History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 15

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080

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"The surface of the Peak is indescribably rude. It embraces a rugged though regular area of per- haps fifty acres, of serrated oval form, on its face, sinking southward into a narrow, rocky ridge, when it skips off skyward. The rocks are

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comparatively regularly formed bowlders of porphy- ritic granite, of somber, reddish hue, with soil enough in the crevices between them to nourish exquisite little mountain mosses, which are the only relief to the utter sterility of the summit. A drift of perpetual snow, like a silver helmet, which the eye catches in the glitter of the sun- shine miles upon miles away, upon the distant plains, lies in a glittering mass upon the very apex of the mighty pile. While skipping about from bowlder to bowlder, drinking in the mighty pano- rama with unappeasable appetite, stopping now and then to gather the pretty moss that blossomed under the very eyes of the snow heap, a chance companion, one Isaac Rothimer, of Chicago, picked off the snow itself a living bumblebee. I took it in my hands and examined it carefully, ruminating upon the Democratic ridicule which enlivened the poli- ticians during the Presidential campaign of the " Pathfinder; " for many of you who remember that stirring summer will, perhaps, not forget with what eagerness the Democratic organs and orators ridi- euled the report of Fremont recording the fact that he had found a living bumblebee upon a snow-capped peak of the Rocky Mountains. Rothimer's bumblebee was in a semi-torpid state ; nevertheless, it crawled, and being apprehensive that its business end might be warmed into ani- mation by too much familiarity, I tenderly depos- ited it upon the soft side of a bowlder, and left it to gather what honey it might from the shining granite. Rothimer was careful to give me his name, that it might be perpetuated as the emula- tor of the "Pathfinder." It was a pleasing inci- dent in contrast with our gloomy surroundings, for hard by is a solitary little cross, marking the grave of an infant, the child of Sergt. O'Keefe, which was destroyed by mountain rats, in the Signal Station, while its mother was occupied with her domestie duties.

" The United States Signal Station, a stone tenement of three little apartments, is at once the capitol and metropolis of the Peak: Alexander Selkirk, in his solitude, was beset with company,

compared with the utter loneliness of this desolate habitation. Two signal officers, who relieve each other at intervals of thirty days, wrestle with the elements in this dreary eyrie through the dismal cycle of the months, and profess themselves con- tented. Telegraphic connection with the (sub)- terrestrial world keeps them in instantaneous communication with their fellows, and daily chat over the wires with operators at Colorado Springs, relieves the wearisome tedium. They live chiefly upon canned food, and substitute tobacco smoke for the pure ether of the Peak. This reminds me, by the way, that, although an inveterate smoker and enjoying perfect general health, cigars were utterly distasteful to me on the summit, and for an hour or two after I fled precipitately to the caverns below. My fumigating companions re- ported a similar experience, and those who par- took of luncheon in the station represented that good bread and butter tasted like dry chips. One editor, who took a square drink of whisky to re- lieve nausea, paid an almost instant penalty. From his experience and that of others, I infer that spirits are uncongenial to the human stomach in sublimated atmospheres.

" A strong wind whistles over the Peak perpet- ually. It is cooling, but not penetrating, in sum- mer, excepting upon occasion. I was clad in ordinary winter garments, without an overcoat, and felt no cold, excepting a benumbing sensation in my ungloved bridle-hand when approaching the summit. The atmosphere resembles the chilliness of a March wind blowing over a surface of snow in the Miami Valley. Immediately after reaching the Peak, the majority of persons become con- scious of dizziness, light-headedness, and presently confusing headache, with accompanying nausea strangely resembling sea-sickness. ' To some it be- comes utterly unendurable, and they fly from the the summit as rapidly as they dare. But few care to linger long. Without exception, those who made the ascent this day returned with strangely pallid faces, and several of them halted by the wayside and wretchedly paid tribute to the

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Olympian Peak. The violent action of the blood , admiration in an endless gallery of wonders now in this high altitude was indicated by the pulsa- tion of strong men running as high as 125 beats to the minute, and some even higher. One of the young ladies naively confessed that hers beat as high as 140, but it was observed that an ardent widower kept time for her. Some of our party bled freely at the nose.

