USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume II > Part 36
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says Poppleton, "at the date of the pretended election of May 18th, the execution of the consolidation agreement had been enjoined by Judge Stone and the counties had been offered their own price for their stock. The Boston parties, enraged at the confiscation of their property, entered suit for a foreclosure of the mortgage and the ap- pointment of a receiver. So long as the road was in the hands of capi- talists, holders of the securities were content to wait for its development for the payment of interest and principal, but when it was forcibly seized they took measures to protect themselves from loss."
After the abduction of Judge Stone, Poppleton came out as the representative of the trustees for the bondholders and holders of the floating debt, and on the 21st of June began the suit. Prior to this, however, he called on Mr. Loveland and informed that gentleman that he had full power to adjust the entire controversy by the purchase of the county stock, and proposed to do so at the prices that had been agreed upon. Loveland asked for time to consult the counties, but Poppleton apprehending treachery, refused, and at once instituted pro- ceedings as mentioned above. Negotiations were continued after this, but without effect.
The State having been admitted into the Union, a motion was filed to transfer the cause to the United States court, but Judge Dillon's decision on this point left it in the First District court, Judge Wm. E. Beck presiding. On the 17th of November argument was had before Judge Dillon at Omaha on a motion to docket the case, and for an order on the United States Marshal for the District of Colorado to put the receiver appointed by Judge Stone in possession of the road and property. Judge Dillon denied the motion to docket, giving a lengthy opinion. On the 9th of December Mr. Poppleton presented to the Circuit court at Denver the full record of the case, when Judge Dundy, who presided, resolved to enter it upon the docket, denying a motion to remand to Judge Beck's court, but allowing the defendants an appeal. In February, 1877, the cause came up again on a motion to strike it from the docket and remand
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to the proper State court, and it was allowed, whereupon the plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme court of the United States.
On the 17th of February, 1877, the Union Pacific Railroad com- pany entered suit for $2,000,000 for iron, engines, material, etc., fur- nished by them, and for damage to the shares of their stock, on the ground that Loveland was wrecking the road. They compelled him to give a bond of $500,000, which, to their surprise he soon furnished, and went on operating the road as before. A short time afterward he went to Boston, and after a lengthy conference with the Union Pacific people, succeeded in negotiating a peaceful issue out of the trials and tribu- lations. It was then arranged as one of the solutions of the difficulties in the way of business for the road, since the Union Pacific was en- gaged in a fierce dispute with the Kansas Pacific over the matter of pro rating, that the Colorado Central standard gauge should be extended from Longmont to Cheyenne. All suits were to be withdrawn and the matters between the old and new managements amicably adjusted ; Loveland to continue in charge and to build the proposed extensions. The mountain division was to be pushed on from Floyd Hill to George- town, and the terminus at Black Hawk removed to Central City.
Toward the latter part of June, 1877, the company made its arrangements for moving northward, having in view a connecting line from Cheyenne to the Black Hills of Dakota, provided the county of Laramie, Wyoming, would vote $150,000 in bonds. Mr. E. L. Berthoud surveyed a line, and the bonds were voted, but the road was not constructed. Meanwhile, preliminary arrangements for the Long- mont extension progressed, the survey was made, and the right of way secured. Work began July 20th, at Longmont. On Saturday, July 2 Ist, the first rail was laid at Hazard Station on the Union Pacific road five miles west of Cheyenne. The Floyd Hill branch was finished to Georgetown and opened to traffic August 14th, 1877, and that from Black Hawk to Central May 21st, 1878.
The Cheyenne or Hazard extension was completed to Longmont on Sunday, November 4th, 1877, and the line formally opened on the
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7th. By the construction of this line the Union Pacific gained an entrance to the chief centers of trade in Northern Colorado, despite all the efforts of the Kansas Pacific and Denver Pacific to keep it out. It will be remembered that in the first negotiations for the construction of the Denver Pacific, the Union Pacific directors and some of the principal stockholders entered into a contract to iron and equip the road. This contract was never carried out, but the road having been completed by the aid of the Kansas Pacific, was a few years later ab- sorbed by the latter, and made its connection with the main trunk at Cheyenne. Immediately afterward arose the question of pro rating, which has been very fully considered in preceding chapters. The opening of the new line provoked a lively contest for the Colorado business, between the Iowa pooled lines and the Southwestern combi- nation via Kansas City, the Kansas Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé. The Union Pacific coalesced with the Omaha pool, to divert all northern business for Colorado over its line. This resulted in cut rates and a general war, but it was of short duration, when all went into a tripartite contract whose chief purpose was to squeeze and bleed the traffic of Colorado to the last extremity, a system of heartless extortions that prevailed until the combination was broken in 1888 by the completion of the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth road.
