USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Vol. I > Part 16
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Denver advanced more slowly. It was chiefly a city of tents and magnificent expectations. The first child born in the latter city was a son to the Indian wife of William McGaa, alias "Jack Jones," one of the old frontiersmen who came long anterior to the great procession. According to his own story, related when drunk-for he was seldom sober-McGaa was educated for the priesthood in the city of Dublin, but ran away to New York, and in the course of time made his way out to the plains, where he joined the Arapahoes and married into the tribe. Though of good family and undoubtedly well educated, he grew to be a notorious liar and vagabond, without a redeeming trait save his unquenchable good nature. His squaw was a rather comely woman, of amiable disposition and engaging manners, for an Indian, and thoroughly devoted to her husband. McGaa died some years afterward in the county jail, of excessive intemperance.
On the 28th of March, 1859, an election for county officers, jus- tices of the peace and minor places was held. But as the supreme authority was supposed to lie in the Territory of Kansas, and the seat of power nearly six hundred miles from Cherry Creek, it was decided to install the officers elect, set the machinery of civil order in motion at once without waiting for consent or orders, and it was done. Many lawless characters had drifted in with the tide, men who carried from one to three revolvers in their belts, bowie knives in their bootlegs, and rejoiced in being denominated "holy terrors." It was not long after the opening of a number of saloons where a villainous compound labeled "pure Kentucky whisky," was dispensed at fifty cents a glass, that these desperadoes conceived the idea that they ought to and would run the town. But they were mistaken. Up to this time, there being neither social nor legal restraints, every man was a law unto himself, settling his quarrels if he had any, in his own way, usually by force of arms. In such a state of society absolute liberty quickly degenerated into unrestrained license. Duels, murders and robberies were of frequent occurrence, hence there was work for the newly
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elected guardians of the law, which soon put their courage to the cru- cial test. But of this hereafter.
Messrs. Cooper & Wyatt having established a sawmill in the Cherry Creek pineries, on the 21st of April two memorable events occurred-the first load of lumber arrived in town, and simultaneously William N. Byers and Thomas Gibson, with a wagon train bearing a printing press and material for a newspaper. The city of log cabins was soon supplanted by one of neat frame dwellings and business houses. On the 23d the initial number of the Rocky Mountain "News" appeared, and thus a new and powerful factor in shaping the destiny of the great West was introduced. On the same day, per- haps a few hours earlier, was issued the first and only number of the Cherry Creek "Pioneer " by John L. Merrick. The " News" at once became the champion of the country, collating and publishing correct intelligence from the mines already discovered, and conveying compre- hensive views of the entire situation. Its editorials evinced the spirit of men who realized that they had undertaken a great mission, and were prepared to execute it. Mr. Byers made personal visits to the various camps and collected trustworthy information concerning them, besides taking notes of the general surroundings. With a well con- ducted journal to support them, the better elements were immediately elevated to higher planes of thought and action. There were no mails, no newspapers from the homes they had left, and many of them had had no communication with the States since their emigration.
On the 11th of April a convention was held to consider the expe- diency of organizing a State government. General William Larimer presided, and Henry McCoy was chosen Secretary. In proclaiming their reasons for this extraordinary movement, it was declared, among other things, that the country was " rich in gold, timber, rock and crys- tal water; a country with a soil capable of producing food for its inhab- itants, if not equal to the richest Western agricultural States, at least superior" (mark the arrogance) "to those of New England." After duly considering the scheme a convention was called to meet on the first
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Monday in June, 1859, for the purpose of framing a constitution, and to provide for the election of State officers, members of the Legislature, Senators and representatives in Congress. Note the dashing boldness of these resolute pioneers. Here was a convention representing less than two thousand people, less than half of them fixed residents, before any great mines had been opened, or even discovered ; before the capa- bilities of the soil were known; before an acre of land had been planted, and whilst every soul was in doubt whether or not there ever would be a basis for support of even a small population, taking meas- ures without precedent, without authority of law, and without the slightest prospect of ratification, for the creation of an independent commonwealth. Yet with marvelous effrontery the well dressed " ten- derfoot " of to-day condescends to tolerate the remnant that is left if he can only be permitted to designate them as "barnacles," and thus in effect put them under his feet. They were going to elect Senators, and as many Representatives as they felt themselves entitled to, and have them admitted to the National councils forthwith. We shall dis- cover as we proceed, the fate of this movement, and in the succeeding chapter the light of a wonderful revelation which dispelled all doubts, lifted the mists of uncertainty, and laid broad and deep the foundations of an enduring prosperity.
