CHAPTER XIII.

Mmm AND MININ~LoRdDO.

lhOIsmor A~ERICLW Oow D m w n s . A ~ c n u S
i-~ or TEE C m -
D m OR OF TEE SPANI~RDS-CALIIORPU PL~K~BIIIS-~~SBOKZL~
Qom D ~ S O O ~ T O W N SPEAK-LA-=
- ~ B MIQBA~OI~~LOL-
oom FOR~ATION~%A~.ACI~R OF TEB DEPOSITS-PUO~ AND
W n s Rmamr(~~-P- AND PEAKS-WXINQ IAW~-Y~-MILLS
Ann Pmemsm-Lun, IRON, AND COAL

INthis, the oldest- portion of the continent, nature

stored within the rocks the treasures which, through
the agency of man, were destined to transform here,
w in other sections, a wilderness into a flourishing
state. Thus hidden, few looked for them, notwith-
.- standing the traditions of golden nuggets carried in
the shot-pouches of the early mountaineers, and of
the published statement of the explorer, Pike, that an
American, James Pursley, whom he met in New
Mexico, showed him lumps of gold obtained from the
South park, and asserted that the Indians, knowing
of placers in that region, had roused the curiosity of
Mexicans so far as $a,lead them on a futile search.
Old deserted shafts and copper vessels, said to have
been discovered in southern Colorado, are attributed
to the ancient clifl-dwellers, although they should,
with more likelihood, be ascribed to the Spaniards.
It was only when the California discoveries had.
aroused the attention of the world that gold-hungry
pilgrims occaaiondy halted to test the now repeated
rumors, some on the Platte, others in the south.
Among these wanderers was a party of Cherokees, in
quest not exactly of gold but of a new home for their
Georgian tribe. Follo.wing the Arkansas and Squirrel
(W)
 MIN'ING TOWNS. 941

creek mute, they reached Cherry creek, and there

found gold, continuing their journey thence to Cali-
fornia. The discovery was verified by a cattle trader,
and by military expeditions which followed the same
road in 1857, and previously, but so little metal was
obtained that no excitement attended it.
The Cherokees had meanwhile returned from Cal-
ifornia, and after many efforts succeeded, in 1858, in
o anizing an expedition to the Cherry creek gold
T
fie d, composed of thirty Indians and twelve white .
persons, under the leadership of George Hicks, senior,
and John Beck. Among the white members was G.
McDougal, brother of the governor of California, who
had a trading-post on Adobe creek. They respected
P
in vain from the Arkansas to beyond the P atte river,
but finally W. G. R y e 1 1 found fair diggings on a dry
creek seven mi1es"south of Cherry creek.
The curiosity roused by the expedition and its
known object sufficed to start others on its heels.
One from Lawrence, Kansas, sesrched in vain for
placers to the south and north of Arkansas river, and
then sought compensation in laying out towns near
the present sites of Colorado Springs and Denver, for
which, however, neither settlers nor buyers ap eared.
Other and more resolute adventurers fromdissouri
athered along Cherry creek, and spent part of their
keisure in laying out Auraria, in o p p i t i o n to which
a party from Leavenworth founded Denver, on the
opposite side of the creek. '
I n the autumn D. C. Oakes, of Aurafia, returned
east with a dkry of W. G. Russell, the gold discov-
erer of this year, and published it under the title of
Pike's Peak Guide and Journal. This was widely cir-
culated, together with some similar publications, The
.result was an excitement fully equal in many respects
to that of 1849. With the early spring thousands of
wagons were on the way, their white covers bearing
conspicuously the inscription "Pike's Peak," often
with the addition of some jocose legend. On one was
emblaaoned "Pike's Peak or bust 1" On Its r e t m , '
soon a f t e d , were added the words, "Busted, by
thnader I "
The migration during the seaaon is eshated a t
100,000 persons, a number far exceeding the annual
rushes to California. Business depression and the
political trouble in Kansas had prepared the people
for such a movement, and it needed only the glowing
reports from the Rock mountains to give it direction,
after which it p o d onward without waiting for
their confirmation. Disappointment was therefore to
be expected. The diggings so far explored were
meagre in extent and yield, and as few among the
incomers knew anything of indidtons or minin
methods their inetkient search proved of little avaf
I n addition to failure came reports of the violent
deeds committed by some of the most desperate charac-
ters ever to be found in the train of man's migrations.
This with other causes sufficed to atart a veritable
stampede, and homeward the crowd ,hastened, faster
than it had come, loud in bitter denunciationa, and
vowing vengeance on the author b f the E M S Peak
&.ide. Nearly two thirds of the emigrants returned,
and almost ~rsmany more, then on the way, or pre-
paring to move westward, were deterred by the warn-
ings of the baffled fmune-hunters. Many a trader
emptied his load on the roadside, rather than tax his
exhausted animals to drag it farther.
Another muse for the discomfiture lay in the
abnormal geologic conditions. The formation of the
plains was simple enough, with its cretaceous and
poat-eretaceous strata ;but in the mountains the most .
skdIfnl geologist found himself at fault. !I'hrough
the tertiary basis of the north and middle parks,
appeared masses of volcanic rock stretching westward -
over the White River region. The South pgrk is an
indescribable 'amble, and that of San Luis is of recent
lo.mrto% h e Front, most of the Park, all of the
Mojods, and pad of the h g m de Cristo ramps are
of gnu& and d i e d metamorphic rocks The 8021th-
ern portion of the last n a n d ia ertrboniferous, m d
the Ssn Juan mountains are vdmaic, while the Elk
mountains are a medley of volcanic. peaks thrown up
among silurian and carboniferous strata,and flanked
by cretaceous areas.
The laws of n a t m were suspended during the for-
mation of these remarkable strata, and accident alone
gave the clue to mineral wealth. Contrary to gen-
eral experience gold was here found in metamorphic
rocks, and also in tkrtiary formations, principally in
gneiss, and in many refriLctory combinations with
different.metals and minerals ; if free-milling, it con-
tained silver and sometimes lead. While in the
trachyte mines of the southwest the ore was chlorid-
-ized~-.