The new board of directors, chosen by the Colorado Central com- pany in December, 1877, continued Loveland's management and re- tained the Colorado power in the board. It was composed of Jay Gould and Sidney Dillon of New York, F. L. Ames of Boston, with C. C. Welch, John Turck, O. H. Henry, Thomas I. Richman, J. C. Hummel, H. M. Teller, W. A. H. Loveland and E. L. Berthoud of Colorado. From the day the road was seized by Loveland, notwithstanding wash- outs and other disasters it became profitable, and was paying large returns when finally surrendered to the Union Pacific. When Leadville came forward as the greatest mining region of the State, Mr. Loveland proposed the extension of the Georgetown branch across the mountains to that point which would have made it the shorter line, hence would
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have controlled the principal part of the trade, but Governor Evans and Gen. Palmer put an effectual stop to the scheme.
Soon after the election of directors named above, Gould demanded an advance in freight tariffs, and in spite of all protests from the local managers it was made, causing universal dissatisfaction. As a matter of fact, the rates were nearly doubled on all consignments from Denver, with the manifest intention of forcing the mountain merchants to pur- chase in Chicago and give the Union Pacific the full advantage of the long haul from the Missouri River. Rates on machinery and castings made in Denver, for example, were advanced from forty-eight to ninety- six cents per hundred, and the tariff on ores from the mines to the smelters in Denver from $5.50 to $12 per ton. Naturally enough, a vociferous outcry against these extortions came from every side.
The Colorado Central was merged into, and made an integral part of the Union Pacific system, by a fifty year lease executed in November, 1879. S. H. H. Clark, superintendent of the former lines, took charge of the entire combination, which practically deposed Loveland and his aids.
SOUVENIR 1878
SOUVENIR 879
FIRST HOISTING PLANT OF. THE IRON MINE
ENTRANCE
MINE
WITH GUA
SOUVENIR 1879
OFFICE & WAREHOUSE
IRON MINE VIEWS, FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN IN 1878.
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CHAPTER XX.
PRIMITIVE RECORDS OF LAKE COUNTY-TWO GREAT EPOCHS-ORGANIZATION UNDER THE TERRITORY-GULCH MINING-DISCOVERY OF THE PRINTER BOY-ORIGINAL DISCOVERY OF CARBONATES-STEVENS AND WOOD-THE IRON SILVER MINES- OTHER IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES-THE DAWN OF LEADVILLE-GREAT MINES AND THEIR PRODUCTS-OPENING FRVER HILL-TABOR, RISCHE AND HOOK-THE ROB- ERT E. LEE-GOVERNOR ROUTT FINDS HIS FORTUNE-W. S. WARD AND THE EVENING STAR.
The occupation of the broad open valley watered by the Upper Arkansas, by white men, dates no further back than 1859-'60, but for centuries prior to the discovery of precious metals there, it was a favorite resort, and possibly the secure hiding place of large bands of Indians, whose camping grounds were observed and described by Lieut. Pike in 1806. It was there that James Pursley, unquestionably the first Amer- ican to enter these solitudes, claimed to have discovered a nugget of gold in 1802. Though somewhat apochryphal, it is the first statement we have of the finding of precious metal in any of the wildernesses of the Rocky Mountains, excepting the nebulous record left by Don Juan de Oñate, who, in 1595, reported the existence of gold in the San Luis Valley. If the evidence is of any value, the counties of Conejos and Lake are fairly entitled to such measure of distinction as may be afforded by these traces of antiquity or precedence.
