The early Californication of Colorado
Hydraulic mining, California Gulch, Colorado, photographed and published by W.G. Chamberlain, 1878.
By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com
The early gold camp (it was a gold camp first,) was known by many names: Slabtown, Boughtown, Cloud City, Carbonate, California Gulch, Harrison, Agassiz, Oro City, and more. When the time came for legal adoption, controversy raged. "One faction favored Harrison for Harrison of the Harrison Reduction Works. Horace Tabor, storekeeper, favored Leadville, and prevailed according to "Colorado Place Names" by Geo R. Eicher. The town's name was chosen for the large amount argentiferous lead ores in the vicinity.
Like the rich and famous of Hollywood, over time, Leadville's visitor and resident list reads like a Who's Who for for early Colorado.
Horace Tabor, the silver king, comes to mind of course, and his first and second wives, Augusta and Baby Doe. Augusta Tabor was the first postmistress, there, in fact. In 1883 Horace Tabor divorced his wife of 25 years and married Baby Doe McCourt, who was half his age. Tabor was by then a US senator, and the divorce and marriage caused a scandal in Colorado and beyond. For several years the couple lived a lavish lifestyle in a Denver mansion, but Tabor, one of the wealthiest men in Colorado, lost his fortune when the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused the Panic of 1893. He died destitute but remained convinced that the price of silver would rebound. According to legend, he told Baby Doe to "hold on the Matchless mine ... it will make millions again when silver comes back." She returned to Leadville with her daughters, Silver Dollar and Lily, where she spent the rest of her life believing Tabor's prediction. At one time the "best dressed woman in the West", she lived in a cabin at the Matchless Mine for the last three decades of her life. After a snowstorm in March 1935, she was found frozen in her cabin, aged about 81 years.
Mart Duggan, gunslinger and the city's third marshal was asked to come to clean up the town. The first city marshal there was run out of town a few days after he was appointed, and his replacement was shot dead within a month by one of his deputies. Fearing the town would be lost to the lawless element, Mayor Horace Tabor sent for Mart Duggan, who was living in Denver, as a replacement. Duggan is little-known today, but was well known at the time as a fearless gunfighter. Using strong-arm and lawless tactics, during his two stints as marshal Duggan brought order to Leadville by 1880 when he stepped down. He was shot and killed in 1888 by an unknown assailant, most likely an enemy he had made when he was a Leadville marshal. Historian Robert Dearment writes, "Mart Duggan was a quick-shooting, hard-drinking, brawling tough Irish man, but he was exactly the kind of man a tough, hard-drinking, quick-shooting camp like Leadville needed in its earliest days. His name is all but forgotten today, but the name 'Matt Dillon' is recognized around the world. Such are the vagaries of life."
Alice Ivers, better known as Poker Alice, was a card player and dealer of the Old West who learned her trade in Leadville. Born in Devonshire, her family moved to America when she was a small girl. They first settled in Virginia, where she attended an elite girls' boarding school. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Leadville when the silver boom drew hundreds of new residents to the area. At the age of twenty she married a mining engineer who, like many of the men at that time, frequented the numerous gambling halls in Leadville. Alice went along, at first just observing, but eventually she began to sit in on the games as well. After a few years of marriage her husband was killed in a mining accident and she turned to cards to support herself. Alice was attractive, dressed in the latest fashions, and was in great demand as a dealer. Eventually Alice left Leadville to travel the gambling circuit, as was common of the male gamblers of that time. She continued to dress in the latest fashions but took to smoking cigars. Well known throughout the West, gambling halls welcomed her because she was good for business. In her later years, Alice claimed to have won more than $250,000 at the gaming tables and never once cheated.
Texas Jack Omohundro, Confederate scout, cowboy and stage actor with "Buffalo Bill" Cody's travelling revue, died of pneumonia a month before his 34th birthday in summer 1880 in Leadville, where he was living on a small estate with his wife, ballerina Giuseppina Morlacchi.
"Doc" John Henry Holliday, about 1883, shortly after the gun fight at the O.K. Corral, moved to Leadville, where he dealt faro. On August 19, 1884, he shot ex-Leadville policeman Billy Allen, who had threatened him for failing to pay a $5 debt. Despite overwhelming evidence implicating him, a jury found Holliday not guilty of the shooting or attempted murder.
Luke Short, Gunfighter and professional gambler, also spent time in Leadville.
Margaret "Molly" Brown, who became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," moved to Leadville when she was 18. In 1886 she married a mining engineer who was twelve years older, James J. Brown. The Brown family acquired great wealth in 1893 when Brown was instrumental in the discovery of a substantial gold ore seam at the Little Jonny Mine.The mine was owned by his employers, the Ibex Mining Company. Margaret Brown became famous because of her survival of the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, after exhorting the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to return to look for survivors. A 1960 Broadway musical based on her life was produced, along with a 1964 film adaptation of the musical, both titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Her home in Denver has been preserved as the Molly Brown House Museum.
Meyer Guggenheim of the Guggenheim family started out in Leadville in mining and smelting. The family went on to possess one of the largest fortunes in the world. Family members have become known for their philanthropy in diverse areas such as modern art and aviation, including several Guggenheim Museums.
