History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 26

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954

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"On June 30, Green Russell found himself with only a dozen men, camped near the mouth of Cherry Creek. It was a critical time, and he called a council. In a plain talk he said he had come to this country to prospect the Rocky Moun- tains. He was unwilling to give it up. 'If only one man will stay with me,' he said, 'I will remain until I satisfy myself that no gold can be found, if it takes all summer. Will you stay with me?' The twelve men, some of them Georgians and some Kansans, declared that they would stick by him.

"Not at all disheartened by the turn of affairs, the handful of men broke up camp and started up the Platte. They were on the constant lookout for pros- pects. Here and there they stopped and washed out a panful of pay dirt. One day, as James H. Pierce tells the story, he was loitering behind the wagons, scanning the bars and shores, when he thought he saw a bar that would pan

JOSEPH O. RUSSELL

THE STATE HISTORICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF COLORADO

The subjects of these portraits were brothers and distinguished pioneers of the Colorado country. They were the organizers and leaders of the "Russell Company," which came to our section of the Rocky mountains early in the summer of 1858, thoroughly to prospect the Pike's Peak district for gold. They formed the initial organization, which consisted of nine men in all, at their homes in Lumpkin County, Georgia, in the old gold field in the northern part of that state. At Manhattan, Kansas, the party was joined by twelve other white men; and a few days later, pursuant to a prior understanding, by about thirty Cherokee Indians, who were under the leadership of Rev. John Beck and Judge George Hicks, both of whom were of the Cherokee tribe.

The company arrived at the site of Denver on June 24th, and immediately thereafter its members began searching for the yellow metal in the beds of streams in that locality. While the rewards were not large, they were sufficient to convince these prospectors that gold in opulent quantities existed in the Pike's Peak district. The results of the company's operations during that summer were the immediate causes of the founding of American settlements in "the Pike's Peak Gold Region" in the autumn months of that year.

The portrait of William Green Russell (p. 231) is from a photographie copy of a crayon picture made in 1857; that of Levi J. Russell ( p. 235), a physician, is from a photograph made in 1888; and that of Joseph Oliver Russell is an enlargement of a photograph made in 1885.

William died at Briartown, Indian Territory, on August 24, 1877; Levi died at Temple, Texas, March 23, 1908; and Joseph died at Menardville, Texas, October 28, 1906.

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out well. He dipped up a shovelful of sand and dirt and began washing it. At that moment Green Russell came up and finished panning it. He secured coarse gold flakes to the value of a dime and exclaimed: 'Our fortune is made!'

"The other men retraced their steps and looked at the gold dust, delighted. They all got busy with feverish haste, and in a short time they obtained gold to the value of a hundred dollars from the sands of the Platte. The pocket of colors was soon exhausted, but in high hopes they kept up the quest, day by day. Not long afterward they found another valuable deposit of float gold on the bank of Dry Creek. The leader and another man were out hunting antelope a little to the south of the Englewood of today and came to a spot where the ground sparkled with flakes of gold. Here they got from four to five hundred dollars' worth of the yellow metal. That was all, but it was enough to settle the fate of the expedition.

"Reports of the discovery spread to Kansas and Missouri and started an emi- gration to the 'Pike's Peak gold region' in the summer and fall of 1858. News of a find by a teamster in the army passing down the Platte that year was published abroad, and this started a hegira of gold seekers from St. Louis.

"Such is, in brief, the history of the first finds of the yellow metal in what is now Colorado. To the Cherokees justly belongs the credit of originating the Russell expedition, and Green Russell deserves the praise of keeping up the quest and nerving the remnant of the party until success crowned their efforts. For this is William Green Russell remembered and honored as one of the makers of Colorado. One of the figures of the Pioneer Monument in Denver was modeled after this noble man.

"Meanwhile there were other gold seekers in the Pike's Peak country in that fateful summer of 1858. Green Russell and his companions antedated the arrival of the historic Lawrence party by only a fortnight. A Delaware Indian by the name of Fall Leaf started this expedition. In the summer of 1857 this red man acted as guide to Colonel Sumner while he was chasing some Arapa- hoes and Cheyennes on the warpath. One day, Fall Leaf stopped to get a drink in a little stream of water flowing down the side of a mountain probably in the Front Range. He saw several nuggets of glistening gold lying in the water on a rock, and, of course, he picked them up. Late in the autumn of 1857, he returned to his reservation and visited the town of Lawrence, Kansas. He showed the bunch of nuggets to John Easter, the village butcher. 'Where did you get these?' asked Easter. 'Two sleeps from Pike's Peak,' answered the Indian. Easter got the gold fever at once. He spoke of the find to his neighbors, and in the following spring they organized a company of about forty persons to pros- pect the Pike's Peak region for gold. Fall Leaf promised to accompany them and lead them to the spot where he found the nuggets, but when it came to a showdown Mr. Indian refused, and they went on without him. They proceeded leisurely up the Arkansas River, seeing thousands of Indians. They found the plains black with bison as far as the eye could see in western Kansas. On the third of July the party camped on the present site of Pueblo. Two days later they camped in the Garden of the Gods. They knocked about for six weeks, having a good time, but not finding any gold to speak of. Then they heard by chance of the discovery in Dry Creek and forthwith they set northward for the diggings. One of the leading spirits of the company was Josiah Hinman who,

DR. LEVI J. RUSSELL

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with a number of other men, laid out the town of 'Montana City' in the month of September, 1858. This was the first Colorado village founded by Americans. It existed only about six months, however.

"From time to time other newcomers pitched their tents at the mouth of Cherry Creek and the Platte, which had already become a rendezvous for pros- pectors and miners. In October some of them began building log cabins, John Easter erecting one of the huts. Nebraskans, Kansans and people from the States kept coming, and the little cluster of cabins grew into a hamlet that was at first called Auraria, after a place in Georgia. Then the name was changed to Denver in honor of General James W. Denver who was, in 1858, the governor of Kansas Territory, which at that time extended to the main range of the Rocky Mountains.

"Such was the beginning of Colorado. The settled portion between Pueblo and Boulder first went by the name of the 'Pike's Peak country,' the 'Pike's Peak gold region,' also 'Pike's Peak and Cherry Creek.' It is said that as many as two thousand gold seekers came here in the summer and fall of 1858. They dug up the gravel in many localities, uncovering some 'prospects.' The only important discovery of 1858, however, was the find in Dry Creek."

JACKSON'S DISCOVERIES ON CLEAR CREEK

The gold strikes of the summer and fall of 1858 were small-probably no more than $2,000 in value-but the reports of them, greatly exaggerated, spread far and wide and started the rush to Pike's Peak the following year. Fortunately, important discoveries of gold were made early in 1859 by George A. Jackson and John Gregory. Otherwise nothing might have come of this historic stampede.

George Jackson hailed from Missouri, and he had in him some of the spirit of the renowned backwoodsman, Daniel Boone. Jackson, who had done some mining in California, came to the Pike's Peak country in 1858, and with two other men, built a cabin on the present site of Golden, the town that afterward grew up and was named after one of these men, Tom Golden. The other man was James Sanders.

It was holiday time, when most men would prefer to sit by the fire, that these three Fifty-eighters-Jackson, Golden and Sanders-set out on a pros- pecting tour, intending to look for gold in the mountains. That was December 31, 1858. They struck out on foot into the hills, each man carrying a rifle and a small load of provisions. On New Year's Day they sighted a big band of elk. and forthwith Jackson's two comrades left him to hunt elk. Undaunted, he proceeded up Clear Creek alone, with his two dogs, Drum and Kit, for company. Besides his rifle, he carried a blanket, a drinking cup and a little bread and. coffee, enough to last several days. That was his outfit. He depended upon his rifle to supply him with meat.

Jackson pressed on up Clear Creek, part of the time finding it hard traveling. wading here and there through snow two or three feet deep. Along toward nightfall, he came to the hot mineral springs, now known as the famous summer resort of Idaho Springs. Nearby were some large flocks of mountain sheep graz- ing, and he shot one. That night he camped in a clump of cottonwood trees. The next day the weather turned cold and snowy; so he stayed in the little

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This agreement was one of the consequences of the discovery of gold on the site of the City of Denver by the Russell prospecting expedition into the Pike's Peak country in the summer of 1858, and which was followed in the autumn of that year by the founding of Denver. When the "parties of the first part" to this agreement arrived at the site of Den- ver (which was the principal rendezvous of the Pike's Peak Argonauts). they joined with others, who were on the ground, in a town-company enterprise that was a part of the city's beginning and thus complied, to some extent, with the purpose of the agreement.

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bough-house he had made to shelter him. The following day being pleasant, the ambitious prospector started out in the trackless wilderness to search for traces of gold. He wandered up a gulch, finding no traces of colors.

Jackson's first day's quest was unsuccessful but, hero that he was, he resolved to stay and try again, although supplies of provisions were running low. He put in another day, tramping up and down creek and canyons, without seeing any gold. He returned to camp after dark, tired and hungry, only to find that a marauding cougar had stolen all his meat. The man went to bed sup- perless, for he had eaten the last of his bread that morning. He did not lose heart, however. He got up early the next morning and shot a wild sheep before sunrise. He drank the last of his coffee and started out to do some more prospect- ing. This day, January 5, Jackson found a place a half-mile up stream where the gravel looked good. Here he made a new camp under a big fir tree. The ground was frozen hard, and he built a big fire on it. All day (January 6), he kept the fire going until the ground was thawed. The next day he had his reward. "Clear day,"-he cheerily writes in his diary, January 7-"removed fire embers and dug into rim on bed-rock, panned out eight treaty cups of dirt and found nothing but fine colors; ninth cup I got one nugget of coarse gold; feel good to-night."

Jackson worked another day, digging and panning until his hunting knife was worn out. He then had about a half ounce of gold worth ten dollars. "I've got the diggings at last," he wrote in his journal. Having no mining tools- pick, shovel and pan-the man had to quit. He marked the spot of his discovery and trudged back to his shack.

In the spring, Jackson returned to the spot, where he had marked a tree so that he could locate it, and took out between four and five thousand dollars' worth of placer gold. Jackson Bar was the first large deposit of gold ever uncov- ered in the Rockies. The site of this bonanza is near the mouth of a little stream, Chicago Creek, flowing into Clear Creek. A monument marks this spot in the town of Idaho Springs. This discovery was an event of vast moment in the history of the West.

Meanwhile John H. Gregory, of Georgia, was prospecting only a few miles away from Jackson, although neither knew of the presence of the other. Gregory discovered rich placer ground, near Blackhawk; in the gulch that bears his · name. The Jackson Diggings and the Gregory Diggings were some thirty-five miles to the west of Denver.

CLEAR CREEK PRODUCTION

These were the beginnings of the mineral industry of Colorado, which leads all states of the Union, except California, in gold production. Clear Creek County was organized in 1861. One mining camp after another had its day, and mil- lions of treasure, mostly placer gold, was obtained. The mines of Empire, Georgetown, Idaho and other diggings were famous in Territorial days. Many rich quartz veins were discovered, and fortunes were made. There was not much deep mining done then, the shafts being from fifty to 300 feet deep. The Argentine district produced both gold and silver in large quantities many years ago. Lead and copper also were found in some of the mining districts of Clear

14144

VIEW OF BLACKHAWK, LOOKING UP GREGORY AND CHASE'S GULCHES This picture was drawn by A. E. Mathews in the latter part of the year 1865.

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Creek County. Not until about 1903 was much zinc obtained. Around George- town, silver-lead-zinc ores predominate.

So long ago as 1870, Clear Creek County was one of the leading producers of the precious metals in Colorado. Says Hall in his "History of Colorado," Vol. III., p. 323: "While exact figures are not at hand, the mines of this county have contributed about $40,000,000 in gold, silver and lead to the mineral wealth of the world, the greater part during the last two decades (1870-1890). The product is from two to two and a half millions per annum."

Since 1890, the mineral production of Clear Creek County has fallen off somewhat, and yet it is one of the best mineral counties of Colorado. Its mines are still yielding an abundant harvest of the precious metals. The past score years, the annual production has ranged from one to two million dollars, and some years over two thousand men have been engaged in the mineral industry in this county.