In October, 1858, the town of Boulder was founded. During the same year a party of four from St. Louis laid out the town of Foun- tain City near the present site of Pueblo. The buildings were all of adobe, the walls of the old trading post being utilized as far as they would go in their construction.
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CHAPTER XIII.
1858-9-PROGRESS OF MINING ON THE PLAINS-STEADY INCREMENT OF POPULATION -GEORGE A. JACKSON'S DISCOVERY ON CHICAGO CREEK-EXPLORATIONS OF THE VALLEY- JOHN H. GREGORY'S GREAT FIND ON THE NORTH FORK OF VASQUEZ RIVER-D. K. WALL'S EXPERIMENTS IN AGRICULTURE-VISIT OF HORACE GREELEY -FRUITS OF THE FIRST SEASON'S WORK-DISCOVERY OF RUSSELL'S GULCH-A. D. GAMBELL'S NARRATIVE-GOLD IN BOULDER AND THE SOUTH PARK-STAMP MILLS -NEWSPAPERS-MINING LAWS.
We have been tracing hitherto the movements of the advanced skirmish line, so to speak, in its unsatisfactory but not altogether inef- fectual attempts to capture the golden citadel. After more than a year of unremitting effort, it had become a self-evident proposition that it was not upon the plains, but near the head waters of the streams that traverse them. From about the beginning of 1858 to May, 1859, the plains were thoroughly examined, but without much encouragement. The promise of gold mining, though shadowy, was even more stable than the prospect for agriculture. The soil was uninviting except in narrow strips along the water courses, the cli- mate dry and apparently unfavorable to the growth of crops. Other industries were wholly out of the question. Such was the aspect of affairs in the primitive stage, and all agreed that there was little enough to inspire the hope of a permanent lodgment. Besides the rather lean diggings at Arapahoe, just east of Golden, a few choice spots on Dry Creek, the Deadwood placers near Boulder, and a claim or two on Ralston, there was nothing. Meanwhile emigrants, attracted by the florid reports sent abroad, came in endless processions by the Platte, Smoky Hill and Arkansas routes, The prevailing thought
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resolved itself into the universal inquiry, "Where are your gold mines?" They came for gold, and nothing else. When the facts appeared, hundreds became disheartened, and, without pausing to investigate for themselves, accepted the unflattering accounts given them and turned back upon the long, dreary trail, empty-handed but wiser. Every man of course had preconceived a different situation, expecting, in short, to find gold mines ready made into which he could step and at once begin to shovel out nuggets and dust. The illusion dispelled by the necessity which confronted him at the very threshold of applying himself to hard work, with perhaps one chance in a thou- sand of success, appalled him, and he fled. Only the brave deserved or inherited the magnificent legacy which awaited them. The later arrivals who came in palace cars, after the war, when the planting was done and the harvest ripened, can have but a faint conception of the nerve requisite to meet the conditions of the period under consider- ation. We are accustomed to idealize and load with panegyric the chiefs who led our armies to victory and brought new glory to the nation ; great men of letters ; builders of grand institutions ; our dis- tinguished scholars and statesmen, and to forget the equally deserving heroes who founded the States of the West upon fields reclaimed from savagery and rendered fruitful by their labor. It seems to me that some small tribute of respect, if not homage, is due to the men and women who made possible the splendid triumphs now before us. By the hardships they endured and the sacrifices they made ; by the toil and suffering which embittered their lives, and by the unfaltering brav- ery with which they met and overcame the obstacles in their way, they are entitled to this recognition, and this small measure of appreciation. They are passing away as the snows melt from the mountain sides. Of the once powerful contingent only a remnant remains.
