History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 28

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

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In the fall of 1859, there were more men clustered in and about the village of Auraria than could find gold to dig, work to do, or even food to eat, and during the winter many would have starved had it not been for the generosity of the pioneers to whom the image of suffering humanity is an always answered appeal for charity, to the division of the last crust. In November or December, 1859, two or three adventurous spirits, whose energies had not been chilled and whose courage had not been

dampened by their lack of success, followed up Clear Creek to the present site of Black Hawk. They were soon compelled to return on account of the severity of the weather, but not before they had tested the stream and found it to be rich in gold. They returned, worn out with their tramp of a hundred miles, half-starved and nearly frozen, but the stories they told inflamed the imaginations of their companions, revived hope in the breast of many a man who had grown despondent, and stimulated the am- bition of those whose long journey had been taken for the sole purpose of acquiring wealtlı and the position which always comes with its possession. During the winter a large number made preparations for an early flitting.

Very early in the year 1860, several parties moved in different directions. One went to the inhospitable and then almost inaccessible region of the San Juan and encountered hard- ships and suffering, which even to the ears of those accustomed to the trials of pioneer life sound like a horrible dream, and left a large proportion of their little band buried in the eternal snows. Others followed along the base of the mountains as far as the boundaries of the recently acquired Mexican settlements, and tired with the failure of their hopes, settled down on ranches and literally "grew up with the country," never being heard of in some cases, until the railroad brought in the annual throng of sight-seers and health-seekers, when they turned up in some almost inaccessible, but well-watered mountain nook, to astonish those who had stumbled on their retreats. Others, and by far the greater number, followed up the discoveries of the previous year, in the mount- ains immediately west of Denver, and estab- lishing themselves along the banks of Clear Creek, commenced taking out the gold in earnest. But the only fault of placer diggings is their narrow limits, and even the new dig- gings were insufficient to satisfy the demands of all who sought them, and, as a consequence, many had to go still further, still allured by the prospect of wealth, and still hoping that

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the next " find " would include them among the fortunate ones.

Some crossed the mountains that divide Clear Creek from the Platte, and prospecting up that stream, found the precious metal in the diggings of Geneva Gulch and the vicinity of the present town of Fairplay. Others crossed the Platte and the rocky divide between the Platte and Tarryall Creek, and found good diggings there. Still others struck out in a southwesterly direction from the Clear Creek diggings and the then rapidly growing town of Black Hawk, and after 'innumerable hardships found themselves upon the head- waters of the Arkansas.

Wherever gold was found, settlements were made, and when the sands of the streams no longer yielded "pay dirt," and the diggings were abandoned, there were still some who re- mained, content to stop their wanderings and seek a subsistence with the plow, the rod, and the gun, for the soil of the mountain valleys was of unparalleled richness, the streams were alive with trout, and the forests afforded magnificent sport the year round. Every straggling band of gold-hunters, therefore, gave its quota toward the permanent settle- ment of what is now a glorious State, with more enticing prospects than those of any other State of its age ever admitted to the Union.

Among those who tempted the wilderness by their explorations in this direction were five men, namely, S. S. Slater, George Stevens, Isaac Rafferty, John Currier and Abe Lee, the last-named of whom is still a resident of Lead- ville. While they were at work in Russell Gulch the previous year, a man had come into the camp after an exploration of the region lying between Leadville and the Gunnison, and reported a very rich find in the neighborhood of what is now supposed to be Colorado Gulch. He had incurred so many hardships, however, having been nearly starved to death before reaching the diggings, that he had no desire to take any more chances in the pursuit of wealth, and therefore headed for the States. Before going, he described the location of his find with such accuracy that the above-named party con- cluded they would endeavor to locate it. Ac- cordingly, on the 19th of March, 1860, having completed their outfitting, they started from Russell on their tramp across the mountains.

They proceeded across Bear Creek to the Platte, and by as direct a route as possible to where Chubbs' ranch now is, and thence, instead of following Trout Creek, took a short cut through the mountains and came into the Arkansas Valley a little below the present site of Granite. As the object of their search was said to be across the valley, they went directly across and prospected along the gulches as far up as Colorado Gulch, afterward a famous camp itself. Failing to find anything of sufficient importance to warrant a location, and noticing the depression in the range caused by Ten- nessee Pass, they concluded that there must be a gulch in that direction, and, packing their kits, started for the point. As they reached the flat at the foot of California Gulch, they observed a small stream flowing along, and, ac- cording to their usual habit, panned out some of the sand from its bed. Every pan gave two or three distinct colors of gold, and, as they were nearly worn out with their tramp through the snow, which had just commenced to yield to the influence of spring, they followed up the stream, getting encouragement at every trial, until they had reached a point about opposite to where the city of Leadville now stands, when they stopped and commenced digging. Their first trials were not gratifying. They penetrated the loam, but presently came to a tough cement, which, with the tools at hand, they were unable to work. From what they managed to dig of this material, however, they obtained a few colors. They had almost aban- doned the search when they concluded to try a little further up the gulch, at a point where two men had been digging, and had abandoned the hole without reaching bed-rock. They widened the hole, and reaching gravel, commenced panning out. But a few pans had been washed when the results obtained began to average 50 cents to the pan, and the first glimmerings of the fame of Leadville began to appear.

The first discovery claim was taken up at the point just below Oro, where the Rock mine crosses California Gulch. Two young men who had struck the gulch a day or two after the discoveries, were taken in to give them a discovery right, and the seven then proceeded to form a mining district, enact by-laws, and elect officers. All of this occurred between the 8th and 12th days of April, 1870. In a few days, the new district had been perfected by the

Reduce Roddy

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

election of Mr. Lee as Recorder, and the adop- tion of a set of regulations. In a very short time the news had spread and prospectors began to pour in. As the claims were staked off and recorded, Mr. Lee used the fees which came to him by virtue of his office, and erected a cabin -the first house in Leadville. Lumber was soon in demand for sluices and houses, and the men who came in provided with whip-saws earned about as much as they would have earned by mining. The lumber was sold at 25 cents a foot ; flour was $1 a pound, and sugar com- manded fabulous prices wherever any one was fortunate enough to bring it into camp. When the population began to increase, miners' meet- ings to pass upon disputes and regulate the affairs of the community, became a necessity. Mr. Lee was elected the President of these, and aided in the early administration of justice, in a ruder way, perhaps, but fully as efficiently as it has been since. From these meetings there was no appeal. The majority made the law, aud no despotism was ever more stern in its enforcement. This fact had much to do with the general good order observed in the camp.

The mining was by means of sluices, Georgia rockers and "long Toms." To make the rock- ers, big trees were necessary, and whenever an unusually large tree was found the finder had information which had a specific market value.

The first and the only man killed during the first days of the rush was a man named Ken- nedy. A law of the district prohibited the tak- ing up of any claim by proxy or attorney. Kennedy, however, had a son-in-law in the States, for whom he determined to take up a claim. He was notified that it could only be done by unanimous consent, and that if any one there present saw fit to take it before the arrival of his son-in-law, it could not be held. To this he replied that if any one attempted to take the claim he would do it at the risk of his life. One morning, as Mr. Lee was going to look at some distant prospects, he went into Kennedy's cabin and found him fixing up his shot-gun. He asked Mr. Lee to sell him a box of good caps which Lee declined for obvious reasons, he being well aware that two young men had recorded the claim in their own names, and proposed to take possession of it that day. Kennedy's cabin commanded the entire claim, and, a short time after Lee left, the two men came upon the ground with their tools. Ken-

nedy charged out of his cabin, shot-gun in hand, and threatening to shoot them, made a motion to throw up his gun, but before he had time to aim, one of the claimants, a mere boy, seized a rifle and shot him dead. When Lee returned in the evening he had been buried. A miner's meeting was called and the boy put upon his trial, but of course was acquitted. There was very little lawlessness after that.

The deer were then wonderfully plentiful, and had a trail crossing the gulch a short dis- tance above the discovery claims. A peculiarity of these animals is that it is only with the greatest difficulty that they can be kept from following a beaten trail made by themselves. As a result the men would kill deer from the places where they were at work, and every cab- in was well supplied with meat.

A fact worthy of mention is that very soon after the work of sluicing commenced, the min- ers noticed a heavy red sand of which they had the greatest difficulty to dispose. It mingled with the finer particles of gold and obstinately refused to permit itself to be carried off by the water. Those who have seen the carbonate camp spring up know that that despised sand was almost pure silver. Had they known it then, a different turn would have been given to the history of California Gulch.

The excitement that followed these then wonderful discoveries was intense. In the summer of 1860, the population of Denver had reached nearly if not quite four thousand, and probably as many more were scattered about in the various gulches in which gold had been found. The discovery of these diggings, the richest yet found, and therefore named Califor- nia Gulch, soon reached Denver and the neigh- boring camps, and from there found its way to the States. As a result, a universal rush for California Gulch was inaugurated. At one time it seemed as if Denver and Black Hawk would be depopulated, and of the thousands who came across the plains during the summer. fully one-half only stopped long enough for recuperation and repairs, and then continued on their way to the new regions, where the fortu- nate first-comers were reported to be taking out gold by the handful. In the fall of 1860, there were not less than 10,000 people in the gulch, and from the foot of the gulch near the present site of the town of Malta to its head, where Oro still holds its own, every foot was taken up, the

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

claims, according to the local miners' laws being limited to 100 feet along the gulch, the lines extending from bank to bank.

Little of importance occurred during this period except the hard, earnest work of the miners in taking out the gold and piling up the bowlders, the great heaps of which still remain as monuments to their patient toil. Occasion- ally the monument of their daily labor was diversified by the shooting scrape which is so inseparably connected with the organization of new communities, but as a rule the inhabit- ants were peaceable and well-behaved, the stern rule of miners' law, adopted for the pro- tection of the whole, proving a sufficient restraint upon the lawless tendencies of the few who exhibited a disposition to despise the rules necessary for the, well-being of society. To the incorrigible, an intimation that the gulch was not a healthy locality for them was gener- ally sufficient, for the next step was to the halter held in the hands of determined men from whom there was no appeal, they being merely instruments of the popular will.

The most serious public disturbance during the few years when California Gulch was at the height of its prosperity, was that caused by a number of mysterious murders perpetrated on the several roads leading to the gulch. Men were found dead on all of the more frequented routes, and, notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts on the part of the Territorial and National Governments, no trace of the murder- ers could be discovered. The war was then at its height and it was at first supposed that a band of Confederate guerrillas were operating in the vicinity. Finally, when all other means had failed, a company of men was raised in the gulch and sent out to scout for the assassins. It was but a few days before they struck the trail, and, following it up rapidly, they came up to two men, Mexicans, camped in a ravine, and evidently in hiding. Close inquiries were sel- dom made on the frontier in such cases, and without attempting a nearer acquaintance with the men whose trail had been hotly followed from the scene of their last murder, the scouts opened fire. One of the murderers was brought down at the first fire, but even in his death agony managed to raise himself up suffi- ciently to discharge a last shot at his assailants. His companion escaped by clambering up the side of a ravine amid a storm of bullets. From

papers found in the camp, it was learned that the victims of the two men numbered not fewer than forty. The one who made his escape was subsequently killed by a half-breed scout who cut off his head and took it to Gov. Gil- pin, receiving the promised reward. The men were cousins, named Espinosa, and from cer- tain memoranda found upon their persons, it was ascertained that they had declared war upon the United States because of certain legal proceedings instituted against them for the non- payment of taxes. Their career is one of the most remarkable instances on record of the ter- rorizing of an entire community by two men, unaided, and depending entirely upon their daring and thorough knowledge of a difficult mountain country.

