History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 41

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791

USA > Colorado > History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV > Part 41

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The assessed valnation of taxable property in the county for 1889, the year of its organization, was $854,246.26, and for 1800 $844,161, the decrease attributable to losses of crops, heretofore mentioned. Of agricultural lands 201,500 acres were listed, valued at $305,115. There were 1,538 horses, 179 mules, 2,776 head of cattle. 1,220 sheep and 1,268 swine.

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PITKIN COUNTY.

FIRST EXPLORERS OF THE ROARING FORK-DISCOVERY OF GREAT SILVER MINES ON ASPEN MOUNTAIN-B. CLARK WHEELER-PROGRESS OF DEVELOPMENT-H. B. GILLESPIE AND HIS MINES-INDIAN ALARMS-THE MOLLIE GIBSON-THE FOUNDING OF ASPEN-ASHCROFT-GILLESPIE'S SPLENDID RANCH-WONDERFULLY RICH ORES.

This county, segregated from the northern part of Gunnison, was organized under an act of the Third General Assembly approved February 23rd, 1881, with Aspen as the county seat. It is bounded on the north by Eagle and Garfield, south by Gunnison, east by Lake, and west by Mesa and the northwest corner of Gun- nison. Its area is 950 square miles. By the census of 1890 its population was 8,929. It was named for Hon. Frederick W. Pitkin, then governor of the state.

In 1878 the peculiar character of the mineral deposits about Leadville opened a new problem to the average Colorado prospector which he found much difficulty in solving. It became necessary to study attentively geological formations in which he had had no previous experience. After the mines first opened had been well explored by shafts and drifts, many valuable object lessons were thereby furnished to miners and superintendents. When Hayden's geological reports and maps of the country were published and distributed in Colorado (1879), a set of them fell into the hands of a party of prospectors composed of Charles Bennett, S. E. Hoskins, A. C. Fellows and Walter S. Clark who, after careful examination, discovered that mineral formations similar to those of Leadville had been located by Hayden on Eagle river, and also near the head of the Roaring Fork of Grand river. Deciding to explore the latter, they procured needed supplies and crossed the range via Twin Lakes and Independence Pass in July, 1870. Prior to this movement, however, in June, Phillip W. Pratt, Smith Steele and William L. Hopkins had examined the upper Roaring Fork region, where Pratt and Steele found and duly located the Spar, Pioneer and some other mining claims. The second, or Bennett company, discov- ered and staked the Durant on the big contact soon after their arrival, also the One- thousand-and-one, on Aspen mountain, and the Smuggler on the mountain of that name. The latter had been previously located as the" Arkansas" by a man named Fuller, but Bennett took possession under the new name. They staked off several other claims to the west of the main contact, among them the Monarch, Hoskins, Iron, Steele and Alose on West Aspen mountain. Reports of their discoveries soon spread to the different mining camps on the Arkansas river, and from July until late autumn, prospectors straggled in over the rugged trails in quest of fortune. Among the earlier arrivals were William Blodgett, Warner A. Root, Mitchell Lorenz, Henry Staats, J. Warren Elliott. Henry Tourtellotte-for whom Tourtellotte Park was named-and Daniel McPherson. At the time of the Ute Indian outbreak in September of that year, which resulted in the awful massacre at the White River Agency, Governor Pitkin, apprehending general slaughter, dispatched a courier to the prospectors on the Roaring Fork warning them of the danger, when nearly all

INTERIOR TABOR GRAND OPERA HOUSE, DENVER.

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departed from that region. Phil Pratt and Smith Steele remained, however, secreting themselves in the timber on Aspen mountain, avoiding fires by night, and by day keeping a sharp outlook for savages. When the excitement subsided some of the original party came back and remained during the very severe winter of 1879-80.

In November, 1879, Mr. H. B. Gillespie, accompanied by W. E. E. Koch and son, went to the Roaring Fork mines, the former representing Mr. A. D. Breed, a Cincinnati capitalist, who at one time owned and personally operated the Caribou silver mine in Boulder county. The main purpose of Mr. Gillespie's trip was to ex- amine the Spar mine for Mr. Breed. His report being favorable, the property was thereupon bought by them. While there the parties named, in connection with those who had preceded them, adopted measures for establishing a town, which was chris- tened Ute City, but no legal survey was made and ere long the proposed site was abandoned. They remained a week or two, then returned to Leadville. Wm. L. Hopkins and Charles Bennett located a ranch on what is now the Aspen town site.