The original discoverer of gold bearing placers in the Rocky Mountains, as also the first to open the same, was George A. Jackson, a native of Glasgow, Missouri. As this constitutes the initial chapter of the series now to be related, it will be interesting to accompany this
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pioneer from the starting point to the finish. The incidents were taken from his diary, supplemented by a personal interview in which further `material points were elicited by the author, but never before given to the public in this form.
Mr. Jackson left the mines of California in 1857, returning to his home in Missouri. In the spring of 1858 he came to the " Pike's Peak region," rather more with the view of hunting and trapping than searching for gold. Arriving at Cherry Creek, he encamped at John Smith's trading post on the west side, the original base of Auraria. Having brought some Indian goods he sold them, and then proceeded to the Cache la Poudre, where, with Antoine Janiss, an old trap- per, he prospected for gold and founded a trading post, which was called " Laporte." In August some prospecting was done about the St. Vrain and Vasquez Forks. Later, in company with Tom Golden and Jim Sanders, winter quarters were established at the base of the mount- ains, upon the site now occupied by the town of Golden, so designated for his companion of that name, and not, as many have conjectured, from its being the entrepot of the gold regions. From this point excursions were made to Lupton's Fork (now Bear Creek), and to the Boulder. During the winter, with a comrade who bore the aboriginal sobriquet of " Black Hawk," he passed into the mountains via Mount Vernon Cañon, toward the head of Vasquez Fork. Arrived in what is now known as Bergen Park, they discovered a large herd of elk which they pursued to the brink of a precipice (Jackson's Hill), at the foot of which they saw Vasquez River, frozen solid. The next day Jack- son started out alone, resolved to explore the valley. Descending to the level of the stream, he followed its course to Grass Valley. As he advanced he observed a dense bluish mist arising from one of the cañons, and suspecting it to be from an encampment of Ute Indians, he climbed the mountain side (Soda Hill), floundering through snow waist deep to the brink overlooking Soda Creek, and peering cautiously over to ascertain the origin of the mysterious smoke, found it to be a thick vapor mounting from the hot spring located there, which in later
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years made Idaho a famous summer resort. Hundreds of mountain sheep had gathered about the place, not only to drink the waters of the cold spring adjoining, but to graze upon the herbage from which the warm vapors had melted the snow.
Prospecting in this vicinity affording little satisfaction, he advanced to the stream afterward named Chicago Creek, and shortly above its confluence with Vasquez Fork, built a rousing fire of logs and brush, which thawed the ground and enabled him to dig with a hunting knife, the only implement he possessed for the purpose. As a rude substitute for a gold pan, he used a large tin cup. After digging and washing for some time he found himself the fortunate owner of nine dollars in gold dust. Convinced that he had made an important discovery, the spot was so marked as to be readily identified, and he returned to Golden, after an absence of two weeks. This discovery occurred on the 7th of January, 1859.
Having secured the requisite supplies and tools for mining, but awaiting the subsidence of the heavy snow from the gulches, on the 17th of April, accompanied by twenty-two men, chiefly from Chicago-whence the name of the stream-with teams and wagons, the men cutting the roadway in advance, they returned to the spot which Jackson had located in January. In many places it was found impossible to proceed with the wagons, hence they were unloaded, taken to pieces, and packed by the men over the obstruction, when they were put together again, reloaded, and the journey resumed, until it became necessary to repeat the laborious process. After a long, and what in these days would be regarded as a fearful experience, the Dorado of their hopes was reached, about the first of May, and the work of mining begun in earnest. Having no lumber, the wagon boxes were converted into sluices.
The proceeds of the first seven days' work netted them nineteen hundred dollars. Jackson brought the gold to Auraria, then quite a brisk settlement, and turned it over to Henry Allen, at the same time suggesting that it be used in buying up the provisions of disgusted immigrants and prospectors who were about to return to the States.
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By paying for the goods in dust it soon became known that a great "find" had been made, hence Jackson's movements were closely watched. He was followed constantly, and importuned to reveal his secret, which he finally consented to do.
Prior to entering upon the second trip to the Chicago diggings, he met John Gregory to whom he related his discovery on Vasquez Fork, in the early part of the year. Gregory agreed to join him there, and as Jackson relates the incident, it was while attempting to reach the point designated, that Gregory, mistaking the direction, followed the north branch instead of the south, and was thus led, providentially per- haps, to his great discovery and his fortune, as hereinafter set forth.