Silver de sits were equally .eccentric in their

character. r u e of the most remarkable in the South
park region wrts in horizontal flat veins, from a few
inches to a foot in thickness, seprated from each
other by deep la ers of barren rock-blanket lodes
they were callel They could be traced through
lofty heights, by the eroppin s on either side.
%
Equally surprising was it to fin silver in trachyte
rocks, or enveloping pebbles and bowlders like a
crust, or in fine threads. It usually took the form of
sulphuret of silver and lead, the argentiferous galena;
but also presented other combinationswith carbonates
of lead and various metals, sometimes as a chloride or
as horn-silver.
The trend of the fissure-veins is northeast and '
southwest, generally with clearly defined walls, and
corresponding in direction to the cleavage of volcanic
recks and the dikes along the plains. An earlier
cleavage in the metamorphic rocks runs muthewt and
.northwest, marked by the overlying material. The
veins &onally lying dong the c a r + d lines are of .
small extent.
 Although .thousands forsook the country in disgust, ,

other thousands remained to give it a trial, whose

aesrch was, however, rewarded with the most m
of results. Not uptil 1859 were any valuable a di-y
tions made to those already discovered, the first one
being on the Gold Run affluent of Boulder creek, and
in a gulch on the south Boulder, followed by otheq
which soon brought into prominence the town of
Boulder. I n May, G. Jackson, a Californian, made.
a rich discovery on a branch of Clear creek named
Chicago bar, after his party. 'Several other camps
rose in the vicinity, centred round Idaho springs.
The richest spot of all; and one of the richest in the
world, waa stumbled upon by a party under -the guid-
ance of a Georgian npmed John H. Gregory, who was
&riving a government team to Laramie, on the way
to Fraser river, but was detained through lack o f ,
fun& $ claimed to have found indications on the
north for of Clear creek, and on being " grub-staked," .
that is, given provisions and outfit in exchange for an
, interest in hi discovery, he led a party hither.
Ground waa discovered which yielded an ounce of
gold to the panful of dirt. Gregory sold his claim for
$22,000 to E. W. Henderson, subsequently receiver
, of-the land office a t Central City.
- '.Each successive development raised a flutter amo
the crowd of less fortunate prospectors, and a me ='%
ensued to the several locations out of all proportion to
the a k of available ground. The more promising
sections had already been absorbed by friends of the
discoverers, or by early. arrivals, leaving little or
nothing for their successors. Meanwhile an army of
gold-hunters swarmed over the adjoining country; and , .
thus, a b r diligent search, one creek and gulch after
another wss made to yield its treasures. The tribu-
taries of north Clear creek were especially remunera-
tive, so much so that when water became scarce the
miners in Russell and G ory gulches alone spent
$100,000 in bringing a supp "gy from Fall river. The
 GOLD SEEKERS. 3 4 6 .