In 1895, the State Bureau of Mines was established. Its biennial reports con- tain statistics which may be quoted as trustworthy. During the past eighteen years, Clear Creek County's gold output has amounted to over ten million dol- lars ; the output of silver has been about nine million dollars; that of lead has exceeded three millions; and a half million dollars' worth of copper has been obtained. The past dozen years, 1903-1914, the zinc harvest has exceeded one million dollars. The grand total of these five minerals during the years 1897- 1914 is nearly twenty-four million dollars.

During fifty-nine years-1859-1917-the Clear Creek mining region has pro- duced over $100,000,000, mostly gold and silver. But few other counties of Colorado have made a better showing.

THE FIRST MINING REVIEW

The report on the mining outlook of the Pike's Peak region after a few months of operation was prepared at the "Diggings" by Horace Greeley, A. D. Rich- ardson and Henry Villard.

And here is that famous report, which gives an accurate picture of the men and the mines of that period:

Gregory's Diggings, near Clear Creek, in the Rocky Mountains,

June 9th, 1859.

The undersigned, none of them miners, nor directly interested in mining, but now here for the express purpose of ascertaining and setting forth the truth with regard to a subject of deep and general interest, as to which the widest and wildest diversity of assertion and opinion is known to exist, unite in the following statement :

We have this day personally visited nearly all the mines or claims already opened in this valley (that of a little stream running into Clear Creek at this point) ; have witnessed the operation of digging, transporting, and washing the veinstone (a partially decomposed, or rotten quartz, running in regular veins from southwest to northeast, between shattered walls of an impure gran- ite), have seen the gold plainly visible in the riffles of nearly every sluice, and in nearly every pan of the rotten quartz washed in our presence; have seen gold (but rarely) visible to the naked eye, in pieces of the quartz not yet fully decom-

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posed, and have obtained from the few who have already sluices in operation accounts of their several products, as follows :

Zeigler, Spain & Co. ( from South Bend, Indiana), have run a sluice, with some interruptions, for the last three weeks; they are four in company, with one hired man. They have taken out a little over three thousand pennyweights of gold, esti- mated by them as worth at least $3,000; their first day's work produced $21 ; their highest was $495.

Sopris, Henderson & Co. (from Farmington, Indiana), have run their sluice six days in all with four men-one to dig, one to carry, and two to wash; four days last week produced $607; Monday of this week, $280; no further reported. They have just put in a second sluice, which only began to run this morning.

Foote & Simmons (from Chicago), one sluice, run four days ; two former days produced $40; two latter promised us, but not received.

Defrees & Co. (from South Bend, Indiana), have run a small sluice eight days, with the following results: first day, $66; second day, $80; third day, $95; fourth day, $305 (the four following days were promised us, but, by accident, failed to be received.) Have just sold half their claim (a full claim is 50 feet by 100), for $2,500.

Shears & Co. (from Fort Calhoun, Nebraska), have run one sluice two hours the first (part of a) day; produced $30; second (first full) day, $343; third (today), $510; all taken from within three feet of the surface; vein a foot wide on the surface; widened to eighteen inches at a depth of three feet.

Brown & Co. (from De Kalb County, Indiana), have been one week on their claim; carry their dirt half a mile; have worked their sluice a day and a half ; produced $260; have taken out quartz specimens containing from 50 cents to $13 each in gold; vein 8 to 10 feet wide.

Casto, Kendall & Co. (from Butler County, Iowa), reached Denver March 25; drove the first wagon to these diggings; have been here five weeks; worked first on a claim, on which they ran a sluice but one day ; produced $225 ; sold their claim for $2,500; are now working a claim on the Hunter lead, have only sluiced one (this) day ; three men employed; produced $85.

Bates & Co., one sluice, run half a day ; produced $135.

Colman, King & Co., one sluice, run half a day ; produced $75.

Shorts & Collier, bought our claims seven days since of Casto, Kendall & Co. for $2,500; $500 down, balance as fast as taken out. Have not yet got our sluices in operation. Mr. Dean, from Iowa, on the 6th inst., washed from a single pan of dirt taken from the claim, $17.80. Have been offered $10,000 for the claim.