Jackson sold his interest in the Chicago Creek claims and returned to Golden, when he discovered that his old comrades had staked out a town site, which afterward became a formidable rival to Denver. In the spring of 1860 he went to California Gulch, and in 1861 returned to Missouri, and joined the Confederate army, taking command of the Arizona Sharpshooters. After the war he revisited Colorado, and is now a resident of Ouray County.
On the 13th of May, William N. Byers, Richard Sopris, William M. Slaughter and Henry Allen, with six or eight others, left Denver for Jackson's Bar, arriving there on the 14th. On the 15th, having secured a claim, they set up a "long tom" which they had taken with them, and began sluicing. Only indifferent results were obtained. On the 16th, Byers and Allen explored the valley of Vasquez Fork to the junction of its two sources which rise in the mountains above the present town of Empire and Georgetown respectively. The entire face of Douglas Mountain was examined, and evidences of lodes observed. In all probability these were the first white men to penetrate this region. On the 17th, en route to the point of departure, they found Andrew Sagen- dorf and O. E. Lehow staking off claims on Spanish Bar, and each took a claim adjoining theirs. On the 18th Mr. Byers and Ransford Smith, an old California miner, prospected the mountain sides north of the creek between Idaho and Fall River, discovering a number of
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quartz veins, some of which have since been quite extensively opened. Returning to Jackson's Bar they received, by way of Denver, the news of Gregory's great discovery, on North Vasquez, which created a gen- eral stampede to that locality. The crowd made a wild, indiscriminate rush over the hills, through Virginia Canon, each indifferent to his neighbors or comrades in his desperate endeavors to reach the coveted spot in advance of all competitors. Mounting the summit of the divide · some took the wrong direction, following Russell's Gulch down to its junction with Clear Creek; others took the direct route down by Mis- souri Flats, Spring and Gregory Gulches, to the place indicated. Then ensued a frenzied search for claims, the examination of Gregory's find, which amazed all beholders, and the formation of a camp.
John H. Gregory left Georgia in 1858, and went to Fort Laramie as the driver of a government team, with the intention of joining the excited column then moving to Frazier River from California. He wintered at the post, doing duty as a common laborer. In the winter of 1858-9, he learned that gold had been found along the South Platte, and immediately changing his plans, came over on a general prospect- ing tour, and in the next few months had examined all the more favor- able localities between the Cache la Poudre and Pike's Peak, tracing some of the streams to their sources. "At length," we follow Hollis- ter's description,-"he arrived at the Vasquez Fork of the South Platte which he followed up alone, his plan being to prospect thoroughly wherever the creek forked, and to follow the branch which gave most promise. In this way he toiled up the cañon, perhaps the first white man who had ever invaded its solitude, to the main forks of the creek, fourteen miles above Golden City; then up the north branch to the gulch that bears his name, seven miles, beyond which he could obtain nothing of consequence. Here he left the creek and took up the gulch. Where the little ravine, immediately southeast of the Gregory Lode, comes in, he again prospected, and finding it the richer of the two, he turned aside into it; but as he approached its head the 'color'" grew less, and finally entirely failed. Gregory now felt certain that he
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had found the gold. But before he could satisfy himself a heavy snow- storm occurred, during which he nearly perished. Upon its clearing up, he was obliged to return to the valley for provisions, and leave his dis- covery unperfected."
A considerable encampment existed among the foothills about Golden City. Here Gregory fell in with David K. Wall, an experi- enced Californian (now and for nearly thirty years one of the strong business men of Denver, whose career as associated with the later development of the country will be outlined hereafter), who, after listening to his story, supplied him with provisions for a second expe- dition. We digress for a moment to state that Mr. Wall was undoubt- edly the originator of garden farming in this region by the systematic plan of irrigation, his knowledge having been acquired on the Pacific slope. In the spring of 1859 he planted two acres in the bottomland, near the present depot of the Colorado Central Railway at Golden, realizing about $2,000 from the sale of its products. A year later he seeded seven or eight acres, which netted him $1,000 per acre.