later counties of Qear creek and Gilpin were soon

flled with camps, and speculators hastened to avail
themselves of the excitement by founding a number
of towns.
The revived rumor of former4discoveries to the
south led a number in that direction, especially to the
Fontaine-qui-Bouille and other .head waters of the
Arkansas, while South park disclosed deposits which
attracted the usual throng. Thence passed others,
including the later millionaire H. A W. Tabor, who
lived for many years on the present site of Lead-
ville, before its 'actual wealth was revealed, a.nd
here found mines so rich as to draw a popula-
tion of 10,000 within a year. The prace was called
California gulch, and its leading camp Oro City.
Chalk creek was also disclosed, and soon afterward a
rush set .in for San Juan, which camp, after some
early disappointments, was found to possess consider-
able merit. A s a result of this southward movement,
arose a number of towns, as Pueblo, and Colorado,
Fontaine, and Caiion cities, striving to turn a share
. of the gold product into the avenues of trade and
speculation.
For the preservation of order, and-for the protec-
tion of their claims, the earliest occupants of the plac-
ers passed mining laws based generally on California
rules, and framed by men who had mined in that state .
in early days. Although claims were limited t8 ode
for each selector, any number could be purchased.
The size of a gulch or creek claim was fixed a t 100
feet along the gulch, or from bank to bank, and
mountain claims, a t 100 feet on the lode, by 50 in
width. The latter were little in demand a t first, for
few understood quartz mininu, which, moveover,
reqnired costly machinery an8 labor as compared
with the surface deposits, Some camps elected w- -
president of the district, a recorder, and a sheriff to '
enforce the observance of the .regulations.
The reports of these discoveries and operations set
o m more aglow the excitement in the east, a9p
ported as they were b the statements of Horace
Greeley and his journa[ which, in addition, p ~ i s e d
the climate and scenery of C o l o d o in the hgliest
te- .

Once more the stream of migration begap to flow -

toward the mountains, and thousands of wagons
stretched along 'the Platte and the Arkansas, escorted
by bands of fortune-hunters, 'a few content to engage
in farming and stock-raising, but the great majority
bound for the diggings, whose yield for 1860-was
thus augmented threefold the product of 1859.
The total is difEcult to estimate, the only reliable data
being furnished by the United States mints, whichin
1859 coined $622,000 of Colorado gold, and in 1860
oqeQ2+00,000. Large amounts of uncoined .gold
were- m circulation, and of a further quantity no
record has been preserved.
The yield was raised within a fewyeam to $7,500,-
000, sufficient to afl'ord a just claim to an &ial
bnpch mint. Clark, Gruber & Co. began in 1860
to coin gold pieces at Denver, and later P a m s &
Go., a t Hamilton, weight and purity being duly
considered. 4

The chamber of commerce of Denver in 1861

adopted rates vaxyin from $15 per ounce for Russell
%
gulch gold, to $20 for lue river gold, common retorted
and dirty metal bringing only $12. Previous to thie
gold dust had been uniformly accepted a t $18, and
much counterfeit metal in dust and brick form had
been circulated. I n 1862-3 congress made an appro-
priation for buying the:-private assay houses at Den-
ver and establishing a government mint, which
proved of great service, although it remained virtually
a mere assay office. -
A s in Nevada the real nature of the deposits was for
a long time misunderstood. Diggers songht for &OM,
preferably in placers, as quartz required too great an
 PLACER AND QUAEtTZ. 347

