The Seven Thirty 20,000
The Eureka, (working)
10,000
The Anchor, (shipping)
10,000
THE FUTURE.
In conclusion, we believe that no other gold fields of the state have a brighter future than those of Boulder county. Its past production of nearly $60,000,000 in gold and silver from high grade ores, from sur- face workings; its vast net work of mineral veins spreading over an area of twenty-five square miles, probably the largest mineral area in Colo- rado; its wide diversity of precious and rare minerals; its wonderful tungsten belt, the largest in the world; its splendid facilities for economic mining, and marketing of ores occasioned by the construction of two new! railroads through the gold-fields; its millions upon millions of tons of low grade ore, the result of over forty years of development, rendered marketable by the great reduction in treatment charges; the replacement of the single adaption of up-to-date and economic mining methods, throughout the field all these factors and many others predict for Boulder county the coming gold fields of Colorado.
A TRIP TO UNITED STATES GOLD (By Col. W. B. Teters, Veteran Mine Operator and Expert of Boulder County.
When I first came to Boulder in 1875, the great mining activity of the county was centered around the famous Caribou mine, which then ranked as one of the greatest mines in Colorado. During the summer of 1875 I spent a great deal of time prospecting the country west of Caribou, extending towards the Continental Divide. The excitement over the Caribou had attracted the attention of prospectors from all over the country, and I found all the territory staked for a radius of five miles surrounding the Caribou camp.
32
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
It was therefore with unusual pleasure and interest that I recently made a trip to the mines of the United States Gold Corporation on Arapahoe peak, through the courtesy of the management to visit a country that I thoroughly prospected some thirty years before. The first thing which attracted my attention was the splendid wagon road ex- tending from Eldora to the mines up Fourth of July gulch, a distance of some five miles. When I was in this country in '75 it was wild and . inaccessible, except by a precipitous trail from Caribou.
As we arrived at the camp I was impressed by the marvelous grand- eur of the scenery. It was indescribable. We were at an altitude of over 10,000 feet. To the west of us we could see the crest of the Conti- nent. On either side of this rose Chittenden mountain and Arapahoe peak to their dizzy heights. I was reminded of the striking similarity of this scene to the San Juan country and Ouray, in Gunnison county. I recalled Tom Walsh's advice to the prospector to go to the Continental Divide to find great mines. I was swept with a conviction that here nature had lavishly deposited her precious minerals, and, here at the backbone of the continent was a mining section of wonderful possi- bilities.
One of the things that particularly attracted my attention was the existence of ideal conditions for economic mining. High up on the mountain side were the out-croppings of large veins standing like a wall above the surface. They ran parallel with the mountain one above the other, in succession. The series of veins could be opened and drained by one tunnel of a comparative short distance, driven from the base of the mountain, at a cost less than a shaft could be sunk on any one of . the lodes. Up and down the gulch for a mile and a half the patented ground of the company was covered with a wealth of standing and fallen timber, so thick as to make travel impossible to man or beast except upon the wagon road. The same condition also existed on the various lode claims and I could roughly estimate there was two million feet of timber on the territory owned by the company. Here was an ample supply to timber, miles and miles of underground workings as well as for fuel and power. Close at hand the head-waters of Boulder Creek are formed and within a stone's throw of the company's power house, a large stream of water flowed by which can be harnessed for cheap power and utilized for milling and smelting purposes.
EQUIPMENT.
It was a pleasure to find that this company had grasped the full force of the situation. At the base of the mountain the Klondyke tun- nel has been projected some fifteen hundred feet in length and was then
33
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
in over 750 feet. It was a greater pleasure to note the up-to-date and modern mining methods that were in evidence at this camp. A splendid power plant stood at the portal of the tunnel. Boilers, engine, five drill air compressors, with all other equipment, and in perfect running oper- ation. No where in the country have I seen a finer plant of machinery.
KLONDYKE TUNNEL.
At the breast of the Klondyke then in over 750 fcet into the moun- tain, six foot drill holes were being driven into the granite every few minutes with power drills, where it would have taken as many hours by hand.
In dimensions, the tunnel is 5 to 7 feet, laid with heavy track and water box and is run through solid granite for its entire distance, cut- ting the lodes at right angles.