S. G. Jones & Co. (from eastern Kansas), have run our sluices two days, with three men ; yield, $225 per day. Think the quartz generally in this vicinity is gold- bearing. Have never seen a piece crushed that did not yield gold.

A. P. Wright & Co. (from Elkhart County, Indiana), sluice, but just in oper- ation ; have not yet ascertained its products. Our claim prospects from 25 cents to $1.25 to the pan.

John H. Gregory (from Gordon County, Georgia), left home last season en route for Frazier River, was detained by a succession of accidents at Ft. Laramie, and wintered there. Meanwhile heard of the discoveries of gold on the South Platte, and started on a prospecting tour on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, early in January. Prospected in almost every valley from Vol. 1-16

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the Cache la Poudre Creek to Pike's Peak, tracing many streams to their sources .- Early in May arrived on Clear Creek, at the foot of the mountains, thirty miles southeast of this place. There fell in with the Defrees & Zeigler Indiana companies, and William Fouts, of Missouri. We all started up Clear Creek, prospecting. Arrived in this vicinity, May 6; the ice and snow prevented us from prospecting far below the surface, but the first pan of surface dirt, on the original Gregory claim, yielded $4. Encouraged by this success, we all staked out claims, found the "lead" consisting of burnt quartz, resembling the Georgia mines, in which I had previously worked. Snow and ice prevented the regular working of the lead until May 16. From then until the twenty-third, I worked it five days with two hands, result, $972. Soon after, I sold my two claims for $21,000, the parties buying to pay me, after deducting their expenses, all they take from the claims to the amount of $500 per week, until the whole is paid. Since that time, I have been prospecting for other parties, at about $200 per day. Have struck another lead on the opposite side of the valley, from which I washed $14, out of a single pan.

Some forty or fifty sluices commenced, are not yet in operation; but the owners inform us that their "prospecting" shows from 10 cents to $5 to the pan. As the "leads" are all found on the hills, many of the miners are con- structing trenches to carry water to them, instead of building their sluices in their ravines, and carrying the dirt thither in wagons, or sacks. Many persons who have come here without provisions or money, are compelled to work as common laborers, at from $1 to $3 per day and board, until they can procure means of sustenance for the time necessary to prospecting, building sluices, etc. Others, not finding gold the third day, or disliking the work necessary to obtain- ing it, leave the mines in disgust, after a very short trial, declaring there is no gold here in paying quantities. It should be remembered that the discoveries made thus far, are the result of but five weeks' labor.

In nearly every instance, the gold is estimated by the miners as worth $20.00 per ounce, which, for gold collected by quicksilver, is certainly a high valuation, though this is undoubtedly of very great purity. The reader can reduce the estimates if he sees fit. We have no data on which to act in the premises.

The wall rock is generally shattered, so that it, like the veinstone, is readily taken out with the pick and shovel. In a single instance only did we hear of wall rock too hard for this.

Of the veinstone, probably not more than one-half is so decomposed that the gold can be washed from it. The residue of the quartz is shoveled out of the sluices, and reserved to be crushed and washed hereafter. The miners esti- mate this as equally rich with that which has "rotted" so that the gold may be washed from it; hence, that they realize, as yet, but half the gold dug by them. This seems probable, but its truth remains to be tested.

It should be borne in mind that, while the miners here now labor under many obvious disadvantages, which must disappear with the growth of their experience and the improvement of their now rude machinery, they at the same time enjoy advantages which cannot be retained indefinitely, nor rendered uni- versal. They are all working very near a small mountain stream, which affords them an excellent supply of water for washing at a very cheap rate; and, though such streams are very common here, the leads stretch over rugged hills and con-

VIEW OF GEORGETOWN IN 1874

VIEW OF GEORGETOWN (Reproduced from a photographic enlargement of a photograph made in 1869.)

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siderable mountains, down which the veinstone must be carried to water, at a serious cost. It does not seem probable that the thousands of claims already made or being made on these leads can be worked so profitably in the average as those already in operation. We hear already of many who have worked their claims for days (by panning) without having "raised the color," as the phrase is-that is, without having found any gold whatever. We presume thousands are destined to encounter lasting and utter disappointment, quartz veins which bear no gold being a prominent feature of the geology of all this region.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 26

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 954

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954