expenditure of capital and labor. With so many

workem the surface claims were quickly skimmed, and
with decreasing richness and returns the e x d m of
miners began tb exceed the influx. The flat, gulch,
. and bar diggings of Arapahoe had been stripped of
'
their wealth by 1860; Clear creek and Boulder. coun-
ties had been similarly rifled by 14361 ; Gilpin held
-
out kwo years longer, and the. parks experienced a.
subsequent revival. Under such circumstances the
'--
now unfolding treasures of Idaho, Montana, and
Nevada received additional lustre when compared
with the placers of Colorado, and a host of departing .
miners swelled the tide of migration to the former
terl.ifories.
Of those who remained many applied themselves
to solve the problem of the rocks. The richest of the
k h mines had proved to be croppings of quartz
E g e s , and bpt& middle of July 1859 the first a r m
tra was put in aeration a t Gregory gulch by Lehmer,
Laughlin, and P&k. Two months later Prosser,
Conklin & Co. had a steam stamp-mill at work,
and a second started soon afterward, -together with
half a dozen arastras and. mills moved by water-
power chiefly on North Clear, creek. Others were
busy in taking out ore for the larger mills which must
soon be erected. The ledges were in many places .

m y to work, and as the returns of some mills, hot-

withstanding their defective apparatus, exceeded $100
per ton, there was sufficient encouragement for
exploitation. At the close of the following year
Clear creek alone had 71 steam quartzmills, with
over 600 stamps of an average weight of 416 pounds,
and 38 water mills, with 230 stamps somewhat less
in weight, besides 50 arastras. The Boulder re 'on
had 9 mills, 4 of which were moved by steam, auF29
araetrae. South park and California gulch had s e v ~
e d . The first furnace was erected in 1861 by L.
Tappan, d t e d by I. Bennett; chiefly to provide
lead bullets for the campaign against Inslians ! h e
 F

348 MINES AND MININQ-COLOBADO.

second fnrnacefor smelting gold ore was built a t Black

Hawk in 1864 by J.E. Lyon, but proved unserviceable.
Much of this enterprise was fruitless, however, for
often so little gold was saved as not to pa expenses.
It was found that quicksilver, which in !? evada and
elsewhere saved the free gold and carbonates by
amalgamation, had .no effect on the sulphurets and
pyrites of Colorado. A new method was evidently
required. Much money was expended in unprofitable
experiments, and many mines were abandoned, which
have since paid handsomely. The yield fell from
$7,500,000, until in 1867 it amounted to only $1,800,-
000, a decline which naturally drove miners to other
fields. Hence a large amount of mining property
was thrown into the hands of eastern capitalists who
had advanced money for machinery and experi-
ments, and for a time remained idle, the production
being supplied by a limited number of claims, and
with the aid of simple stampmills and arastras, which
now came into general use, through unwillingness
to spend more money on experiments. Some claims,
like the Horsefall, continued to yieldnearly $100,000
a year, but theores from others proved too refractory,
after reaching a certain depth.
The eastern ,owners were not willing to sacrifice
mines of evident richness because their clients had
failed. Some of them sent for European experts, and
their methods were so improved upon b nativh inge-
f
nuity as eventually to solve the prob em. It was
moreover established that silver and not gold was the
metal to be sought. For years-silver ores had been
rejected in ignorance of their value, and it was only
of late that the mistake had been discovered.
h y e r John Torry had in 1859 pointed out the pre-
dominance of silver in ores submitted to him, and D.
C. Daley in 1860 recorded the Ida mine in Clear
Creek county as a silver lode, msaying 100 ounces to
the ton. Several similar locations were made, among
them the celebrated Seaton mine, although it wrrs
 SMELTING WORKS. 349

worked for gold alone until this failed to pa An

P
examination of the mine discovered by Coo ey and
Short on Glazier mountain, in 1864, gave further evi-
dence that Colorado was above all a silver region.
The Belmont was the first silver mine to pay for
working. Most others failed to respond to smelting
or other procegses, and it was only in 1868 that suc-
cess was finally achieved, and the stamp-mills once
more resumed their crushing.
Prominent among those who contributed to this
result was N. P. Hill, professor of chemistry at
Brown university. A visit to Colorado in 1865
revealed to him the imperfection of the existing
methods of treating ores. After studying carefully
in Wales and elsewhere the processes of ore-reduc-
tion, he returned in 1867, and, organizing the Boston
and Colorado Smelting company, erected furnaces a t
Black Hawk. This solved the problem of reducing
refractory ore, and thus operations were resumed on
many abandoned mines. The company gradually in-
creased its establishment, which in 1879 was removed
to Denver, and M r Hill's great services to Colorado
were recognized by his election to the United States
senate. His career will be related more in detail in
a later chapter of this volume.
Others followed in his footsteps, and reduction-
works multiplied throughout the districts to such an
extent as to speedily increase the number of mills.
By 1870 there were in operation the works of Cash
& Rockwell at Central City, which claimed to save
ninety-eight per cent of the precious metal; Garrott
and Buchanan's and Stewart's a t Georgetown ;
Brown's a t Brownville ; Baker's a few miles off; the
International company's in the East Argentine dis-
trict ; the Swansea, four miles from' Georgetown, and
in Summit county those of the Sukey and Boston
association. Smelting works erected in Omaha and
Chicago also competed for the ores, while those of
 rieber grade were shipped to England. The av
T
assay of the silver ores was $118, of which tihe an. a
guara,nteed eighty per cent to the miner, the expense
,

of transportation and crushing reachips $40 or.$50

per ton. Low grade ores had to await their time or
be work4 on the spot
The result was that the yield of the mines rose by
1870 to $5,000,000 and by 1871' to $6,000,000.
G'ipin county alone produced $18,000,000 in the nine
yeam ending 1880,of which nearly $2,700,000 was the
product of the latter year. I n 1868 it had 38 mills in
operation with an average of nineteen stamps ;but the
production was as yet mainly gold. Two yearelater it
had 170 mines in course of exploitation. Clear creek,
with fewer mills, had nearly d o u w the number of
mines, on which some work had been done ; Boulder
had about 100 mines; Lake county 70 in the one
A
diirict of Red mountain, (lard' Summit county 20,
though,. few of these last had mills, or improvements
of any mportance. The maximum yield of the date
was attained in 1882, a d after a decline for several
years was estimated in 1886 at $26,000,000, .and in
1890 a t $31,000,000, theee figurea including base
bullion. With two exceptions the labter was more
than double the output of any other state or &mi-
tory. The census of 1880 enumerated 175 smelting,
stamping, and reduction worke, and in 1883 $14,000,-
000 worth of ore was treated a t Denver.
The revival and development of silver miniq was
attended by a number of frauds, companies Wig
formed to take advantage of the prevailing excite-
ment 'by saddling wortl$ess properties on the public.
There was also the usual manipulationof good mines by
ape&ddmr~,with fictitious dividends, asseasmedia and
other device8 for raking or depressing the vdne of
shawe, together with %he c d m a r y mismampmed
and waste .of funds on costly machinery and f~rocaeeee,
&withoutdee .inquiry into the merite of the mmca.
Clear creek county, the scene of some of the esr-
liest developments, produced between 1864 d 1884
bullion to the amount of $28,500,000 ; yet- few of the
mines had reached any great depth. One of the
deepest was the Terrible, where on the 1,300 foot level
assaps yielded 200 ounces of silver to the ton. The
population of the county, placed in 1880 at 8,000,
centred a t Georgetown, whose reduction works added
largely to ita busineaa Arapahoe, where the first
gold discoveries were made, possessed only a few
placers, which were soon exhausted, while Gilpin, the
smallest county in the state, produced during twenty-
four years over $43,000,000, nine-tenths being gold,
e uivdent to one-fourth of the total production
!
o Colorado. The auriferous lodes occupy an area of
one mile by four, alona which lie the towns of Black
Hawk, Central, and kevadaville. The silver belt,
found only in 1878, extends across Clear creek, from
Pork gulch to Dory hill The consolidation of small
mines and ditching enterprises has tended tp sustain
the yield, notwithstanding the increasing depth and
workiing expenses, and the large proportion of -low
grade ore. The production in 1883 reached $2,200,-
000. I n Boulder the annual output has been only
half a million, chiefly silver, and in Park county only
$400,000 in 1883, many of the mines being idle.
A singular experience was that of Leadville. the
story of which has already been related. in connection
with the biography of Horace A. W. Tabor. The
rush set in during 1877-8, and Leadville sprang into
existence to absorb the original camp of Oro, and be-
come within two years one of the leading cities of the
state, with a population in 1879 of 35,000. 'The
lodes were so rich as to yield over 1,000 tons of bul-
lion from 3,300 tons of ore. Tabor, Rische, Mar-
shall, Du Bois, the first mayor of Leadville, Rowell,
and others became millionaires within an incredibly
brief period. The first smelter was erected early in
'1878, by the St Louis Smelting and Refining com-
 ny, and by the close of the following year over a
%n were in operation, with 34 furnaces, which in
less than twelve months produced 37,700,000 pounds
of bullion from 210,000,000 pounds of ore, containing
$7,700,000 of silver, $16,376 of gold, and $1,500,000
of lead, and to this must be added $2,750,000. worth
of ow reduced elsewhere. The first ootlay incurred,
the expenses diminished, while the production of
Lake county rose by 1882 to over $16,000,000 for the
three metals. Chaffee county, which was formed
out of a portion of Lake in 1879, is chiefly famed for
its iron mines, though with a small yield of bullion.
- .