Five different veins had been cut ranging from two to ten feet in width. We went into the Monroe vein, where a long drift had ex- posed to view thousands of tons of heavy black iron ore. The vein as shown by cross cuts from the drift was full ten feet wide. In the roof of the drift several feet of soft mill dirt was exposed on the left side, which was seamed like a fine net with black mineral or iron, which, in this section carries the gold. The matrix or gangue in the vein is very soft, while the iron is very heavy, a condition highly favorable to con- centration, where the ore is too low to ship to smelters. I was reminded of the great mines of Gilpin county, which have produced millions of dollars from the same character of ore. In this day and age it is not so much the value of the ore as it is the quality of ore in the mine, so long as a net profit can be derived from the whole. The great tonnage of ore that can be mined from this vein above the tunnel level at a few dollars per ton net profit to the company is the one factor which convinced me of the marvelous possibilities of this one lode. Another factor worthy of mention is the width of the ore chute and small expense at which the ore can be shot down and run out by gravity to the portal of the tunnel for concentration or shipment.
The other four leads exposed by the tunnel were smaller than the Monroe, but many of them showed very good looking ore. They were all blind leads which were not exposed on the surface. In my judgment many more blind leads will be discovered in completing the tunnel and I should not be surprised if some of them would be as good or better than any that are exposed.
The mountain is very rich in mineral as is evidenced by discovery of molybdenite in the Monroe lode since my visit to the property. The
34
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
company is pushing the tunnel to completion very rapidly and anticipate having it into the Fourth of July dyke long before the end of this year.
THE SURFACE.
For over a half a day we followed the outcroppings of the Monroe and Arapahoe lodes from east to west. The mountain side is literally covered with great chunks of float and vein matter which have been brok- en off these veins. Some of these will weigh a ton and will pan free gold. In 1875 I was over this section and assayed a great deal of the ore. It would run as high as $20 per ton but in those days such ore was worthless.
FOURTH OF JULY DYKE.
The Klondyke lodes covering about a mile on the Fourth of July Dyke outcrop on the surface above timberline. The rise of the moun- tain was so great that we were obliged to pick out our way up and around to the point under which the tunnel will cut with great care. We had climbed 1,000 feet above the level of the tunnel to reach this lode. The dyke at this point was fully one hundred feet wide. It is a small mountain in itself and can be seen for miles either way.
I recognized on the lower edge of the dyke an old shaft which was there in 1875. I remember well in that year the circumstances of two miners sinking the shaft on a rich pocket of ore from which they mined some fabulously rich ore and carried it over a three mile trail to Caribou on their backs as there was no other means of transportation. Several thousand dollars was thus mined from the shaft of my own knowledge The owners of the lode later became discouraged and I am informed abandoned it. I understand that samples from the dump of this shaft gave values as high as $1,000 per ton. Here at this point stood a ledge of ore fully 20 feet wide, which I was informed, would run better than $20 per ton by actual tests in gold, copper and silver, the copper values being 8 per cent. In my judgement the dyke is the most valuable of the miles of claims owned by the company. It is one of the greatest mineral dykes that I know of in the state. Fossett refers to it in his book on Colorado at page 369 as follows:
"The Fourth of July lode is an immense ore channel situated several miles west of Caribou and near Arapahoe peak. This is from 50 to 100 feet wide, and has been traced and preempted for its entire course of three miles. It crosses the snowy range. This lode contains some very rich seams of ore but requires capital to open it into condition for advan- tageous mining. Two tunnels are being driven towards it from the headwaters of the Boulder."
35
THE GOLD FIELDS OF BOULDER COUNTY.
It was an open secret in the early days of the Caribou with its record production of millions upon millions of dollars that the Caribou and Sherman leads were a branch or spur from the Fourth of July dyke. I prospected the ground in '75 and '76 and proved this theory to my own satisfaction. The Company have a mile on the main dyke itself. It lies several miles closer to the Continental Divide than the Caribou and carries high values in copper. Here is a body of ore right at the surface of remarkable values, which can be mined now at a profit. That no effort to do so has been made by the company is manifest from the precipitous character of the mountain side.
However, when the Klondyke tunnel is driven into this 100-foot dyke I should not be surprised to learn of a strike that would make this property rival or even surpass the great Caribou. In any event, the possibilities are beyond estimation. ; That the tunnel will open up a great body of smelting ore seems to be a matter of absolute certainty.
I stood upon this ledge above timber line and looked upon the thousands of tons of float scattered for hundreds of feet below me, and tried to contemplate the possibilities of the future when the Klondyke tunnel cut this dyke at the marvelous depth of 1,000 feet as well as a dozen other lodes at a somewhat lesser depth, I understood why the management and stockholders of the company believed that the stock would pay dividends to themselves and their children's children. I be- lieved it myself.
Considering the great magnitude of the enterprise the management have made great progress in carrying on its plan of development work. I understand the tunnel is now in 800 feet and is now being driven in night and day a distance of some 150 feet monthly. It seems certain that the tunnel will be completed in a few months and it seems equally certain that the company will go on a permanent shipping basis this year. The quiet systematic manner in which the management have pushed their development work for two years meant business from the start and is an example which could be followed with great profit by the owners of other mines of Boulder County.
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