In 1880 certain speculators in real estate laid off a town site on the plateau be- tween Maroon and Castle creeks, naming it Roaring Fork City. The one cabin built was designed for a post office. The town site was surveyed, platted and widely advertised; lots sold quite freely at Leadville upon the advantages ostentatiously proclaimed by the ardent promoters, Dr. A. A. Smith and Judge J. W. Hanna of Leadville. Many were disposed of, but the scheme soon collapsed. The place never had but the one house and this, later on, was moved to Aspen.

When the prospectors were driven out of the region by reports of Indian troubles, some came to Denver, where they met and were interviewed as to the pros- pects by B. Clark Wheeler and Charles A. Hallam, then agents and copartners of Mr. D. M. Hyman, a Cincinnati capitalist. As a result, in January, 1880, Wheeler and Hallam procured a bond for the Smuggler, Durant, One-thousand-and-one, Mon- arch, Hoskins Iron, Mose and Steele claims, and also for the two ranch claims located by Hopkins and Bennett, for which, without having seen the properties at all, they paid $5,000 down and agreed to pay $160,000 additional under certain con- ditions named in that instrument. Naturally desirous of more intimate acquaintance with the estate in question, Wheeler, in February following, visited it. being com- pelled to cross the mountains on snow shoes. He was accompanied by Capt. Isaac Cooper (who subsequently became the father and founder of the town of Glenwood Springs), Wm. L. Hopkins, Dr. Richardson and Jack King. The snow was very deep, the weather extremely cold, all trails were buried out of sight, and some of the adventurers became snow-blind. Wheeler made a glowing report of the region, and during the winter delivered a series of lectures in Denver describing the geology, and dwelling eloquently upon the wonderful richness of the newly discovered mining field. He also wrote many enthusiastic accounts for the press, local and eastern, and by every means in his power advertised far and wide the glories of the Roaring Fork. We may state without extravagance that the enormous prestige it gained be- tween 1880 and 1887, and the large investment of capital acquired, was due as much to the untiring zeal and prodigious force exerted by Mr. B. Clark Wheeler, as to any other influence employed. That he might give free and full expression to his bound- less confidence in the district, and constant proclamation of its resources as revealed from day to day, as well as to aid in building a splendid town there, he established and edited the Aspen Daily "Times" which, under his vigorous management, soon became a power in the land that still endures. Prior to his departure on the expe- dition just mentioned, Wheeler and Hallam procured an order from the surveyor- general of Colorado for a survey of the proposed Aspen town site, so named from the dense growth of aspen trees on the mountain under whose shadow a beau- tiful city has since arisen. On the oth of May following. Wheeler and Hallam, accompanied by a corps of miners to open the claims they had purchased returned

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to Aspen. The company consisted of the principals just named, with J. W. Deane, Byron E. Shear, Fred C. Johnson, W. W. Williams, W. H. Higgins and some others not now recalled. They took the original trail via Independence Pass, encoun- tering many hardships en route. Tools, blankets and provisions were carried on their backs. After four days of struggling in deep snows and among rocky cañons, on May 13th they reached their destination, weary and almost exhausted. The next day Mr. Hallam located a ranch claim adjoining the Aspen town site, since laid out as an addition, which included the pretty lakes that bear his name.

On the 15th of the same month Mr. John B. Farish, an experienced mining engineer, by direction of Mr. Hyman, left Denver to make scientific examination of the Roaring Fork mines, it being assumed that the working party which had preceded him had prepared the way for such inspection. He was accompanied by an assayer and surveyor, the first to analyze and determine the value of the ores, the second to survey and define the claims as required by law. At the time but one cabin had been built in Aspen outside of Ute City, and this by Bennett, Hos- kins, et al. in the summer of 1879. Shortly after their arrival Mr. Farish and asso- ciates began erecting the second cabin. In due course Farish investigated the mineral deposits that had been bonded to Hyman & Co., caused surveys to be made, and assays also of all the ores exposed in the several locations. He then re- turned to Denver, and about June Ist submitted a very favorable report. Reinforced by trustworthy information, Hyman & Co. gave orders to develop the properties. Soon afterward Mr. Farish reappeared in Aspen, laid out certain work, and started the Durant incline, which, had it been pushed as recommended, might have pre- vented much subsequent litigation over "apex and side-line" issues by giving the original locators safe title by right of possession.