Another ripple of excitement stirred the community some time in 1862, when, in one of the camps in the vicinity, word was received that in a neighboring gulch a rebel flag had been raised. The gold-seekers in California Gulch, though far removed from the scene of strife, were as deeply interested in the war as those they had left at home. A large number, upon receipt of the news of the breaking-ont of the rebellion, had left to join either army, some of the Northern men attaching themselves to the Colorado troops, while others crossed the plains again to join in the contest in the com- pany of their old-time friends. The Southern- ers generally made the best of their way to Texas. There had been a strong effort made by the Southern residents of Denver to capture the city for the Confederates- an effort that was only frustrated by the vigilance, promptness and courage of the Unionists. When the news reached the gulch, there was the most intense excitement, and had it not been for the receipt of a later message to the effect that the threat- ened secession of Colorado had been prevented, there is little reason for doubting that a bloody struggle would have been inaugurated on our own soil, for 2,000 well-armed men were ready to march from California Gulch to retake the capital and Territorial government, if necessary. The existence of a strong Union sentiment in the gulch, therefore, rendered it impossible for any sentiment of opposition to exist in the vicinity for any great length of time, and when it was learned that an insignificant little camp in the neighborhood had had the hardihood to display the colors of the enemy, the indignation

HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

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was intense. The only steps taken, however, were to send word to the obnoxious camp that if they persisted in their folly, they would be extinguished, and it is almost needless to add that this was all that was necessary.

On another occasion, a young man from the South, who had rendered himself so particularly obnoxious by his foolhardy and persistent pub- lic justification of the South, and abuse of the North, that he was taken from his cabin and led to an improvised court, where nothing but his youth, and the earnest pleading of himself and his friends, saved him from summary execution. He learned his lesson well, however, and from that time was one of the best citizens of the camp.

A number of other instances of lively inter- est might be enumerated, but the scope of this work being limited, and the early inhabitants being in the main transient, and having passed out of the memory of those who remain, the pleasure and profit of such a task must be reluctantly relinquished.

While the outer world was absorbed in the great conflict, the work of extracting the gold was steadily followed, each owner of a claim being intent upon working it out as soon as possi- ble, and returning to his home to enjoy the fruits of his good fortune and hard labor. This was not so easy a task as many might imagine. The digging to bed rock, and washing out the sand, in a piece of ground 100 feet wide, and of the average length of 400 feet, with but about six months in the year when it was pos- sible to prosecute sluice-mining, involved a vast amount of labor. The removal of the great granite bowlders and the jagged masses .of black, heavy stone, was of itself a task of no small magnitude, and it was not until some time in 1865 that the operators declared that the gulch had been worked out. At that time, there had been taken from the gulch not less than three millions of dollars. Many of the claims had proved enormously rich, one in particular netting its owner $1,000 per lineal foot, measuring up the gulch. A large number of the more fortunate, however, were improvi- dent, and some are to-day poor men, while oth- ers are among the bonanza kings of this State, and still others, satisfied with the good fortune of their early days, have retired from active life, and are enjoying their declining years

under their own vines and fig trees in the far East.

With the working out of the gulch mines, California Gulch ceased to be of interest to the throngs that had enlivened its banks during the period of its excitement, and in 1866 it was comparatively deserted. There still remained a few people, however, scattered here and there along its borders, and a small settlement at Oro, near the head of the gulch, which had been created during the movement up the ravine, caused by the discovery of richer dig- gings near its head, served as an outfitting point for prospectors and summer tourists. Quite a number of cabins near the lower part of the present site of Leadville served as landmarks of the first great excitement, until the second great boom of the district swept up to their doors the tide of humanity which has swollen into the present city of Leadville. Some of the miners of the early day who had been moder- ately successful, remained in the vicinity of the scenes of their success, because, their wants being simple, they could gratify them at mod- erate cost. Some like to remind themselves of the triumphs of their early days by looking at the monuments of their industry piled up in ragged heaps of bowlders across the gulch. Some had become weaned from civilization. Some had not been satisfied in their pursuit of wealth, and, firm in their belief that the mount- ains around them contained untold wealth to be secured by the man who persisted in search therefor, continued to prospect with varying success. Whatever was the cause of their re- maining. they verified the saying that "The search for gold peoples the waste places of the earth." People whom business or pleasure called to the vicinity, wondered how men and women could live in such a desolate place ; but they were happy and contented, and here they remained to reap the reward of their patient contentment, in the prosperity that followed the grandest discovery of modern times. But there was no Leadville ; Oro was a mere ham- let ; and even the Legislature which formed the county of Lake, many of the members of which had operated and made money in the gulch, forgetful or unmindful of the glories of the past, fixed the county seat at Granite. The time had not yet come.

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

CHAPTER II.

THE SECOND START-DISCOVERY OF THE PRINTER BOY MINE.

TN the session of 1861, the Territorial Legis- lature established the county of Lake. This was a necessity, not so much on ac- count of the importance of the county, or its inhabitants, as because of the incon- venience of access. There were no railroads in those days penetrating the recesses of cañons, deemed almost inaccessible for pedes- trians, running above the clouds and along the edges of dizzy precipices, and climbing mount- ains, hitherto deemed well-nigh impassable for pack mules. For six months of the year, the district was practically shut in from the world, and, during the remaining six months, the only means of access were by the various mountain passes leading from the South Park and from Canon City. The people were con- sidered poor, the country barren, and the whole district so worthless that it was hardly worth thinking of, and therefore it was set off by it- self, to take care of itself, and nobody thought any more about it, except, when at long inter- vals, came reports of a conflict between the citizens and horse thieves, or some story of a border vendetta, when the listeners would shrug their shoulders and remark on the char- acter of Lake County society, and again lapse into forgetfulness of its existence. A promi- nent merchant of Denver once remarked, in speaking of Lieut. Gov. Tabor, whose name is now known all over the civilized world : " He is an honest man, and will pay his bills when he can ; but what business can he do in Lake County ? There isn't enough business there to keep a cat alive, and in protection to myself I have limited his account to fifty dollars." This was the estimate of Lake County and its people ten years ago.

But while the outside world was thus un- mindful of Lake County, there were men living in that despised region-thoughtful, intelligent men-who had an abiding faith in its future greatness. They were unaware, not only of the existence but of the character of carbonates, but they were familiar with the wonderful produc- tion of the gulch, and they argued that the

gold which had been found there, must have come from somewhere. Their ponderings led. them to believe in the existence of some vast deposit of the precious metal, which, when by the action of the precious metals the enclosing rocks were decomposed, found its way into the sand, to be washed by the melting snows into the bottoms of the gulches. To find this fount- ain-head of inexhaustible treasure, was, and to many of them still is, the object of their lives, and season after season was spent in the vain effort for its discovery.

At last, in 1868, it seemed as if these enthu- siastic explorers were about to attain the real- ization of their hopes. In that year, the Print- er Boy Lode was discovered, and proved to be a mine of most wonderful richness. Great masses of almost pure gold were taken out, and it was supposed that at least one source of the vast mineral wealth of the gulch had been dis- discovered. As a result, prospecting was re- newed with vigor, and several mines, of greater or less importance, were prospected. The Printer Boy, however, was the only one that paid largely, and this was worked. with profit for several years, and until it had attained so great a depth that the water became troublesome, when, owing to the lack of proper machinery, it was temporarily abandoned. It is now again being worked with fair margins of profit.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 28

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