" When near the Peak, ascending, a sudden cloud lifted above it and powdered us with a flurry of snow, but in a few moments all was clear again. A half-hour later, while peering over the cliff into the abyss, we were sharply startled by a glittering flash of lightning and a mutter of thun- der far below. A little later, the cloud had grown black, and streaks of lightning vivified the dark- ness, and the deep diapason of thunder seemed to shake the summit. Heeding the advice of the signal officer, who discovered an approaching gust, the party hurried from the Peak, the tardy catch- ing a dash of rain and hail mingled with flecks of snow, as they carefully stepped over the edge of the Peak and laboriously climbed down the de- clivity to their horses. By this time, the mount- ain was shrouded in the blackness of darkness, the lurid lightning disported with the clouds dau- gerously near us, and the rolling thunder savored of the majesty of Sinai.

" And now we go down, down, down, painfully but more rapidly than we ascended, through the rabble of bowlders. The splendid scenery grows upon the dilating vision, for in the descent the forms of nature magnify, or rather resume their true relations to the plane of vision. The cliffs grow more rugged and higher, and stand out more boldly, the mountains swell into grander outlines, and scenes which before had excited only passing

expand into surpassing pageants. And now, too, you become suddenly surprised at the unimagined activity of your faithful horse. An improving atmosphere proves a hippotonie, perhaps, but you are apt to suspect that he knows that his head is turned homeward. Unlike a man, too, he prefers descending to climbing. Perhaps, it is because he has a load to carry. Anyhow, he ambles along gaily when the narrow trail is not perilous, nor thinks of halting for a breathing spell until you reach the Lake House, when he stops to let you spend a quarter for a wretched cup of coffee. You take time to ponder, too, upon the unconscious perils of the morning, but you trust your horse and fear no danger. He warns you, even, if a bear or a badger lurks in the fastnesses, for he snuffles and snorts, shies, and then halts if there is necessity. At length, you return to the head of the grand canon, one of the noblest in all Col- orado, and you descend it rapidly, with increasing admiration, to the terminus of the toilsome jour- ney. It opens and kecps enlarging like a mam- moth telescope, continuing to display to your admiring vision a panoramic pageant of wondrous beauty-stupendous cliffs, tall turrets and graceful pinnacles ; bastions and battlements ; noble castles and solemn cathedrals, whose steeples prop the clouds ; human forms on the crags, and mysteri- ous images on mighty pedestals, and far beyond the undulating plains, like a lilac-colored sea sweeping off in one mighty billow, until earth, and air, and sky blend together in dreamy har- mony.

" Halting at the Iron Spring once more, we quaffed again to Olympian Jove, and felt like boasting as him who taketh his armor off."

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CHAPTER XVIII.

SKETCH OF THE SAN JUAN COUNTRY AND DOLORES DISTRICT.

D OWN in the southwestern portion of Colorado lies the country known as San Juan. It con- tains within its boundaries the present counties of Hinsdale, Rio Grande, San Juan, La Plata, Conejos and Ouray. San Luis Park and the counties of Sagauche and Costilla are also commonly included in the district. Within the last few years and up to the time of the advent of the carbonates upon the scene of mining activity, San Juan was a syn- onym for the Silver Country, and though for two or three years it has been retarded in its progress, yet the gradual approach of railroads to its immediate vicinity is a sign of promise to the future not easily to be overlooked.

The early history of this country is but little known. The Spanish expedition that visited it in the sixteenth century found it inhabited by 'savages. In its valleys, however, are the indica- tions that they were inhabited long before the appearance of the Indians, by a people that under- stood something of the arts of civilization, but whose history is wrapped up in the unknown past. The ruins of cities are found scattered over a large section of country. Large rooms are often found cut out of the solid rock, and the locations were evidently selected and arranged for the purpose of successful defense. Pottery and other useful implements are found in great per- fection. The work and style of manufacture indicate a civilization equal to that which pre- vailed among the ancients, or in Peru or Mexico at the time of the discovery of the American Continent. It may be that these are the ruins of the Aztec race, that was supplanted by the savage Indians who swept down upon them from the north. It may be that they are the ruins of a race as civilized as the people of the Old World, and who had a history, if it were known, as long and wonderful as that of Greece or Rome.

