same as at the close of the preceding year, most of the mines there were
greatly developed and more systematically worked in 1860. There was an
ample supply of water in all the districts, and it was said that that fur-
nished by the Consolidated Ditch to the localities it served made mining
practicable in them for fifteen hundred additional men, who were earning
a daily average of five dollars. Silver-veins were discovered near George-
town and a small beginning of mining for that metal was made ; but the
production of silver upon Colorado soil long continued to be of little im-
portance. According to a pioneer storj-, some verdant miners on Clear
Creek at their first encounter with silver-bearing ore thought the metal it
carried to be "white gold''. The Clear Creek districts received a fair
quota of the immigration of that year, including a contingent that had
first gone directly to the head of the Arkansas River. These newcomers,
added to the "old-timers"', made a popidation that occupied the valleys and
gulches about to the limit of their capacity; and, as with their kind in
other parts, many of them were in "hard luck". It was told that one of
these, a former banker in Kansas, who was, or had Ijeen, a Presbyterian
deacon, had turned to making and selling pies on Sundays to eke out his
insufficient income on week-days, and that his bakery business was re-
enforced by an improvised saloon attachment.
HISTORY OF COLORADO 285
A large number of quartz-mills, to be run liy steam, were taken into
the Clear Creek districts, and of which perhaps one-half were brought by
men who had been upon the ground in the year before. By the 1st of Jul}',
there were sixty of such mills and about thirty arastras, including those
erected in 1859, actively engaged in pounding and grinding gold-ljearing
quartz. Of the quartz-mills, a writer of the time said :
"Somehow tlie mills as a general tliiiifj; do not save tlie gold: why, it is hard
to tell. There must be some difficulty beyond the mills — doubtless the want of
experience in the men who run them. Crushing quartz is a new business to them;
and as it is a very nice one, requiring skill, and as all of us j'et lack this skill, we
fail in almost every attempt, just as ever}- one does in a new vocation about which
he knows nothing. Some of the mills have tried quartz from the Bates [Lode], and
pronounced it worthless, while the arastras get .$200 a cord from the same stuff."
These wasteful difficulties, which involved much labor and expense,
appear to have been lessened later in the year. But in the meantime all the
mills were kept going, some of them running, "pay or no pay, to keep up
appearances". All hands were vtnacquainted with the use of amalgamated
copper-plates for collecting the gold. Concerning other troubles that beset
the miners on the North Fork of Clear Creek at that time, I quote the
following from a historical review of pioneer mining in what is now Gilpin
County written by James Burrell in 1879 :
"Pyrites of iron and copper were reached in many of the older lodes, and
because little or no gold could be saved in the ritHes from the "iron', as it was called,
it was believed to be not only worthless, but a material foreign to the vein matter,
that had somehow displaced for a time the gold-bearing quartz. A subscription was
made and work actually commenced on the Gregory [Lode] to sink through the
pyrites to the brown quartz! Nothing better illustrates the universal ignorance of
the whole business at that time than the facts al)ove stated. Generally, when the
Bulphurets were reached, work was suspended."
On a number of the lode claims the miners also were being baffled, as
they sunk their shafts deeper in following the veins of gold-bearing
mineral, by what they called "caps" or "pinches". These were placed where
the body of vein-matter contracted in cross-section and became too thin
for profitable working, or "pinched out" altogether in barren rock ; thus
going "into cap". With few exceptions, the vein was struck again and in
widening form by those who went deeper with their shafts. There had been
some instances of this out-pinching in 1859, but now, with the further
extension of the lode workings, the number of cases increased, and in the
next year were still more frequent. Some of the miners of 18G0, upon
encountering this difficulty, supposing their claims to be "played out", sold
them for whatever they couJd get, or. in the absence of a purchaser, aban-
doned them, and put forth to find something new and easier in the surface
diggings. However, the majority of tlie "]nnched'' claim-owners attempted
the expensive task of "sinking through cap". Many of these succeeded
in reaching a depth at which the vein "opened out"' and again became
profitable. But others, whose reserve capital was insufficient to defray the
cost of the work, were compelled to "throw up the job"' by the exhaustion
of their means. In after-times, most of the claims that had lieen thus
forsaken were reoccupied and developed into mines of great worth.
Notwithstanding these various troubles, there was a plentiful supply
of quartz for the stamp-mills and the arastras, of which, before the coming
286 HISTORY OF COLORADO
thirty-eight by water-power, and fifty water-driven arastras in the upper
Clear Creek districts. While the mills had been unsuccessful in dealing
with the pjTitous and some other gold-bearing mineral, they were producing
in the last half of the year, when experience had been further expanded,
from fair to large values from quartz taken from several of the lodes, the
range being from $7.00 to $90.00 to the ton, although not all the gold
carried by the ore was extracted. "This, it should be remembered", says
Burrell, ''was realized before the introduction of amalgamated copper-
plates, or of uniformly fine screens." The placer diggings, into which im-
proved methods had been introduced, relatively were doing far better than
the lode mines. They were not only pelding greater quantities of gold, but
the ratio of expense in mining it was much less. In many instances the
results of sluicing largely exceeded in value those of the best of the previous
year's work. As the labor-market was overstocked to the point of congestion,
employers could obtain help at comparatively low wages, wliile provisions
and other necessaries were to be had at prices which, duly considering the
heav}- cost of freighting them across the plains and into the mountains,
seemed reasonable.
The towns in these districts also were busy places: there was much
building going on ; many new mercantile establishments had Ijeen opened ;
and each community had its physicians, lawyers, politicians, and specula-
tors. Each was infested by a ruck of featherless birds of prey; and was
enlivened, if not benefited, by the usual "hurdy-gurdy"' elements that always
have been inseparable from primitive towns born of mining for the precious
metals. But as to these circumstances and conditions, the Clear Creek
communities were, according to their population, neither worse nor better
than those in the South Park, and on the upper Arkansas and Blue rivers.
Even the camp-like hamlets in the Boulder Creek district had a proportional
share of them.
Toward the close of the summer, Xathaniel Albertson, John Armour,
and Harrison 6. Otis, founded and platted "Central Citr", which was also
known in pioneer times as "Centre City", its site being nearly central be-
tween the locality of the Gregory Diggings and that of the lower mines in
Xevada Gulch. Before the end of 1860, Central City was becoming the
business centei- of the mining-districts on the North Fork of Clear Creek,
and was made the capital of Gilpin County when that division was organ-
ized, in the winter of 1861-63. In the meantime, the Federal Postal De-
partment established in Central City the post-office for the general neigh-
borhood, and which theretofore had been in Mountain City. The latter,
which liad been deprived of much of its prestige in the meantime, now
of much of its prestige in the meantime, now be'^n to lose its individuality,
and presently was merged into the new town, its name passing out of use.
However, the two practically had been one community since the rise of
Central City. "Central", as the town commonly was called, early developed
into a university of Territorial politics, at which several statesmen who
became conspicuous in public life in Colorado were graduated.
The only other town that arose on upper Clear Creek in that year and
attained sufficient importance to figure upon our pioneer maps, was "Empire
CitV', near Georgetown. While it never achieved the magnitude and dignity
implied by its name, it is still one of the thrifty mining-villages of Clear
Creek County.
HISTOEY OF COLOEADO 287
Most of the placer workiugs in the Boulder Creek district were ex-
hausted by the end of the summer of 1860; and thereafter the attention
of nearly all the miners in that field was given to the further development
of the quartz-mines that had been located and opened in that and in the
previous year, and to searching for new veins. Before the end of autumn,
there were four steam stamp-mills, five driven by water-wheels, and twenty-
nine arastras worked by like power in operation at the Boulder mines.
In that season, a number of the thinner placer-claims in the South
Park were "worked out", and some of those which had been yielding more
generously began to manifest signs of debility, thus warning their owners
of the coming necessity of finding the ore-bodies from which their gold had
been carried by the elements. Several stamp-mills were taken into the park
in 1860. and others to the diggings on the upper Arkansas. Use of the
arastra also was begun in these districts in that season. But the results
produced by quartz-mills and arastras at that time were almost insi.gnifi-
cant in comparison with those of the placer methods, which continued to
predominate during the "flush"' period of gold-mining in that iiart of the
country.
According to all accounts, there were about ten thousand people in and
in the near neighborhood of California Gulch in the autumn of 1860, and
ever)' foot of ground in which even so much as a faint "color" had been
detected was covered by a claim. "Oro City", the forerunner of Ijcadville
and the metropolis of these diggings, had sprung up as if by magic. It
was now far the more populous of the motmtain "cities", and also was an
impressive example of the "wild and woolh-" mining-town. Yet the boom-
ing prosperity of town and diggings was destined to be of short duration.
After about two years of this riotous opulence, the bottom upon which all
of it rested fell out, and the "glory" of California Gulch and its capital
departed. The decline was as rapid as the ascent had been. The entire
locality finally lapsed almost into the solitariness of its original condition,
and so remained for longer than a decade and until the teginning of the
events that made it one of the world's widely-famous silver-producing
districts.
The "cities" in the lowland, with the exception of Boulder and Foun-
tain, were highly stimulated by the greatly increased production of gold
in the mountain mining-districts. Early in April, the proposed consolida-
tion of the Cherry Creek towns into "Denver City" was ratified by a large
majority of their citizens at an election held to determine the matter. Al-
though local jealousies had not been exterminated by the union, "Greater"
Denver now was in the midst of a "boom" which, by comparison, made
that of the preceding year, after the revelations at Chicago Creek and in
the Gregory District, appear mild and unobtrusive. As with the Pike's
Peak country at large, the year 1860 was proportionally the most prosperous
in the history of the city. By the end of the summer, the town had a resi-
dent population of about four thousand, which was more than double the
number it had contained six months Ijefore. Moreover, it swarmed with
dailv comers and goers, many of whom carried in their pockets small buck-
skin sacks filled with gold-dust and nuggets. Banks and wholesale merchan-
dizing establishments had been opened, almost every branch of retail busi-
ness of that period was represented, and new and comfortable hotels were
at the service of the public. Some hundreds of new buildings had been
288 HISTORY OF COLORADO
erected, and work ufion a large nmnljer of others was actively in progress
on both sides of the creek. Brick now were in common use by the builders.
While the production of gold was almost entirely confined to digging's at
varying distances in the mountains, Denver City was the favorite place for
distributing it. Stage-coaches were going and coming to and from the
Missouri Eiver daily; and with the same frequency, other coaches were
running between the metropolis and all the mountain towns, and also to
and from those at the foot-hills. In the latter part of July, one of the
cit3"'s banking firms, Clark, Gruber & Co., began coining Pike's Peak gold,
in denominations of five and ten dollars, the appearance of which imparted
a new sense of the substantiality of conditions in the country.
Another impressive evidence of this already had become familiar to
the people of both the city and the outlying towns and mining-districts.
Thomas Gibson, who had been one of the founders of the Eocl-y Mountain
News, and later the publisher of the Moimtain City Gold Reporter, coming
from the Missouri Eiver, had arrived in Denver City, in April, with an
equipment for printing a daily newspaper. On May 1st, in Denver, he
began the publication of the Daily Rocky Mountain Herald, the first daily
newspaper issued in the Pike's Peak region. Ere four months had elapsed,
the Ilernld had two competitors in the city. On the 25th of August, James
T. Coleman and John C. Moore sent forth the first edition of their Daily
Mountaineer. On August 27th, the Daily Rocky Mountain News appeared,
published by the proprietors of the pioneer weekly News, who now were
organized as a corporation, of which William N. Byers was President.
The weekly News was continued, and of each of the others there was a
like edition. Denver City now had three daily irewspapers, all issued in
the afternoon, the Herald and the News being excellent publications; but
no other Pike's Peak town had any that was published more frequently than
once a week.