I n 1890 Leadville still retained its preeminence as

* the mining centre of Colorado, having entirely rec0.v-
er& the prestige which in previous years i t had par-_
tially lost. All or very nearly all of its huge smelters
and mills were yet in operation, producing a goodly
yield of old and silver, with au enormous output of
the metaf from which it derives its name. Except
for the Cornstock lode, and that only in its best days,
the output of this famous camp has never perha
been equalled in the history of mining. It wou d
seein to be even a more permanent district than the
r
Cornstock itself, and while subject to fluctuations, in
common with all others, has not suffered such periods
of extreme depression as have been witnessed on
Nevada's great mineral lode.
Custec county bas a number of rich mines. The
capital stock of the Discove on Silver cliff was
'Ka
placed a t $10,000,000. The aine, discovered by
E. C. Bassick, was of a phenomenal character, with a
chimney filled with bowlders of true conglomerate ore,
new to mineralogists, with kernels incased in telluride
of gold and silver, some lumps aseaying $7,000 per
ton,chiefly gold It yielded $1,000,000 annuall .
I
Pitkin and Rio Grande counties produced litt e of
the precious metals. Summit ranks only eleventh
among the bullion-yielding districts since the excision
of Eagle county, which in 1883 produced $940,000
from one group of minea done.
 The west slope of the great range was prospected
and opened in 1861 ; but the hostility of the Utes
drove out all but one party, which remained for years
in a state of siege in Union park. I n 1872 prospect-
netrated once more, and made so promising a
OrS P
disc osure of silver veins as to lead to the formation
of a large company, under the presidency of S. Rich-
ardson, geologist, which founded the town of Gunni-
son. It was not' until 1879, however, that the first
important silver mine was located by W. A. Fisher.
Half of the claim he donated to a stranger, to whom
he had promised a share in his first loation, in recog-
nition of a casual offer of assistance. The stranger
sold his share within a few days for $100,000. Other
rich disclosures followed close on each other, attended
by the usual influx of people, and the rise of several
camps. The Utes had latterly shown themselves
more *compliant, but the prospective invasion of
whites aroused their ,former hostility. They com-
mitted a massacre at the a ency, and threatened a
%
bloody and protracted war ; ut the continued in our-
ing of miners, nearly equal in magnitude to the lead-
ville movement, served to intimidate them. Moreover,
in I881 the railway entered Gunnison, and gave its
powerful aid to protection and develo ment. Some
of the ore aasayed $2,000 per ton, whfe a multitude
of mines made handsome returns, notwithstanding the
increased working expenses caused by remoteness
from centres of suppl
i.
Witliila six years of its o an-
Ation the county c aimed 14,000 inhabitants,?ully ,

-& one-third beiig in Gunnison.