This vast region of many thousand square miles is abrupt and broken, with an average ele- vation of 13,000 feet above the sea, with some of their peaks reaching the altitude of 14,500 feet. The scenery of such a section must necessarily verge nearer to the sublime than any known in the world. Nature must have been in wild riot to have produced such a " wreck of matter " as is here found. If the ruins of ancient cities impress the beholder with wonder and amazement, what must be the emotions in viewing what one might easily imagine to be an exploded world, with its sharp broken fragments piled, in strange confusion, 14,000 feet high? The molten peaks are tinged with a red and sulphurous hue, which tells of a period at which the chemical properties of the earth were made to gild each crest with rare, enduring colors. It presents a scene of aban- doned nature, with garbs of living green cast recklessly below, into the parks and valleys, two miles away, that her charms might be the sub- ject of man's conquests to gain her golden treas- ure.

The center of the great volcanic upheaval seems to have been between the present cities of Silver- ton and Ouray, in the western center of the San Juan country proper. In La Plata County, the ruins of this extinct race of which we have written are found, scattered at intervals over an area of over 6,000 square miles. W. H. Holmes, in the Hayden Government Survey reports, classes these under heads of lowland or agricultu- ral settlements, cave dwellings and cliff houses, the latter used, probably, as places of refuge and defense in time of war and invasion.

It is in this locality that the mountains reach their greatest height, and here is the land of eter- nal snow that supplies the water for the five great rivers and their tributaries that have their

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source in this immediate vicinity. The Rio Grande del Norte runs east, to the Gulf of Mex- ico; the Umcompahgre, north; Rio San Miguel, west; Gunnison, northeast, and Rio Animas, south-these last flowing into the Colorado and Gulf of California.

Up to the year 1860, the Indians held undis- puted possession of this country. Then Capt. Baker, with a few prospectors as adventurous as himself, made his appearance on the San Juan River. Working their way up the Animas, they came to what is now called Baker's Park. These men were gulch miners, who knew little and cared less for silver lodes. They were disappointed in finding gold in any great quantity, though they pursued their search diligently until the approach of winter. Then the band broke up, but those who undertook to leave for lower latitudes and civilization were compelled to suecumb to the rigors of an early winter; while those who remained had, in addition, to fight the Indians, who warned them out of the country. For many years after, the San Juan country was left to soli- tude and the savages.

In 1868, the treaty was made, giving the Indians the reservation known as the Ute Reser- vation, embracing 30,000 square miles.

In 1870, however, a party of six prospeetors came up the Rio Grande into the Animas Valley and located several lodes. Late in the fall, they returned to the States with accounts of their rich discoveries, and the result was, that in the spring of 1871, a large number of adventurous spirits had found their way into the country. The many rich discoveries of this season increased the excite- ment to fever-heat, and San Juan became a name familiar upon the lips of thousands. But this inroad upon their reservation was looked upon with great disfavor by the Indians, and it was feared that trouble would follow. Troops were sent into the country in 1872, to keep out the miner. This course of the General Government but added fuel to the fire of excitement already burning in the breasts of the people, but the

matter was partly settled to the satisfaction of all parties concerned, by the adoption of the Brunot Treaty, whereby the Indians relinquished their title to 5,600 square miles.

Then the great army of treasure-seekers sought the solitudes of the San Juan, and silence no longer reigned. These early settlers were men of energy, who had listened to the accounts of rich ores obtained from Southern Colorado. They were lawyers, ministers, doctors, engineers, mer- chants and miners from all parts. Some of them were men who had made the trip from the Mis- souri River to the Pacific Slope in 1849, and the later years of that remarkable exodus. They had seen and known of the stampede to Gold Bluff and to Frazer River; to the Caribou mines in British America, Washoe, the Comstock, Reese River, White Pine, Eureka, Cottonwood, and now to San Juan.

These waited until the land was given up to them by treaty, and then they came to prospect. Others, who had no knowledge of mining, were early to ford the rivers and brave the crossing of dangerous ranges that, in many places, were almost perpendicular. From all classes of society, the adventurous and energetic wended their way to the new discovery, and there met with the usual fortune of miners in hard fare and many discom- forts. But the " prospects " were there, and they were found. A rich country was opened to the world, and the yield of precious minerals vastly increased.

From this time until 1878, when Leadville became the great center of attraction, the San Juan mining fever burned in the veins of thou- sands. More than ten thousand silver mines were located during this period, and yet it can hardly be said that the country has begun to be pros- peeted. As will be seen by our account later on, a large number of mines are now being worked with good returns. What portion of this large number would have been successfully opened up in addition to the newer discoveries that would have been made had not the star of Leadville risen

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on the horizon of the prospector, it is difficult to estimate ; but at least one-fourth of those located would have become paying property. To some, this might seem an extravagant estimate; but here it must be taken into consideration that no blind leads are prospected, mineral being found in nearly every instance at or near the sur- face.