The most speedy means of obtaining news from the East during that
year, which was a memorable one in the national politics of our republic,
were afforded by the Pony Express, which had begun its series of remark-
able runs between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento City, California,
early in April; messages destined for Denver City being brought from
Jidesburg by the regular coaches. But owing to the expense of carriage by
the Pony Express, the facilities of that organization were utilized at Denver
City only for news of exceptional importance, the tidings of lesser interest
being in the form of "advices" conveyed from the river by the coaches. A
message by the Pony Express, telling of the election of Abraham Lincoln
to the Presidency, and which left St. Joseph in the afternoon of Xovemljer
8th, was published in the Daily Rocky Mountain News in its issue of
November 13th.
There had been some growing of vegetables upon the outskirts of the
Cherry Creek towns, and also near Arapahoe City, in the previous year : but
in 1860, large tracts of the soil along Cherry Creek and the South Platte,
in the neighborhood of Denver City, and on Clear Creek, toward the foot-
hills, were planted to general garden-stuff, for which Denver City was an
eager market. While the prices received by the producers of these crops
were not excessively high, they yielded net results that exceeded the average
obtained by the diggers and delvers in the mines, of wliom each began the
HISTOKY OF COLOEADO 289
work of every day inspired by the hope that he should strike a "big thing"
before the sun went down.
Boulder City was not flourishing in this year of general prosperity
in the Pike's Peak country, the great attractions held forth by the mining-
fields in the southerly parts of the gold-bearing area having been the princi-
pal causes of the drag. Moreover, many of the miners at work in the
Boulder Creek section preferred to go to tlie metropolis at the mouth of
Cherry Creek for their supplies and the transaction of other business, and
also for the sake of seeing and participating in "city life". The bridge
across the South Platte at the site of Fort St. Train and the road thence
to the Boulder town had appealed almost in vain to the inbound travel on
the South Platte route as the people streamed on to the mouth of Cherry
Creek. As the hunters for fortunes in the form of virgin gold scattered
out to the diggings, the Boulder Creek district received, as I have already
mentioned, a quota of the hungry multitude. However, it seems that but
few of these finally east anchor in Boulder City. Indeed, the town had
suffered serious depletion of its population at and since the beginning of
the spring season. "The ranch-fever set in among the many disappointed
gold-seekers" (who had wintered at Boulder City), says a historian of
Boulder County who wrote thirty years ago, "and a large number of the
town houses were moved to farming claims around." It was reported in the
middle of May that "Boulder City has about fifty houses, and most of them
are occupied", and also that "it has a population of one hundred, and is
receiving additions almost dail}^'. The concluding remark in this quota-
tion was a figure of speech rather than a statement of fact. In the autumn
of 1859, there were, as I ha-se said in the chapter next before this, some
seventy-five buildings in the town, which then had a population of about
three hundred. But to the high credit of its people stands the fact that
under these discouraging circumstances they built in that j'ear the first
structure erected upon Colorado's soil expressly for school purposes. This
was a frame building that cost $1,200, which sum was derived from popular
contributions. "A good common school was kept up in this school-house
until 1872, when a large fine school edifice was erected." In the matter of
constructing any kind of building for scliool purposes, Boulder was not
only first but well in advance of every other Pike's Peak town, bustling
and somewhat bumptious Denver City not excepted.
Golden City, now claiming to have a population of one thousand, was
"growing rapidl}-", and its people regarded Boulder as "an outlying village".
"Scores of new houses are going up in all parti; of the city", said a mid-
summer report from that thriving town, "including many fine, large and
substantial residences, stores, and hotels." But in interpreting this, the
reader should make some allowance for the influence of the general en-
thusiasm of the time, and also for the assertiveness of the Goldenites in
that period. They had taken on and were making great use of airs similar
to those which then characterized the citizens of Denver City.
Aspiring Colorado City was faring well, and the hopes and expectations
of its founders had been raised to lofty heights, as it was now "conceded
to be the second city in size in the Territor/' (of Jefferson). "The recent
opening of rich mines on the Arkansas [at California Gulch] bids fair to
turn a large travel through Colorado [City], and will necessarily build \\]>
a large trade at that place." Furthermore, its beautiful location in a
Vol. 1—19
290 HISTOEY OP COLOEADO
setting of great magniflcence was inducing many of the newcomers whose
purposes did not include laboring in mines to become citizens of the town,
which, before the year was half gone, probably had a resident population of
more than one thousand. The general opinion that the less difficult south-
em wagon-route to the new mining-districts near the head of the Eiver
Arkansas was by way of the Ute Pass and the lower border of the South
Park, caused much of the going and coming to and from them in the
summer and autumn of 1860 to pass through Colorado City, and so add
to the activities that animated the town in that year.