Oscar Wilde appeared at the Tabor Opera House during his 1882 American Aesthetic Movement lecture tour. The reviews were mixed, and the press satirized Wilde in cartoons as an English dandy decorated with sunflowers and lilies, the floral emblems of the Aesthetic Movement. A Kansas newspaper described the event: Oscar Wilde's visit to Leadville excited a great deal of interest and curiosity. The Tabor-opera house where he lectured was packed full. It was rumored that an attempt would be made by a number of young men to ridicule him by coming to the lecture in exaggerated costume with enormous sunflowers and lilies and to introduce a number of characters in the costume of the Western "bad men." Probably, however, better counsel prevailed and no disturbance took place. Mayor David H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the Matchless Mine and name its new lode "The Oscar". Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice – 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best."
Leadville historic timeline
Leadville.com, the city's site, provides a timeline with some of the following history.
"Once the second largest city in Colorado and a contender for the state capital, Leadville’s treasure is now found in its 70-square-block historic district where Victorian architecture reigns and stories of the wild west come alive. From gunslingers, outlaws, and con men to madams, love triangles, and lawmen, Leadville had it all. Today, they city’s vibrant history is told through the efforts of eight museums and two walking tours,"says the site.
1860 – Abe Lee Discovers Gold
April 26, 1860, Abe Lee discovered a rich load of placer gold in California Gulch, one mile east of Leadville. In the fall, Leadville’s population reached 10,000 and $2 million in gold had been extracted from California Gulch and nearby Iowa Gulch. Lee staked all of California Gulch with speculative claims, which led to the establishment of the Bylaws of the California Mining District—regulations on the number, size, and type of claims that could be filed. Because of these laws, more prospectors descended upon an already crowded California Gulch.
1877 – Silver Discovered
By 1866, most of Leadville’s placer gold deposits had been depleted, causing many miners to pack up and leave. The remaining prospectors moved closer to town where heavy, black sand blanketed the area. In 1877, after assays contained 15 ounces of silver per ton. Early silver prospectors kept this silver discovery a secret for nearly two years. By 1879, word had spread and Leadville once again became a boom town.
Prospectors and merchants quickly returned to Leadville. Many new hotels, restaurants, saloons, and brothels sprang up. Mines spread southward and fortunes, like Horace Tabor’s and the Guggenheim’s, were made.
1878 – Leadville Gets its Name
Leadville has had several names since its discovery. It’s been known as California Gulch, Boughton, because of the once popular shelters made of tree boughs, Cloud City, because of the way the town is often covered in clouds, Harrison, after the owner of the first smelter, and Slabtown, because of the temporary homes built on slabs. It wasn’t until 1878, when the town petitioned for its first post office, that Horace Tabor gave it its official name, Leadville, after the lead ore found in the area.
1879 – Tabor Opera House Opens
Horace Tabor, one of the country’s most notorious silver magnates, known for, among other things construction of the Tabor Opera House, “the finest theater between St. Louis and San Francisco.”
Building’s materials were brought up in wagons, making it one of the costliest buildings ever constructed in Colorado. Three stories high, made of stone, brick, and iron, and trimmed with Portland cement, the exterior was painted in red, gold, white, and sky-blue. Inside, red plush seats filled the theater and a curtain with an image of the Royal Gorge draped on the stage. Despite its opulence, the Tabor Opera House built in only 100 days.
1879 – Interlaken Hotel Opens
In 1879, John Statley and Charles Thomas built a hotel on the edge of Twin Lakes. Four years later, James V. Dexter bought the property and turned it into one of the most luxurious resorts Colorado had to offer.
Interlaken Resort, where visitors enjoyed gorgeous lake views, a log tavern, a pool hall, and a shed to accommodate horses —eventually fell on hard times when the lakes’ original dam, built at the turn of the century, was troubled by stagnation, and suspected of causing disease.
The remains of Interlaken Resort and Dexter’s cabin, built in the mid-1890s, can still be seen today.
1893 – The Bust of the Silver Kings
The 1879 Silver Boom dramatically altered Colorado economy and Leadville’s silver lode alone brought in $82 million, in part because of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which required the U.S. government to purchase millions of ounces of silver each year. The Act was repealed in 1893, busting silver prices, dropping wages, and putting miners and others out of work. Silver barons, like Horace Tabor, lost huge fortunes and Leadville’s economy limped accordingly.
Ice Palace, 1896, William Henry Jackson
1896 – Creation of the Leadville Ice Palace
After the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, hoping to draw visitors, create jobs, and revitalize the economy, Leadville’s residents built the Leadville Ice Palace, a “fairytale come true.” Constructed in 36 days using 5,000 tons of ice, this 58,000-square-foot palace had an ice skating rink, a curling rink, a theater, toboggan runs, a ballroom, a dance floor, gaming rooms, and a carousel house.
Between Seventh Street and Eighth Street on the top of Capital Hill, Leadville’s Ice Palace was open for three months, from January 1, to March 28, when it started to melt and was condemned. Still, people continued to use the building all the way through June, when the skating rink was at last unusable.
The Ice Palace turned out to be a financial disaster for investors, but visitors said that when “the sun shone through the ice, it looked like 1,000 sparkling lights.”
1907 – San Isabel National Forest Established
San Isabel National Forest is one of eleven national forests in Colorado and features more than a million acres of snow-capped peaks, sparkling lakes, rich meadows, and raging rivers. In 1902, lands were first set aside as forest reserve. In 1907, this forest reserve was officially named San Isabel National Forest. From 1907 to 1945, the San Isabel National Forest grew to include several other large forests. Today, the forest has over 800 miles of hiking trails, several ski areas, 19 fourteeners, several scenic byways, and dozens of campgrounds.
Photos of Leadville, Main Street, in September, 1941, by Marion Post Wolcott
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment