History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 31

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

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began to settle down into the quiet, orderly city that it is to-day.

In the number and character of its buildings, Leadville made a most important stride during the year. At the opening of the year, Harrison avenue was a waste of sage brush. At its close it had four solid blocks of business houses, many of them structures that would do credit to cities of four times the size. The First National Bank erected a handsome stone building on the corner of Harrison avenue and Chestnut streets early in the year, setting an example which was speedily followed, and the city be- gan to assume metropolitan airs in the number and character of her buildings, as well as in the throngs of people that crowded the streets. The Clarendon Hotel was opened for business in April, and was speedily followed by the com- mencement of the Tabor Opera House. The opera house was thrown open to the public in the latter part of the year. A building of this character substantially built, with a seating capacity of more than 800, with comfortable chairs, two handsome stores beneath and all the appliances of a modern theater in a city only two years old was something of which the people were justly proud. In residence prop- erty there was the greatest activity. The families of the miners and business men had commenced to arrive, and in every direction throughout the year the busy notes of prepara- tion for their coming was heard. On the first of January, 1880, the city for four blocks on each side of Harrison avenue, and ten blocks north from Chestnut street was well and solid- ly built, while the flats to the north of Capital Hill were covered with claim shanties, Harrison avenue itself being lined with comfortable dwellings and stores for a distance of nearly a mile. Leadville had ceased to be a mining camp and was a city with all that the name im- plies.

De Remmert

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CHAPTER VII.

LEADVILLE IN 1880-SETTLING DOWN.

T THE year 1880 opened with Leadville in full feather as the mining town, par ex- cellence, of the country. During the winter the boom continued without interruption. The approach of the railroad made the journey not nearly so much of an undertaking as it had been considered, and the coaches ran without interruption, and in as great numbers as ever, between the end of the track and the city, not- withstanding the shortened distance. All win- ter long prospecting was continued in spite of the snow, and everybody looked forward to the opening of spring as the time when the great- est boom might be expected. The building mania still continued, and night and day the dull boom of giant cartridges used in blasting the deeply frozen earth for excavations, were heard on all sides. Business of all kinds flourished and throve, and everything betokened a season of unexampled prosperity. There were some, however, who did not rely upon the indications, and quietly made preparations for the settling down which they felt sure would take place. The output of the camp from its foundation made a most glorious record, but there was nothing in it to justify the expecta- tion that the high pressure rate of speed that had been maintained for two years would be kept up indefinitely, and the event proved the correctness of the position assumed by the more prudent.

The early months of the year gave no indi- cations of the blows that were to fall so heavily, and the most extensive preparations were made for a vigorous campaign as soon as the snow should disappear from the hills. Many of the plans made were carried out, and those who had the courage to go on, in most instances found their reward, for whatever may be thought of Leadville as a basis for Wall street stock operations, the mines are there and have not yet been developed to their full capacity.

It is not the intention of this history to criticise the methods of mine management, by which the first serious blow was given to the

interests of Leadville, but it is proper to deal with facts, plainly : Early in February, rumors began to circulate in regard to the Little Pitts- burg Mine. It was said that the mine was a mere shell ; that the ore reserves were exhaust- ed, and that the property of the company was nothing more than so many acres of barren ground. At first these reports were received with incredulity. Mr. Wilson, the manager, had recently made a report, in which it was stated that the mine was certain to be a large producer. Prof. Raymond had expressed the same opinion, and as the territory of the company had been only skimmed, as it were, there was every reason to believe that these opinions were based upon facts. There were at the time, however, conservative, honorable business men, who were aware of the actual state of affairs, who maintained that the rumors were dangerously near the truth, as the near future would show. The stock of the mine steadily declined in price, and in the course of a few weeks dropped from $35 to $6 per share, and finally concealment being no longer possi- ble, and there being no hope that the mine would again recover its lost position, the local papers were compelled to come out plainly and severely criticise the methods which had made so disastrous a break possible.

The immediate results of this misfortune were to cause a sudden decline in all Leadville stocks, to chill the advances of capital, and to check the spirit of mining enterprise which had taken possession of the people, who lived and believed in Leadville as a profitable field of legitimate investment. It was evident that the "boom " of Leadville was over, and the prudent immediately began to realize as closely as pos- sible upon all interests not necessary to their legitimate business. Of course, this dispo- sition caused a decline in every direction, and on every side was heard the despairing cry that Leadville was gone. And yet Leadville still remained, and has to-day a legitimate population greater than at the time of this so- called collapse, and has a permanent footing

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

on a basis that even another Little Pittsburg break would find it impossible to shake.

The indignation felt at the management which had caused this catastrophe was intense, and at the time, expressions of opinion were given which were, in many respects, unjust. At this time, when the affair can be viewed coolly in the light of the past, the indignation has somewhat cooled down, for it has been shown that the causes which led to these troubles were insufficient to permanently affect the prosperity of the camp.

The Little Pittsburg collapse was the re- sult of several causes. Old miners, while mar- veling at the wonderful results of its operations, shook their heads. They had always main- tained that the deposits on Fryer Hill were not of a character to insure permanency. Whether right or wrong, it is not for us to say, but the point made by them was, that the character of these deposits made it more than ever necessary that a thorough system of advance explorations should be maintained, a judgment that the subsequent history of the mine has fully sus- tained. Then, again, men were put in charge of the property who had no idea whatever of the proper methods of mining. The wonderful success of Mr. Tabor during his ownership set the stockholders wild, and the men in charge supposed that they had nothing to do but shovel out the ore so long as any remained in sight, without any preparations for the future -a mistake in all mining operations. The mine that should have been stocked for two millions was stocked at twenty, and in order to pay the dividends on this enormous capitaliza- tion demanded by insatiate stockholders, the production of the mine was forced, and no time or means left for the necessary explorations of the undeveloped ground. In so far the mana- gers of the mine are not to blame. That they were ignorant of the first principles of mining was the fault of the men by whom they were appointed: In ten months the mine was made to pay dividends amounting to $1,000,000, with an extra dividend of $50,000, and at the end of that time, the stockholders had a hole in the ground, with a large amount of unde- veloped territory, and scarcely anything in the treasury with which to pursue the explorations which had to be made if the stockholders did not see fit to abandon the mine. We cannot forbear the comparison of this system with

that which has characterized the operation of the Evening Star, which is now a mine with large reserves of ore in sight, which are con- stantly being increased, and is paying a regular monthly dividend of $50,000 upon a moderate capital, and has no stock upon the market.

Leadville had hardly recovered from this blow, when it received another in the great strike of the miners, which was of sufficient importance in its results, and in the scenes accompanying it, to merit a chapter by itself. The following of one blow so quickly upon the heels of another caused men to stop and con- sider as to whether, if these things were to continue, there would be any hope of profitable business in the city, and the result was a sea- son of business depression which seriously impaired the material interests of the city. It was useless to argue that the great mines, upon which Leadville depended in the main, were still in existence, and that the exercise of ordi- nary prudence would cause everything to come out all right in time. The sharp contrast between the business of the previous year, and the dull season consequent upon these blows, which would have killed any town with less vitality, could not be contemplated with calm- ness by men who had calculated upon the ex- pectation of years of excitement, and, as a result, many gave up in disgust, and aided in the impression that Leadville was doomed to desertion. Business still kept up fairly, how- ever, and at the end of the year there were few, if any, of the more prudent merchants who had any right to complain at their balance sheets.

It is said that misfortunes never come singly, and it certainly seemed to be true in the case of Leadville. The great strike was hardly over, when reports began to circulate that the Chrysolite, one of the great mines of the camp, which had up to June produced two and three quarter millions of profit to the owners, had been worked out ; that, like the Little Pitts- burg, it was a mere shell, and would never thereafter pay the working. The mine was then in debt to the amount of $400,000. Mr. Roberts, President of the company, came on from New York, and becoming panic stricken, reported that the mine would never pay its indebtedness. The stock fell to almost nothing, and the gloom which previous occurrences had excited seemed deepened and intensified. The same mistakes that led to the disaster in Little

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

Pittsburg had been repeated here. The pro- duction of the mine had been forced in order to maintain monthly dividends of $200,000 upon a capitalization of $10,000,000. The result could not be avoided, and a really great mine was forced to become a mere plaything for stock gamblers.

The event proved that those who had pre- dicted the abandonment of the mine were mis- taken. Under intelligent management, it con- tinued to produce largely-in two months after the panic in its stock, producing more than half a million dollars. New ore bodies were discovered, and the mine seemed to be in a fair way, if not to recover its lost position on the stock board, at least to regain the confidence of the stockholders, when another disaster befell it. On the 4th of October, an old shaft-house, used as a lodging-house, took fire, and the shaft over which it was built was filled with the' burning debris. As the shaft was connected with the main workings of the mine, it had ample draft below, and the flames speedily communicated with the timbers in the body of the mine. Every possible exertion was put forth to extinguish the flames, but all in vain, and for nearly two months it was impossible to work the mine. At the present writing, the fire, which at one time threatened to take in the Little Chief and Little Pittsburg Mines as well, is not yet extinguished, but it has been confined to worked-out ground, and is well under control.

The exhaustion of the Little Chief proper- ties, which had also been a large producer, also tended to lessen confidence in the mines of Leadville, and for a time it seemed as if the bottom would drop out of everything.

But those who were loudest in the expres- sion of their fears have already lived to ac- knowledge their mistake. The Little Pitts- burg has been a steady producer during all the time that has elapsed since what was termed its collapse. The Chrysolite gives ex- cellent promise of being an important pro- ducer for years to come. During all the ex- citement consequent upon the strike and the apparent failure of these mines, building con- tinued without intermission, and many of the most substantial structures were erected while the city was said to be in the very throes of dissolution. In the bulk of business it lost nothing, though the profits were necessarily

smaller, and the only result of all the trials of the year were the bringing down of everything to a reasonable basis, and developing the re- sources of the city, and the ultimate basis upon which it could safely depend for its pros- perity. Leadville is to-day the better for the troubles of 1880. It knows now its strength. Its business is conducted upon a safer basis, and, being firmly established as the distribut- ing point for a vast district, it has time to look forward to a future that is not confined to the business derived from the half-crazy speculat- ors and men brought hither through the ex- citement caused by the first discoveries. It is in every respect healthier than at the opening of 1880.

The leading events of the year, aside from those cited, were the immense gains in the mining interests, the coming of the railroad, and the important additions made to the con- veniencies of the city, placing it in every re- spect on a level with Eastern cities of equal importance. The telephone was introduced, and proved an invaluable aid to business be- tween the mines and the city. The era of mule teams was ended with the arrival of the first train into Leadville, in the early part of July. In mining matters, the Morning Star was the first to encourage those whose faith had been shaken by the disasters that had overtaken other mines, by the development of a remarka- bly heavy body of first-class ore. The Even- ing Star was the next to follow, disclosing a mass of ore of high grade-equal to anything yet discovered in the camp. The Carbonate also astonished everybody by again coming into pay mineral, after a barren interval of several months. The Catalpa, Yankee Doodle and Henriett Mines were all driven to produc- tion during the year, and Carbonate Hill gave good promise of making good the losses in- curred on Fryer Hill. Fryer Hill also gave its quota in the Matchless, which has been a pro- ducer ever since, and in the discovery of such a rich body of ore in the Lee as to put that mine at once into the front rank of the bonan- zas of Leadville.

The production of bullion during the year was nearly sixteen millions, but this could not be taken as a gauge of the capacity of the mines, as it was, in a great degree, the result of forcing the mines for the payment of large dividends. The estimate for 1881 of the best

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judges in the camp, is twelve millions, and, under the conservative management which at present prevails, this figure will be maintained for years to come.

The city remains, at this writing (May, 1881), practically as at the close of the last year. Business remains in a healthy condition ; the city is improving with sufficient rapidity for the maintenance of good health; the mines are all in good condition, and new mines are coming into the front in numbers sufficient to prove that all that is necessary is patient labor

to make the district for many years the first silver-producing district in the country.

In three years, Leadville has risen from a mining-camp of trifling importance to a city of from twelve to fifteen thousand people, with gas and water-works, telephones, all the mod- ern conveniences, handsome public buildings, an established and growing trade, and a thriv- ing and prosperous community. It is a story that seems like a dream, but it has been a dream that has developed into a reality that is still more wonderful.

CHAPTER VIII.

ITS LOCATION AND ITS FUTURE.

A CCIDENT dictated the site of Leadville, but if it had been the result of the most careful calculation and design, it could not have been chosen with more regard to the advantages of position, either for the gratification of a taste for the beautiful or for the business advantages resulting from a good location.

There is no valley in the world more prolific in beautiful scenery than the valley of the Arkansas from the plains to Leadville. In the lower altitudes, from Pueblo to the Grand Canon, it is a garden in which all the produc- tions of the temperate zone are raised, even in- cluding the choicest varieties of Northern fruit. From the canon to Leadville, it is a plain vary- ing from a mile to five miles in width, with mountains rearing their snow-clad summits upon either side. From one end to the other of this plain there is not a mile that is not full of objects of interest even to those familiar with its scenes.

Leadville itself, lying upon the eastern slope of the valley near the head-waters of the river, commands a view such as is rarely met with even in the mountain regions of Colorado. To the west Mount Massive rises up to a height of 13,000 feet, its rugged sides riven into huge chasms from which the snow never disappears. South of Massive is Mount Elbert, but a trifle less in height than Massive. To the north are the Peaks of the Blue Mountains, while to the east Mount Sheridan, Mosquito Mountain, and others of the Park Range, form a barrier be-

tween Leadville and the great world which has been looking in this direction since carbonates first became a power in the land.

There are few if any towns in the United States which have equal advantages in the un- substantial matter of scenery, but there are still fewer which have equal business advantages in the way of easy connections with the regions of mineral wealth that are shortly to come for- ward with results that will tend to keep alive the interest in mining for years to come. North of Leadville, eighteen miles, are the thriving mining towns of Kokomo and Robinson, located in the center of a mineral district second to none in the country with the single exception of Leadville. These are already connected by rail with Leadville, and the train loads of ore which daily come into the carbonate metropolis are a sufficient evidence of the prosperity of both places. Up the Tennessee Fork of the Arkansas is one continuous mineral belt extending to Red Cliff in the Eagle River District, which only awaits the coming of the railroad, already well advanced, to develop into one of the most productive mining districts in the State. In the same general direction lies the Holy Cross Mining District, newly discovered, but with prospects for the production, both of gold and silver, that have never yet been excelled in the history of any new district. Directly west from the city is a mountain pass with a fair railroad to the summit, through which Aspen, the most promising of the new camps, which has already

THE AMIE MINE, LEADVILLE COLORADO.

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HISTORY OF LAKE COUNTY.

attracted a large population, can be reached in a distance of only forty miles. All of these places, destined at no distant day to contain thousands of people, are directly tributary to Leadville, a fact of which the people are well aware, and of which they are already preparing to take advantage. This gives Leadville a prominence as the distributing point for the en- tire mining region of Northern Colorado, equal in every respect to the prominence attained throughout the country as a mining camp.

From all these causes the future of Leadville is assured. When the predictions were made that a town which had, so to speak, grown in a night, would wither in a day, these facts were not taken into consideration. It was presumed that, with the usual fate of mining towns, the city would dwindle into a hamlet, clustered about the smelters, and inhabited only by those whom fate or stern necessity compelled to live there. But the blows already received and resisted-blows which have driven foreign cap- ital in other directions, and left her people to trust entirely to their own resources-tell a dif- ferent story. North and west is a boundless territory of mineral-producing land, which must come to Leadville for supplies. Already the merchants have gone into a wholesale trade of no small proportions, and are carrying stocks of goods that would. be a creditable indication of business in any direction, aud buildings are

now in the process of erection by leading houses, for the sole purpose of acquiring in- creased facilities for the accommodation of a trade that has outgrown the city, rapidly as that has advanced.

The future of Leadville may be summed up, briefly, as a city of from 12,000 to 15,000 people, supplying ontlying towns containing a popula- ulation of from 30 to 1,000 and upward, and pro- ducing itself from $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 of bullion annually. This is not an extrava- gant estimate, and if it should exceed these figures it will surprise no one familiar with the facts. That it will ever become the scene of such frothy activity as characterized the first years of its existence, no one expects, and no one desires. The froth has blown away, and the residuum is composed of pure metal, which has been purified by the fierce fires of the fur- nace, and will pan out to an extent not expect- ed by those who first commenced digging in its soil. It is not the business born of excitement which lasts, as many in Leadville have discov- ered to their cost, but based upon the solid advantages of a commanding position, the prosperous future of Leadville is assured be- yond a doubt, and it is a future which, while it may not dazzle as did the first brilliant season of Leadville, will continue to shine with a radi- ance that will be all the better for being steady.

CHAPTER IX.

THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF LEADVILLE.

L EADVILLE, in its politics, is, as it is in everything else, an anomaly, and it is diffi- cult to say which of the two great parties can justly claim it, though at the present writing the Democrats have probably a small majority. It has gone from one side to another under the pressure of circumstances, and up to the present time neither party has anything to boast of in the way of successes.

The organization of the town was effected early in 1978, the election called by Gov. Routt occurring on the second Tuesday of February of that year, and resulting in the choice of H. A. W. Tabor, as Mayor, and

Charles Mater, William Nye and Joseph C. Cramer, as Trustees, with C. E. Anderson as Clerk and Recorder. There was no politics in this election, and the two parties were about equally represented in the Board. In the second election, in April of the same year, Mr. Tabor was re-elected Mayor, J. C. Cramer, Clerk and Recorder, and Wm. Nye, J. Carroll, R. J. Frazier and R. T. Taylor, Trustees.

The first political contest of note was in the following fall, at the State election. The election was an exceedingly warm one, partic- ularly as between the two candidates for Con- gress, Thomas M. Patterson and James B.

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Belford. These two gentlemen were making a joint canvass of the State, and the campaign was embittered to the last degree by the per- sonalities which had arisen between them in the course of the canvass. Leadville had by this time grown to such a size that its vote was a factor of great importance in the calcu- lations of both parties, and therefore a meet- ing was arranged for Leadville. The Demo- crats went to extraordinary pains to receive their candidate with all the honors possible. He was escorted into town with music and a procession of enthusiastic followers, and as his eye rested upon the thronged streets, he had little reason for doubting that his success was assured. His antagonist had no reason to congratulate himself on his reception. Quietly alighting from the coach, he was es- corted to the room of a friend, where he pre- pared himself for the contest of the evening. An immense wigwam had been erected for the occasion, and into this over three thousand men crowded and waited, with the patience born of enthusiasm, for the three hours dur- ing which the rivals expatiated upon the glories of their respective parties and the necessity, in order to save the country, of every man voting for both of them. It was the largest meeting that, up to that time, had ever oc- curred in Colorado, except upon one occasion in the early history of California Gulch, when a prominent gentleman and official came up to make a speech, and was in the middle of an apostrophe to the mountain peaks which surrounded him, when a donkey, which had been accustomed to getting his food at the point occupied by the speaker, looked into the latter's face, and with sonorous heehaws, oft- repeated and long drawn out, broke up the meeting. The result of the election was to give Mr. Belford a handsome majority.

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History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado, Part 31

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