Caiion Cit}-, now the enterprise of a new organization of promoters,
who were celebrating it as a rival of Colorado City, had begun the year with
the solitary log-cabin built in the preceding autumn, and which was occu-
pied by Eobert Middleton and his wife. Early in the spring of I860, it
was said that "considerable attention is now being directed to Canon Citr',
which was â– 'represented as occupying an advantageous site, surrounded
with an excellent agricultural region"; and also that "a number of heavy
traders and capitalists are becoming interested in this point". Canon
City profited largely by the "California Gulch excitement". A letter
written in July by one of its citizens stated that "over two hundred
houses are either up or under way, including a large number of business
houses". In the next month, several stone buildings, the most substantial
yet built in any of the Pike's Peak towns, were well advanced in construc-
tion. Many of that year's immigrants who came to the mountains by way
of the Arkansas Eiver trails and were anxious to reach the new bonanzas
at the head of that stream as quickly as possible, passed through the town
upon their way thither. Before midsummer. Canon City had a weekly
newspaper, the Canon City Times; and in the autumn the town's popula-
tion was said to be "about four hundred".
I have mentioned some pages back that Breckenridge, the county seat of
our Summit County, and the first settlement on Colorado's western slope
that proved to be permanent, was founded late in the spring of 1860. But
there were two western-slope town-propositions the inception of which pre-
ceded that of Breckenridge by some six or eight months. However, no defi-
nite action was taken upon tJiem until the spring of 1860, when, at Mountain
City, early in April, a meeting of those who had become interested in the
projects was held to decide upon the expediency of organizing two town
companies to lay out a like number of new "cities" on that side of the
Continental Divide. Preliminary steps toward forming the companies were
taken at that meeting. At another, held on May 5th, "at the house of J. E.
Leaper, in Mountain Cit}'^"', the organization of the "Grand Junction Town
Company" and the "Saratoga Town Company" was completed. The sites of
both these projected municipalities was in wliat is now our Grand County,
and it appears that the two were platted in that year. One, whicli was
called "Grand Junction", was situated at the confluence of the Grand and
Blue rivers. The site of the other, "Saratoga West", so named because it
was expected to become the western equivalent of tlie noted "watering-
place" in the State of New York, was, as I have heretofore mentioned, that
of the present town of Sulphur Springs. In our pioneer years, the springs
at that place were known as the "Boiling Springs", the "Hot Springs", and
the "Wliite Sulphur Springs". Among the projectors of Grand Junction
and Saratoga AVest were some of the prospectors who had l.ieen in the terri-
â– HISTORY OF COLORADO ?f)l
tory of Grand County in the summer of the year before, and who had then
not only "located" the two sites with a view of organizing companies to
establish and exploit towns upon them, but had given the appellation
"Saratoga West" to the one at the springs, and which accounts for its
appearance in the name of two of the toll-road companies that were organ-
ized to ojDen thoroughfares from Denver and Golden into the South Park
and beyond in the later months of 1859. But both of these enterprises
failed to '"'pan out", and soon were abandoned. In 1863, there was a small
settlement, called "Grand City", upon the site that had been proposed for
Saratoga West.
Tlie year 18.59 and nearly the whole of 1860 passed out before the name
"Pueblo City" appeared in the annals of our pioneer years. The beginning
of actual construction work upon the site of the embryo city heretofore has
been assigned by implication to a time nearly a year earlier than
that of the event, although meanwhile the land had been surveyed and
platted. It is a matter to be regretted greatly that the whereabouts of
the records of the organization that founded Colorado's second city in
importance are unknown, if the documents still exist; but which probably
is not the case. In the usual references to the formation of the Pueblo