From the date of Pike's midwinter exploration of the sources of the Arkansas River, down to the time of Col. Fauntleroy's great battle with the savages in 1853, fully set forth in our first volume, the region was only occasionally visited by hunters and trappers, for, as may well be imagined, it was extremely perilous for any other than red men to make even a brief lodgement there, or in any of the tributary valleys. The
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discovery of great treasures in 1859-'60, caused the initial movement in the important chain of events that peopled, prospered and developed the Territory, and, in due course, by further wonderful revelations of mineral wealth occurring at the close of the Territorial period, means were pro- vided for the stupendous advances made by the State. The golden yields of California Gulch proved the chief incentive for the attraction of multitudes in 1860, for until then, excepting the small areas worked in Gregory, Russell and Boulder districts, no remarkable deposits had been found. The excitement caused by the discoveries in Tarryall, in Georgia and neighboring placers, and on the Upper Arkansas, indicated such a wide distribution of precious metal, as to justify the expectation that there would be room enough and gold enough for all the marching thousands, and that the prestige which had once crowned California and Australia would be equaled, if not eclipsed, on the slopes and in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains.
The annals of Lake County have been marked by two striking epochs,-first the enormous inpouring of a miscellaneous population and the incidental outpouring of gold from 1860 to 1865, and second, the disclosure of immense deposits of carbonate of lead ores in 1874. The first was of brief duration ; the second is likely to be permanent. The county was organized and its boundaries prescribed by the Territorial legislature of 1861. The original board of commissioners consisted of Capt. Breece, Alexander McPherson and William Snyder. The mines were extremely productive for three years, by which time the cream of the harvest had been taken by the first locators and their assigns, although considerable amounts were obtained each successive season until 1870, when it was found essential to enlarge the water supply, and this necessitated the construction of a large canal, some twelve miles in length, from the sources of the principal stream to the placers, a project involving great labor and expense.
The Printer Boy lode, discovered in 1861, and operated by the imperfect methods of that early period, gave, in the course of time, some extraordinary returns. It was situated near Oro City. In 1868, large
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bodies of decomposed quartz, soft and porous, were found, carrying great masses of free gold in nuggets, bunches of fantastically formed and matted wires, and beautiful crystallizations. Many large glass jars, such as are seen upon the shelves of drugstores, were filled with these remarkable specimens, and exhibited, first at the national banks in Denver, and subsequently in Philadelphia and New York, where they excited much admiration, and, for a time, revived the interest of spec- ulators in the mines of Colorado. The owner and manager of this property, Mr. J. Marshall Paul, a Philadelphian, realized handsome returns from the rude desultory workings while the rich pay streak held . out, and figured quite prominently in Territorial politics. Mr. Charles L. Hill, an experienced miner, who acquired his education in Gilpin County, and subsequently managed the affairs of some of the noted mines about Leadville, was at one time superintendent of the Printer Boy. Though much prospecting was done to develop other mines of like character, none succeeded.
The Homestake, situated near the head waters of the Tennessee fork of the Arkansas, opened in 1871, gave such promise of great resources as to induce the erection of a smelter at Malta in 1877.
The current of affairs proceeded peacefully for some years with only an occasional conflict between the settlers and certain bands of stock thieves who preyed upon their flocks and herds, and who, when pursued, took refuge in the fastnesses of the mountains. In one or two of these collisions some bloody work was done, a number of persons on both sides being killed, and others severely wounded. Then began to appear the light of an amazing revelation which signaled the dawn of Leadville, the preface to a series of disclosures that blessed the land with plenty, awakened the liveliest attention of the world to the opulence of rich mineral buried beneath the porphyritic crust of the surrounding hills, and exalted by an almost magical uplifting the dormant energies of the people, by providing unlimited abundance of material wherewith to develop the mighty aggregations of natural resources, lavishly distributed through the mountains and plains.