The San Juan mining region is divided into districts, of which the Animas district, lying in what was formerly La Plata, but is now San Juan County, is one of the oldest named, and lies along the Animas River and its tributaries. The lodes, with a few exceptions, occupy positions from 11,000 to 12,000 feet above the sea. The veins nearly all take the usual course, northeast and southwest, and the greater part of the ore is argen- tiferous galena, highly impregnated with gray copper. The veins are large and well defined in almost every instance. Outcropping and large deposits of iron ore are found in Baker's Park, and blue carbonate of lime on Sultan Mountain. The first mine worked to any extent was the Lit- tle Giant, discovered in 1870, located in Aras- tra Gulch. The smelter run of the ores treated from mines in this district, in 1877, varied from $150 to $2,000 per ton. We mention a few of the first-class, paying leads in the neighborhood : The Highland Mary, Mountaineer, North Star, Tiger, Thatcher, Chepauqua, Comstock, Pride of the West, Philadelphia, Susquehanna, Pelican Gray Eagle, Shenandoah, Bull of the Woods, Lit- tle Giant (gold), Prospector, McGregor, Aspen, Seymour, Letter G, Empire, Sultana, Hawkeye, Ajax, Mollie Darling, Silver Cord, Althea, Last of the Line, Boss Boy, Crystal, King Hiram Abiff (gold), Ulysses, Lucky, Eliza Jane, Silver Wing and Jennie Parker.

Poughkeepsie Gulch, in this district, is a famous mining locality. It contains 250 lodes, on which assessment work is done each year; a number are being steadily worked, while a few are paying handsome profits. Among these may be noted the Alaska, Bonanza, Alabama, Acapulco, Red

Roger, Saxon, St. Joseph, Poughkeepsie, Gypsy King and Kentucky Giant.

Silverton is the principal town in the district. From this point, most of the miners from the La Plata and the Uncompahgre districts obtain their supplies. It lies in Baker's Park, one of the love- liest bits of nature, hidden away in the mountains, and is destined to be a town of no small impor- tance in the near future.

The Eureka district joins the Animas on the north. The character of the ores does not differ materially from those in the Animas district, gran- ite being the prevailing character of the rock formations in each. It takes in all the territory on the east side of the mountains that divide the waters of the Animas from those of the Gunni- son and the Uncompahgre. The town of Eureka is nine miles from Silverton. No larger bodies of ore are found anywhere than in this district. Among the principal mines may be mentioned the McKinnie, Tidal Wave, Boomerang, Crispin, Sun- nyside, Yellow Jacket, Golden Fleece, Venus, Emma Dean, American, North Pole, Jackson, Grand Central, Big Giant, Little Abbie, Belcher and Chieftain.

The Uncompahgre district has " no end to the number of rich mines." Nearly all the water- courses in the northern portion of San Juan have their source within the limits of the Uncompahgre district, or in that immediate neighborhood. There is a nest of mines on the summit of these mount- ains, perhaps included in one and one and a half miles square, whose best grade of ores will run from $500 to $1,000 to the ton at the smelter. Among the notable mines in this district may be named the Mother Cline, Fisherman, Silver Coin, Adelphi, Scottish Chief, Lizzie, Royal Albert, Micky Breen, Gypsy Queen and Little Minnie. The ores of this district are said to carry less galena and more of the sulphurets of silver than in any other district named.

The Lake district, in Hinsdale County, of which Lake City is the chief town, is the most accessible, by good roadways, of any of the silver-bearing

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districts in the San Juan country. There are some six hundred and fifty mines located in it, and it possesses the only tellurium lodes of any note in that section of country. Two sacks of ore from one lode, the Hotchkiss, weight 150 pounds, brought at the rate of $40,000 per ton in San Francisco. The celebrated concentration work of Crookes Brothers are located at Lake City; the Ute and Ule mines were bought by these parties and are extensively worked. This region is laboring under other disadvantages, at present, than the car- bonate excitement that drew its mining population away from it two years ago. It is made up of almost inaccessible mountain ranges, and is so remote from railways as not to be an inviting field for capitalists. But a year or two will work won- derful changes, when the advent of a railroad (the Denver & South Park, probably) will bring the ore within easy distance of a market, and the rich mineral veins that now lie idle will be better known to the world at large.