At this time the J. C. Johnson mine was being developed by its owner, and Mr. H. B. Gillespie was actively prosecuting similar undertakings on the Spar. The Aspen town site had been definitely located, a wagon road thereto laid out through Taylor Park, and crowds of prospectors began to flock in. The mines purchased by Gillespie and Breed and by Hyman, Wheeler and Hallam soon took rank among the more productive in the district .*

It is impossible at this late day to procure a complete list of the pioneers in this section. The names just cited, with others given in the general text, are men- tioned because they come to hand in the preparation of this sketch. Messrs. Cowen- hoven and Brown became very eminent factors in the subsequent growth of great mining enterprises: Mr. J. W. Deane was a prominent lawyer and a clear and forcible writer of early chronicles; Dr. Teller was one of the first physicians; James Downing a lawyer of note. Mr. McLaughlin's hotel was for many years the center where miners, brokers, speculators, capitalists, all classes assembled and where vast schemes were formulated and discussed.

The mining district thus founded acquired wide celebrity, but the little heroic bands which made fixed residence there were destined to endure strange experi- ences before the anticipated rewards came to any. The only lines of communication with the outside world were primitive trails, dangerous alike to man and beast; the nearest market for ores and the base of supplies was at Leadville, sixty miles away. Nevertheless, material progress crowned their efforts year by year until the arrival of the Denver & Rio Grande railway, November 2nd, 1887, which removed all obstructions and opened the floodgates of a marvelous prosperity.

* Among those who settled at Aspen in ISSo were J. F. Freeman, Henry P. Cowenhoven, D. R. C. Brown, Charles C. Jacobs, James and Angus McPherson, llenry Webber, James McLaughlin (first pro- prietor of the Clarendon hotel), James Harrington, who located the famous Mollie Gibson mine, John McGehan. James Traynor, Harvey Young. J. E. Slagel, A. Hopely, James C. Connors. Chas. Durant, (. I. Hallett, W. West Clark, May Wood, I .. J. Herrick, Chas. Marshall, R. R. Teller, James Downing, Rev. Mr. Paddock and Jack Atkinson.

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As we have seen, among the first great capitalized influences for the devel- opment of the region were those of Messrs. Breed & Gillespie, B. Clark Wheeler, D. M. Hyman, Charles Hallam and their associates, who by well-directed efforts prepared inducements that caused other moneyed forces to enter and aid in the grand work thus auspiciously begun. In 1883 Mr. Jerome B. Wheeler, of New York, was persuaded by Harvey Young to visit Aspen and examine its advan- tages for investment. His first venture was the purchase of a water-jacket smelter that had been partially erected on the bank of Castle creek, which he completed and put in operation. A man of dauntless pluck and incessant energy, possessing ample means, his influence soon became a leading one in the community. His chief agent was Walter B. Devereaux. Mr. Wheeler bought interests in, and finally secured control of, the Spar mine; invested largely in coal mines; founded a banking house which is still conducted in his name, and was one of the large stockholders in the Colorado Midland railway, which was completed to Aspen early in 1888. Not content with those acquisitions, he purchased the Emma, Aspen, Vallejo and other mines, which were incorporated under the name of the Aspen Mining and Smelting company. The 1001, the Spar and Durant cover the apex of the great contact vein as it extends along the ridge of Aspen mountain, the others being located down the slope just below the side-line of the Durant, cov- ering the vein on its dip. This led to legal contests that disturbed litigants and courts for years and cost a great deal of money.

The first important apex and side-line case was that of the Durant vs. the Emma, tried before Judge Moses Hallett in the U. S. district court in Denver. Senator Henry M. Teller and Charles J. Hughes, Jr., appeared for the apex claimants, and Messrs. T. M. Patterson and Charles S. Thomas for the Emma or side-liners. The result was a verdict for the Durant. Before a new trial could be had a settlement was effected whereby two companies were organized-the Compromise and the Enterprise.

The district was originally designated Highland, but afterward was changed to Roaring Fork. It is stated that the first shot fired on Aspen mountain was by Walter S. Clark, and that this gentleman is fairly entitled to the honor of giving the district its present title. It is also among the incidents of early times that A. W. Zern and H. C. Evans made certain discoveries on Copper mountain in 1880, on the divide between the Roaring Fork and Castle creek, one of which they named Eva Belle.

In January, 1880, Jim McEvoy and other prospectors from Leadville located the Little Giant, whose side-lines lay diagonally across the Durant. During the same year a man named Meyer located the War Eagle on territory also claimed by the owners of the Durant, under the assumption that the discovery improve- ments made on the latter were actually on the Spar.