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The pioneer discoverer of the Leadville mines, or at least the first to bring them to the attention of mankind by effectual demonstration of their nature and value, was W. H. Stevens, a man of remarkable intelli- gence and possessing broad, practical views of the subjects of mining and mineralogy, which had been made the chief studies of his life. These were his constant themes; indeed, he thought of little else. His enthusiasm over the apparently boundless resources of the region, was expressed wherever listeners could be found. It has been popularly assumed that the discovery of carbonate of lead ores in California Gulch was merely accidental, but Mr. Stevens always insisted that it was the result of well directed scientific investigation. "For," said he in 1879, "I worked intelligently, and was almost as sure of the result then as I am now. I am not a chance, haphazard miner, but believe in the application of science in prospecting, as fully as in the treatment of the mineral after it has been found." He had been forty years a miner, pursuing his primary lessons to ultimate matriculation in the copper deposits of Lake Superior, prosecuting his studies of the rocks, veins, mineralogical and metallurgical conditions ; probing the deeper secrets with his mind, while devoting his brawn and muscle to the material workings. Thus he advanced by degrees to an employer and contractor, and in a few years accumulated a fortune. His first visit to Colorado occurred during the gold excitement of 1864 ; its object being to examine and report upon certain properties in Gilpin County, at the request of Philadelphia capitalists who had been urged to make some investments there. A year later he made a cursory examination of California Gulch. According to his lifelong habit, to visit a mineral bearing region was to search it thoroughly. In 1872, when the Little Emma and Cottonwood districts of Utah were attracting thousands to Salt Lake, he was sent out by capitalists to discover what opportunities might be presented for quick returns upon money invested in that region. Returning to Colorado, he entered the South Park, located at Alma, and began mining on Mount Bross.
In the summer of 1873 he made a second examination of California
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Gulch, collecting many specimens of rock and analyzing them. Other expeditions to the same region caused him to become more and more interested in what he found there. Comparing the geological forma- tions with those he had observed in the mineral divisions of Utah and Montana, he discovered a close similarity between them, and felt that something greater than had yet been disclosed would be brought to light by patient seeking. Respecting the deposits of gold, he reasoned, as did all the miners, that they must have been eroded from some mighty fissure, or a series of them, then deeply buried under vegetable mold, and that by the employment of a great force of water under hydraulic application, the surface earth might be washed away and the bedded rocks exposed, when the search for veins could be easily con- ducted, and at the same time uncover new deposits of placer gold. At this period only about twenty miners were operating claims in the gulch, and they were engaged in constructing a ditch and flume to bring in more water for sluicing. Stevens purchased their claims and ditch right. These placer locations covered a part of the present site of Leadville. He secured patents to them in the usual form, knowing the insecurity and harassments attending mere possessory titles.
A condensed account of his further operations has been furnished me by Mr. S. S. Robinson, manager of the Iron Silver Mining com- pany, from which it appears that in 1874 some eastern capitalists, by the advice of Mr. Stevens, organized the "Oro Ditch and Fluming company," and began constructing a canal from the Arkansas River, near the mouth of Bird's-Eye Gulch, to California and Georgia Gulches, to facilitate the washing of gold from the sands of those placers and the grounds adjacent, by the addition of later improved methods. The original plan contemplated applying the hydraulic process to the ground now covered by the southwestern half of the city of Leadville.
The ditch and flumes were completed in 1875, and the work of sluicing begun. During the progress of this enterprise Mr. Stevens had associated with himself as an assistant, Mr. Alvinus B. Wood of Ann Arbor, Mich. Each possessed a general knowledge of geology,
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mineralogy and metallurgy. As they proceeded they heard from the gulch miners many complaints about the heavy porphyry, heavy spar and sand that troubled them in their gold washing, and were shown samples of those materials. Both were men who, when shown a spec- imen of mineral that was new or curious, could not rest satisfied until its character had been determined. Analysis of the heavy mineral proved it to be a rich carbonate of lead, carrying silver, properly a silver ore. This discovery prompted Stevens and Wood to trace it to its primary base in the rocks above.
Careful investigation begun in the spring of 1874, led to the location of the "Rock," "Stone," and "Lime" claims, in June of that year, but owing to the uncertainty of the economic value of the mineral, and the urgency of other work, no immediate development was attempted.