?
,=

San Juan bounty includes the wild& and most

inaccessible region in Colorado, yet a body of miners,
headed by the mountaineer, J. Baker, penetrated it
. an early as 1860 to test the stories of the Navajes
concerning the sources of their old bullet ornaments.
f
They found traces of the metal, ut so faint as to offer
no inducement, and thereupon returned as best they
C. B.-IV. ZB
could ; but not all, for many perished from cold, star-
vation, or the tomahawk. Baker himself was after-
ward killed a t the entrance to the grand d o n of the
Colorado. So suffered in many a place the vanguard ,

of civilition on this continent. Before the inexora-

ble laws of nature, the heir of centuries of intellectual
growth is no more than the jelly-fish to the sea which
casts it upon the sands to perish.
The sad fate of the expedition prevented further
respecting, and in 1868 the county was ceded to the
b t e s as part of their mrvation. The attention
called to it by the treat with this nation, and by the
boundary dispute with Ifew Mexico, seemed, however,
to rouse the interest of miners, and in the following
ear they entered Las Animas, and found there the
Little G i n t gold lode, assaying as high ss $4,000 per ,

ton. Other discoveries were made, chiefly of silver,

and a large influx of people followed. This being a
violation of the treaty, troops were sent to expel the
intruders, but after some threatening demonstrations
the Utes were persuaded to r e l i uish possession. I n
\
1874 more than 1,000 lodes were mated, chiefly com-
posed of argentiferous galena, impregnated with grey
copper, of which the best yielded from $150 to$2,000
per ton. The Uncompahgre district contained a better
class of ore, and from the Hotchkiss mine, in an ad-
joining district, 150 tons of selected rock yielded an
unprecedented sum. Not faroff, the San Miguel cuts
through gold. gravel deposits 150 feet above its chan-
nel, evidently the bed of some m'ohtier stream which
in the remote past rolled its go'T den sands towards
that vanished wa to which geological facts point a
significant finger. Out ,of this region was formed the
counties of La Plata, Hinsdale, San Juan, I>olores,
and Ouray. The last claimed, in 1884, a production
exceeding $4,000,000, one-fourth comin from the
3
Red Mountain district. San Juan yield only about
one-tenth of that amount
;3
 THE BdSER MET- 855

Among other metals in Colorado lead is abundant,

Lake couhty standing preeminent as the largest lead-
producing district in the United States. Tin exists
in different places. Copper is found in combination
with the precious metals, but the Salida mine, in
Chaffee county, has so far the most promising copper
deposit.
Above these in importance ranks iron, both for
abundance and quality. Notwithstanding the youth-
fulness of the state and the abundance of more attrac-
tive metals, the production of iron and steel in 1886
amounted to $3,000,000. I n Boulder it forms the
most valued of the county's resources. I n 1864 J.
W. Mamhall, after whom the mining town of Mar-
shall was named, erected there, with aid of others, a
blasting furnace, and made two hundred tons of pig-
iron from the red hematite ores which abound in the
locality. The Davidson Coal and Iron Mining com-
pany, incorporated in 1873, with a capital stock of
$160,000, by W. A. Davidson and others, bought a
tract of eight thausand acres of mineral land from the
Colorado Central railwa . Other enterprises are
i
also preparing to deve op the iron deposits of
Boulder.
The best mine in the state'& the Calumet, of Chaf-
-fee county, consistiig of magnetic and hematite ore,
with seventy to eighty per cent of pure iron. Ten
carloads are carried daily to the extensive works of
the Colorado Coal and Iron company at South Pue-
blo, which owns the mine. Here is also smelted iron
from Costilla, where are the largest deposits in the
state. A portion is conveyed to the works a t Denver.
A St Louis company established a t Gunnislon large
steel and iron works, and bought coal and iron lands
all over the country, but failed for lack of coking-coal.
With increasing facilities for conve ing coal and iron,
f
the exploitation of this metal wil grow apace, and
sustain a number of cognate industries.
366. MINEg AND IdIlimG-COLORADQ
The San Juan region possesses a large variety of
minerals, such as coal, bituminous and anthracite,
limestone, bog and magnetic iron, fire-clay, and build-
ing-atone, as well as wood and charcoal, and appears
designed by nature as a centre for reduction works
and foundriea C h d e e county sends daily over two
dozen carloads of lime to the smelting-worksat Pueblo
and Leadville. It also boasts of beautiful varieties of
marble and granite. Building-stone and potter's clay
abound in Jefferson. Frhmont. and other counties.
Frt?mont having, mokover, alabaster, and the othek
mineral paint.
Salink springs were discovered b C. L. H all in
f
Park county, containing from six t o ourteen per cent
of salt, the manufacture of which was begun on a
limited scale in 1861-3. A company was then formed,
which erected works a t an expense of $25,000, and
developed the industry; but the advent of railways
permitted the introduction of salt, at rates 80 low as
to render it unprofitable.
Quartz crystals are scattered in great variety over
the country, including carnelian, heliotrope, and other
varieties of chalcedony, onyx, jasper, sardonyx, chrys-
oprase, rose uartzpblack quartz, moss agate, and
aventurine. Brbmoni, county possesses one of the few
jet mines in the world and in the San Juan region
small garnets and rubks have been found, and indi-
cations of diamonds diyovered, so as a t least to lend
color to the famous dmmond-field swindle which a
few yeara ago called attention to this border, and
implicated several prominent capitalists and scientists.
The most esteemed of the mineral deposits is coal,
ranking by the side of iron. It exists in immense
quantities, and in almost every county. It is of sev-
eral geological eras, some of it merely lignite, while
other beds are petroleum-bearing, as in Grand and '

