The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado, 1859-2009 (Timberline Books)

297 Pages·2009·3.36 MB·English

by  Duane A. Smith

0Trail
@ Gold &Silver
Timberline Books
Stephen J. Leonard and thomaS J. noeL, editors
The Beast, Benjamin Barr Lindsey with Harvey J. O’Higgins
Colorado’s Japanese Americans, Bill Hosokawa
Denver: An Archaeological History, Sarah M. Nelson, K. Lynn Berry,
Richard F. Carrillo, Bonnie L. Clark, Lori E. Rhodes, and Dean Saitta
Dr. Charles David Spivak: A Jewish Immigrant and the American Tuberculosis
Movement, Jeanne E. Abrams
Ores to Metals: The Rocky Mountain Smelting Industry, James E. Fell, Jr.
A Tenderfoot in Colorado, R. B. Townshend
The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado, 1859–2009, Duane A. Smith
0Trail
@ Gold &Silver
Mining in Colorado,
1859–2009
Duane A. Smith
U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s o f C o l o r a d o

For
Karen and Mark Vendl,
wonderful friends, fellow Cub fans, and mining historians.
© 2009 by the University Press of Colorado
Published by the University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of
the Association of American University Presses.
The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by
Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metro-
politan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and
Western State College of Colorado.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.
ANSI Z39.48-1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Duane A.
The trail of gold and silver : mining in Colorado, 1859–2009 / Duane A. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-87081-957-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Gold mines and mining—Colorado—History.
2. Silver mines and mining—Colorado—History. 3. Colorado—Gold discoveries. 4. Colorado—
History, Local. I. Title.
F781.S64 2009
978.8—dc22
2009019215
Design by Daniel Pratt
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Foreword by Tom Noel ix
Prologue 1
1. Pike’s Peak or Bust 11
2. 1859: The Year Dreams Became Reality 29
3. 1860–1864: “To Everything There Is a Season” 47
4. 1864–1869: “Good Times a-Comin”—Someday 63
5. 1870–1874: Bonanza! “Three Cheers and a Tiger” 79
6. 1875–1880: “All Roads Lead to Leadville” 95
vii
viii ContentS
7. The Silver Eighties: The Best of Times, the Worst of Times 113
8. “There’ll Be a Hot Time” 129
9. “The Everlasting Love of the Game” 151
Photographic Essay: Nineteenth-Century Colorado Mining 173
10. 1900–1929: Looking Forward into Yesterday 187
11. Mucking through Depression, War, and New Ideas 209
12. Mining on the Docket of Public Opinion:
The Environmental Age 227
Photographic Essay: Colorado Mining in the
Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries 245
Epilogue: A Tale Well Told 257
Notes 263
Bibliographical Essay 273
Index 277
Foreword
Colorado’s Clio.
The Homer of the Hills.
The Sage of the Silvery San Juan.
The Monarch of Mining Historians.
Duane Allan Smith has been called many things, but no one can deny he
is Colorado’s most prolific historian, surpassing even the late, great LeRoy
Hafen. The Trail of Gold and Silver is Smith’s fiftieth book. The University
Press of Colorado’s Timberline Books series, which features the best current
work on Colorado as well as classic reprints, proudly presents this master
historian’s survey of 150 years of Colorado gold and silver mining.
An outstanding teacher as well as an author, Duane has been honored by
Fort Lewis College, the Colorado Endowment for the Humanities, and the
Carnegie Foundation, and he was named Colorado’s Teacher of the Year by
the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Eternally wear-
ing his crew cut and Chicago Cubs belt buckle, he bounces into the classroom,
ix