Mr. H. B. Gillespie informs me that the first claim taken up on Aspen moun- tain was named the Galena, in July, 1870, and that he purchased it in October fol- lowing, together with the Spar, for $25,000, and soon afterward engaged a force of miners to develop them. About the same time he assisted his fellow pioneers in preparing plans for establishing a post route and post office, which resulted in a petition to the postmaster-general. To hasten the consummation he went to Wash- ington, presented the petition and urged immediate action, which was granted. Returning, he stopped in Philadelphia and there organized "The Roaring Fork Improvement company," for the purpose of constructing a wagon road from Buena Vista, on the Arkansas river, to Aspen (then called U'te City). During his absence B. Clark Wheeler had platted the town site, changing the name to "Aspen." In 1880 Mr. Gillespie settled there with his family and began opening his mines. For a temporary residence they occupied a large canvas tent, which served until a more pretentious home could be built. It was here that his estimable and culti-

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vated wife instituted the first literary society and also the first Sunday-school. In 1880-81 the ores taken from his mines were sent to Leadville by jack trains, at a cost of four cents a pound. Mr. Gillespie was intimately associated in the organization, and by the employment of his capital in building the telegraph line from Granite to Aspen, and later the line from Aspen to Glenwood Springs.

Only thirty-five persons were courageous enough to brave the long hard winter of 1880-81 in that snowbound region. Among them were thirteen ladies, only eight of whom are now recalled, namely: Mrs. H. P. Cowenhoven and her daughter Kate (now Mrs. D. R. C. Brown), Mrs. H. B. Gillespie, Phoebe Phillips, Mrs. James MeLaughlin, Mrs. O. Riley, Mrs. Charles S. Jacobs and Mrs. P. M. Williams. Most of the prospectors were there in the interests of syndicates formed in Leadville. When spring opened and the trails were clear great numbers arrived. Owing to the distance from markets, the excessive cost of all supplies, high wages and the expense and difficulties attending transportation, no extended progress was made until 1887, when the first railway was completed. This event was cele- brated with great pomp and display of fireworks, a lengthy procession, and the lighting of huge bonfires on all the neighboring peaks, that bathed the valley in a blaze of glory. The occasion was the arrival of President David H. Moffat and guests from Denver, for whom a grand banquet was spread in the skating rink.

Meanwhile, however, some of the larger veins located on either side of the Roaring Fork had been quite thoroughly exploited and some fair dividends paid. Many business houses and some pretty dwellings adorned the town site. In 1886 the population was about 3,000. Before the close of 1887 it was estimated at 5,000, and in 1893 at 11,000. During the first five years much expensive litigation occurred, which retarded growth. Indeed, it seemed as if nearly every mine of considerable value had its crop of law suits.

But from 1887 to the closing of the Indian mints in 1893, followed by the repeal of the "Sherman law" by Congress, Aspen enjoyed great prosperity. It became the handsomest, most substantial and attractive mining town in the Rocky Mountains, and gave promise of surpassing all others in the aggregate value of its mineral yields. In that period, when hundreds of miners were employed and millions of treasure poured in steady streams from its hillsides, there was no lack of capital for the extension of any legitimate enterprise. The more prosperous built pretty residences and furnished them luxuriously. Three large and well- equipped school buildings arose at a cost of $60,000; several fine churches, a beau- tiful opera house costing $80,000; the Hotel Jerome, to replace the original Clar- endon, or rather to supplement it, cost $80,000; the county court house, an armory building, city hall and jail; the Citizens' hospital; two complete electric light and power plants for lighting the city and furnishing motive power for several mines; three banking houses; an elegant post office with a free delivery system; three daily and an equal number of weekly newspapers; a volunteer fire department and a well-ordered system of water works, with many other elements that form the basis of a brisk and prosperous community, followed in rapid succession as the need appeared.

But let us go back for a moment to the foundation of civil government in Aspen and trace its development in connection with the advance of more material things. It may be stated in passing that the annals of this delightful community have been comparatively free from the atrocious erimes that have stained nearly all of its contemporaries. In April, 1880, the commissioners of Gunnison county appointed Warner A. Root a justice of the peace for Roaring Fork district, then under their jurisdiction, which comprises nearly the entire valley. In the long winter of 1880-81 citizens held meetings in Henry Webber's cabin to discuss mat- ters of public interest, among them the incorporation of the town. In March, 1881, Justice Root drafted the requisite papers to that end and sent them to the

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commissioners of Gunnison county, who granted the petition and ordered that an election be held on the proposition in April following. The result of the vote being favorable, an election of officers was held in May, when the following were chosen: Mayor, George W. Triplett; trustees, Joseph Adair, R. C. Wilson, Angus McPherson . and George Elrod; city clerk, Newton J. Thatcher. The trustees elected Warner A. Root, police magistrate, and Joseph King, city attorney.