Jefferson counties, and in the sou6hern portions of the

atate occurs anthracite in large areas. Of the last,
m e l d contains valuable deposits, and ite former
county-seat bears the suggestive Game of Carbonate.
Fdmont and El Paso both claim immense fields, and
in Mesa and Montrose are s m a r veins, with a pros-
pect for more valuable developnients. La Plats
munty produced 12,000 tons of semi-anthracite in
1883; Huerfano yielded in the same year 100,000
tons, from the mhes of the Colorado Iron and Coal
company of Pueblo; Gunnison, which depends mainly
on its coal and iron lands, exceeded this quantity.
Boulder has a; free-burning lignite, jet black, and of
high lustre, first developed in 1860, and which brought
into existence the towns of Marshall-whose mine
produced 50,000 tons annually after the railway was
completed in 1878--and Louisville, on the Colorado
Central railway, named after the man who supemised
the exploration. The mine a t the latter point was
sold in 1879 to the Union Pacific. The coal lands of
Las Animas county are fifty miles square, and the
quality is of the best for heating or coking purposes.
A.s much of the coal in other districts does not coke,
this is in great demand, and the coke-ovens of El
Moro and Trinidad furnish large quantities to the
smelters of Pueblo, Denver, and Leadville. I n 1883
the production was 370,000 tons, worth $833,000,
from which came 136,000 tons of coke. B y 1886 the
total yield of Colorado's coal fields was valued a t
nearly $6,000,000, indicating a surplus for exportation
as well as for increasing the iron industries.
With such varied resources in metals and minerals,
the mining industries of Colorado promise to be of
lasting benefit to the state, with a n e v e r augmenting
number of mines and reduction 'establishmenta, of
workers and camps, all of which are providing wider
markets for the hitherto restricted farm products.
The legislature has manifested its appreciation of the
importance of this branch of industry by founding a
state achool of mines, which occupies a fine building
at Golden, and is supported by a d i d tax, and by
OCCaeional appropriatione,
368 YINEB AND IUINm-.

Witbin recent yesre there have been dimovered in

Colon& pekoleum depot& thet will bees eompari-
eon with lihoae of Pennsylvania, their y d y p m d d
being skeady counted by millions of gaUona By a
well-organid system of distribution, the oil ie mar-
keted not only in Cdorado, but in adjoining states
and territories To Isaac E Blake is due the con-
ception and management of this getem, whereby he
hae aixumalated a ~ r i & fortune. after m e e t k . in
hie earlier cam. &th &kY a ah& reverse.
51.