We give the names of some of the leading lodes in this district and county, as follows :

Accidental, in the Galena district, yielding an average of 300 ounces. American, same district, 100 to 600 ounces. Belle of the East. Belle of the West. Big Casino. Croesus, Dolly Varden. Gray Copper, in the Lake district, 200 ounces. Hidden Treasure. Hotchkiss, 460 ounces silver. Melrose, in the Galena district, 400 ounces. Ocean Wave and extension. Plutarch. Ule. Ute and Wave of the Ocean.

Ouray County contains within its borders some of the most rugged and almost perpendicular mountains and deeply cut ravines and river-gorges known. Its inaccessibility has, of course, retarded its rapid growth; but the unusual value of the mineral in this section has enabled its miners to dispose of their products. Some of the districts in this county-notably the Mount Sneffels-have no superiors among the silver-bearing sections, and are gradually growing in importance as their great mineral wealth is demonstrated. In this county lies the San Miguel gold district, occupying the

mountains and streams of a tract of country forty miles broad by some seventy long, and, doubtless, running as far north as the Gunnison River. This region began to be developed in 1875, at which time the attention of miners was drawn thereto by successful discoveries of rich placer diggings, creating a lively excitement. All along the San Miguel River and its forks and tributaries are extensive gravel deposits, rich in gold. These are being worked, some by companies on a large scale. One company has been putting in all the newest discovered machinery for economic work- ing of gravel, by which 2,000 cubic yards are manipulated in one day. Some claims contain several million yards of gravel, estimated, from tests, to average $1 per yard. A late authority on this subject says: "Some idea of the value and extent of these grand deposits of an ancient river- bed, from fifty to one hundred and fifty feet above the present bed of the river, can be obtained from the fact that it costs from $25,000 to $100,000 to bring water upon them and to construct ditches and flumes. These immense deposits, like those of California, have been attracting the attention of capitalists, and it is safe to say that in a few years the yield of gold-dust will be enormous."

But it is in the adjoining mountains, seamed with silver veins, where the immense treasure-vaults lie, scarcely concealed from common gaze -- a silver belt of from twenty to forty miles wide and per- haps eighty long, in which lie an hundred thou- sand silver veins, many of huge size and of sur- passing richness. Take the silver-ribbed King Solomon Mountain, for instance, rearing its mass- ive front high in air, between Animas River and Cunningham Gulch, in San Juan County. Here you can trace the veins upon its very face, the mother lode averaging forty feet in width. "This enormous mass of crevice matter is composed of nearly vertical streaks of decomposed ferruginous quartz in contact with great seams of argentiferous mineral. It can be seen for a distance of two miles."

We give the names of some of the leading lodes in this county, beginning with the Begole, known

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as the Mineral Farm. It might be called one of the latest wonders of the world, even in view of the deposits being revealed in the camps of the carbonates. The locations cover over forty acres of ground; the actual amount covered by the de- posit is twelve acres. Fourteen different openings all showed mineral. This property was located in 1875, and sold in the fall of 1878 to a company who had built reduction works at Ouray. One lode on this claim has " a very rich gray copper vein in a gangue of quartzite, often milling from $400 to $700 per ton." Another has "a streak of bright galena, with heavy spar, carrying over a hundred ounces of silver, with 40 per cent of lead." It will thus be seen that this can be made a very productive " farm."

Belle of the West, on Yellow Mountain, yields 150 ounces ; Byron, on Engineer Mountain, 260 ounces ; Chief Deposit and Caribou, on Buckeye Mountain, with a vein of from three to eight feet, 200 to 1,500 ounces ; Circassian, Denver, Eclipse, 500 ounces; Fidelity, 400 ounces ; Free Gold, Geneva, Gold Queen, Mineral Farm, Norma, Mountain Ram, Imogene, on Buckeye Mountain, yielding from 56 to 1,370 ounces; San Juan, Silver King, Staatsburg, Virginius and Yankee Boy, on Mount Sneffels, yielding each from 200 to 400 ounces.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 15

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 1080

Author: O.L. Baskin & Co
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago : O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 1080