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