Amply fortified for his journey, Gregory persuaded Wilkes De- frees, of South Bend, Indiana, and William Ziegler, of Missouri, to accompany him. They arrived at Gregory Gulch on the 6th of May, 1859. Ice and snow covered the ground, but they began digging. Again we quote :* " He was confident he had found the identical spot where the gold lay, and climbing the hill about where the wash would naturally come from, he scraped away the grass and leaves, and filled his gold pan with dirt. Upon panning it down his wildest anticipations were more than realized. There was four dollars' worth of gold in it ! He dropped the pan, and immediately summoned the gods of the Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Persians, and even, it is said, of the He- brews and Christians, to witness his astounding triumph. That night he did not close his eyes. Defrees dropped asleep about three o'clock in the morning and left him talking; Defrees awoke at daybreak, and
* Hollister's Mines of Colorado.
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he was still talking. They washed out forty pans of dirt and obtained forty dollars. Then they returned to the valley to get their friends."
Assuming the glowing account to be wholly true, which it is not, is it surprising that he should have been transported to the seventh heaven of joy? From the drudgery of common labor, from a life of unremitting toil, hardship and poverty, he saw before him visions of a princely fortune, an endless supply of shining metal. Stronger and wiser heads than his have been turned by such sudden awakenings, and it is difficult to conceive a temperament so stolid as to be utterly indif- ferent to the marvelous revelation here portrayed. Many accounts of Gregory's discovery have been published, but the following, related by Mr. Wilkes Defrees to Mr. Byers, and by him to the author, is undoubtedly the correct one.
Having been supplied by Mr. Wall with provisions and suitable implements for systematic mining, and guided by experience, having reached the spot to be prospected, he requested Defrees to dig first at a point in the main gulch near the southeast corner of the present Briggs mill building. As the dirt was thrown out Gregory examined it critically, and then panned it, obtaining fair but unsatisfactory pros- pects. The character of the gold indicated to him that it must have orig- inated further up the slope. So they abandoned the gulch and passed up the little ravine which intersects it from the southeast, and after examining the ground he said to Defrees, " Dig there, for it looks well." Fragments of "blossom rock," or surface quartz, dislodged from the lode by elemental erosion, were scattered over the ground. After dig- ging for a time, Gregory observed that the dirt looked extremely prom- ising. Defrees filled the pan, when Gregory took it down to the little ravine and panned it, obtaining nearly or quite half an ounce of gold. The effect was simply astounding, and if he did not invoke the gods of the Hebrews, Egyptians and Persians, as related by Hollister, there was ample reason for such indulgence in the vision that dazzled his eyes. After further panning and more intelligent examination, the course and extent of the vein was defined, when each staked off claims
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upon it, Gregory taking two by right of discovery. Though the find occurred on the 10th, it was not until the 16th that sluices were pre- pared and orderly work begun.
On the 19th of May, Mr. Byers having arrived from the Jackson diggings, called on Gregory, introduced himself, and elicited some important facts. The hero of the time sat upon a log with his head. between his hands deeply ruminating, breaking forth occasionally with incoherent mutterings relating to the facts about him. He had scooped out a place for a lodging in the hillside and built a rude brush house over it. He seemed completely dazed by his good fortune, his mind apparently unsettled, and occupied with dreams of the future ; talked of his wife and children, and the changed destiny awaiting them. "My wife will be a lady, and my children will be educated," he said. Paying but little attention to his visitor at first, he softened and became communicative as the conversation proceeded, and gave Mr. Byers a very full account of his progress. Reaching out into an adjacent thicket, where lay his frying pan reversed, he raised it and thereby uncovered three large masses of solid gold which had been gathered from the sluices and rudely " retorted " or fused in his camp fire, the result of three days' work, the whole amounting to about one thousand dollars. He had ceased operations, under the strong apprehension that he would be robbed if it became known that he had a large amount of treasure. In his great anxiety he slept but little. On the date men- tioned there were only seventeen men in the gulch. The following day there were at least one hundred and fifty, mainly from Jackson's Bar, and thenceforward, as the reports spread, there was a continued inpouring of people.
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