In the winter of 1875-'76 some of the men were put to work on the Rock claim, and opened considerable bodies of ore. In that con- nection Mr. Stevens relates the following incident :
All operations concerning the new discovery had been kept secret from the men. Only the proprietors knew what the products contained, or the purpose of the prospecting. The laborers had no knowledge of, or interest in silver ores. Their experience had been limited to digging and prospecting for the more valuable metal, hence when Stevens began to open his deposit of "carbonates," some of the men, discussing the matter among themselves, wondered "what the old man meant by spending his money in that way, as there was no sign of gold in it." At length an old man named Walls came to him and said : "It's a great curiosity I have sur, to know what ye are doin' this diggin' for, Mr. Stevens. I've worruked for yez many a day and attended to me business, but for the loife of me I can't see what yez are afther."
STEVENS .- " You can't, eh ?'
WALLS .- " No, sur. There's not a culler in all this stuff we're takin' out."
STEVENS .- " Have you examined it closely ?"
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WALLS .- " Yis, sur, and I'm sure there's not a culler in it at all ; not a culler, sur,-it's nothing but a lot of black dirty rocks."
STEVENS .- " Well, Walls, it is not gold that I've been working for. What you see there is carbonate of lead, and I think there is silver in it, and perhaps lead enough to make it pay for mining."
This colloquy awakened Walls and his son-in-law Powell, who also had been working for Stevens. At the expiration of the month for which they had been engaged, they began prospecting for themselves, and in time discovered the "Adelaide," one of the more noted of the early finds made. The Gallagher Brothers who had been working the Homestake, soon followed, and uncovered the somewhat famous "Camp Bird " mine.
In the summer of 1875, Mr. August R. Meyer, who had been con- ducting sampling works at Alma, in Park County, and purchasing ores for the St. Louis market, went over to California Gulch, and in 1877 erected a small smelter at Malta as an experimental project for reducing the ores of the Homestake, then quite a productive property, upon which its owners had built some rather extravagant hopes. The following winter, the manager on starting the works, found himself badly in need of lead ores to facilitate the reduction of the somewhat re- fractory products of the Homestake, and was persuaded by Stevens to try the mineral then lying on the dump of the Rock mine, which he did, with satisfactory results. He then purchased a few tons at ten dollars each, and smelted it with other ores. This was the actual be- ginning of the smelting industry, which in process of time became enlarged to vast proportions in that section of the Arkansas Valley, and the inception of legitimate mining there.
The result of operations on the Rock claim in the winter of 1875-'76 encouraged Stevens and Wood to adopt more energetic and systematic plans for exploration, which brought about the discovery, and led to the location, in July, 1876, of the "Dome," " Bull's-Eye," and "Iron" claims. During that year, also, some ore from the Rock was hauled in wagons to Colorado Springs, shipped thence by rail to
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St. Louis, and there smelted. The result of this operation, together with the development of other resources, enabled Mr. Stevens to enlist the co-operation of St. Louis capitalists in the work of erecting and oper- ating larger facilities for reduction in 1877, Mr. Stevens guaranteeing a supply of ore for treatment. All the claims or locations mentioned are situated on "Rock Hill," in California Gulch, and on "Iron Hill."
In the meantime,-1876,-discoveries of mineral had occurred on Carbonate Hill, and locations were made by Messrs. Hallock, Cooper, Meyer and others. Meyer's smelting works had been well established and operated to some extent, and thereby the character and value of the minerals had been definitely determined.
The winter of 1876-'77 was particularly severe, marked by heavy snowfalls and very cold weather, which practically closed all progress until June following. But from that time forward things went on with a whirl. The fame of the new mining camp spread abroad. Strangers, attracted by the glowing reports, began moving in large bodies, to share in the wild excitement, and with visions of sudden fortune raised by the opening of the New Discovery, Little Pittsburg and others in the spring of 1878. The Harrison Reduction Works of St. Louis, supplementing those of Aug. R. Meyer from the same source, com- menced business in 1877 with a single furnace, but it was found neces- sary to add another in 1878 to meet the constantly increasing pro- duction. The La Plata Smelting company began with one furnace in June, 1878, and in the following year added three others.
It became essential also to establish the basis of a town and a post- office to accommodate the rapidly arriving immigrants. On the 11th of July, 1877, Mr. George Henderson was commissioned first postmaster. The office was established in a log cabin, and became the nucleus of the soon to be famous "City of the Clouds."
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