The first cabin built on the Aspen town site still remains as a relic of the primitive epoch. It was a one-story structure, of unhewn logs, with two doors and a single window of four panes, the whole covered by a brush and dirt roof. It passed to J. W. Deane and Byron E. Shear, who used it for a law office. It was subsequently sold to B. Clark Wheeler, and by him transferred to Warner A. Root,

who held his justice court therein. In this building were kept the records of Pitkin county under its first clerk and recorder, William B. Root, during the first six months of his administration. A photograph of this historical reminiscence is before me as I write. In due course the county acquired a distinct organization, when other courts came as a natural sequence. The first term of the district court was held by Judge Jasper D. Ward, in Aspen, in 1882. The first child born in Pitkin county was the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Russell, on Castle creek, in the spring of 1880. Dale Jacobs, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Jacobs, was the first child born in the city of Aspen.

Here is an instance of how suddenly fortunes are sometimes acquired in new mining camps, by men who know very little of the science of geology or of practical mining. The present great Aspen vein covers a claim originally christened the "Twenty-six," that was purchased of Pratt Steele and his partner, Starner, in Jan- uary, 1880, for $1,000, by Breed & Gillespie. In the late fall of 1880, Elmer T. Butler and Lew Stone, who had been working a claim in the porphyry between West Aspen mountain and Spar ridge, near the Schiller, inquired of Gillespie if he was going to do the "Chaffee work" (otherwise the annual improvement required by United States law) on the Twenty-six. He replied that he had not fully decided to do so, but if he (Gillespie) did not commence work before midnight of December 31st they might take it if desired. Promptly at the hour, Butler and Stone, finding the way clear for them, began sinking a shaft on the Twenty-six. After performing a certain amount of work without encouraging result, they leased the claim to J. D. Hooper and associates for six months, in the last two of which, having encountered a very large body of rich mineral, they took out ore which brought them over $600,000 cash at the smelters. This is a part of the great Aspen mine which has enriched all its owners, paying millions in dividends.

The mineral belts thus far traced and partially opened extend over a very large area, from Taylor Range on the south to Frying Pan Gulch on the north. But the larger and more productive which have given the district its fame are situated on Aspen and Smuggler mountains. The renowned Mollie Gibson, by reason of its exceeding richness and the dividends realized, attracted universal attention. Mr. H. B. Gillespie relates something of its history. Early in 1888 he was commissioned by Judge J. Y. Marshall of the district court at Aspen, where this mine with others was held in litigation, to examine and report upon certain points for its advisement. During the progress of the suit Mr. Gillespie and Byron E. Shear were negotiating for the purchase of the mines in litigation, including the rights and titles of all the litigants. The terms being satisfactory, the nego- tiations were completed and the purchasers assumed the control. Soon afterward the Mollie Gibson Mining and Milling company was organized, with Mr. Gillespie at the head. A year later the Mollie Gibson Consolidated Mining company, whose property embraced the Gibson, Lone Pine, Silver King. Sanquoit, a part of the Emma and a number of fractional claims, the whole covering 64 acres of

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imneral land, was perfected, with J. J. Hagerman, of Colorado Springs, president. This corporation expended large sums in machinery, buildings and general devel- opment work. The first deposit of great value was found December 9th, 1890. In the next two years it was known as the richest silver mine in the world, exceed- ing all precedents in the value of its ores and in the regularity and amount of divi- dends paid its stockholders. The first dividend, but of undivided capital stock, was declared April 10th, 1891. In November following, when the great vein had been pretty thoroughly defined, a cash dividend of $200,000 was paid. It is stated from authoritative sources that the average value of the ore was 600 ounces silver per ton. Some of the richest mineral ever taken from a silver mine in Colorado was found there. To illustrate: In June of that year one car of 233 tons gave a net return of $44,000; one in July of 22 tons netted $60,000; one in August of 24 tons netted $76,500; one in September of 22 tons netted $60,400; and one in Octo- ber of 28 tons netted $64,100; still another netted $118,000. At one time five saeks, averaging 112 pounds each, returned $5,670; and at another the same amount yielded $4,260. The company was capitalized at 1,000,000 shares, $5 par value.

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History of the State of Colorado, Volume IV, Part 41

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company Publication date: 1889-95 Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co. Number of Pages: 791

Author: Hall, Frank, 1836-1917. cn; Rocky Mountain Historical Company
Publication date: 1889-95
Publisher: Chicago, Blakely print. Co.
Number of Pages: 791