1896 Cripple Creek fire, Holy Moses Saloon, Old haunted house, Three Native American women, more ...

 

Thing of the past ...

Bennett Ave. looking west

Creator: Poley, H. S. (Horace Swartley)

Date:[1896]

Destruction west on Bennett Street caused by second fire on April 29, 1986, Cripple Creek, Colorado; groups of men and two men on horseback in street survey rubble and remains of once thriving commerical business district; shows utility poles with fallen wires, chimneystack, remains of two-story brick building, Mt. Pisgah is on horizon and untouched residences are on hillside in background.

Format of Original Material: 1 photoprint ; 12 x 17 cm (4 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: C Photo Collection 37. H. S. Poley collection.

Notes: Hand-written on back of photoprint: Cripple Creek, fires, after 2nd. Title hand-lettered by photographer on original negative, at head of title: 20.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Creede, Colorado

Date: [1890?]

Two men stand in the open doorway of the Holy Moses Saloon, which is next to the narrow, rocky, canyon walls that surround the town of Creede, Colorado, in Mineral County. The building is a one-story, clapboard storefront with a broken cornice and a transom over the front door. A step leads from the narrow, wood-plank sidewalk in front of part of the building to the entrance of the building. A barrel lies on its side near the entrance.

Format of Original Material 1 copy photonegative ; 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 in.); 1 photoprint on cabinet card : cabinet card ; 9 x 9 cm (3 3 1/2 x 3 1/4 in.)

Notes: Formerly F3941. Hand-written on back of photoprint: Saloon was located at the mine named Holy Moses. It is 2 1/2 miles N.E. of Creede. The man standing in his shirt sleeves in the doorway was the owner of the saloon and he is now Sheriff of Creede. Mr. William Orthen. This saloon was the first liquor shop above Creede. Photoprint has yellowed and faded, and the card to which it is attached is dirty. Title hand-written on back of photoprint.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Old haunted house

Creator: Buckwalter, Harry H.

The old John B. Hindry residence at 5500 North Washington Street, Denver, Colorado, a brick house with a tower and tall windows.

Date: [between 1900 and 1910?]

History Colorado, Buckwalter Collection

History Colorado, Buckwalter Collection, Book III, no. 30

 

Thing of the past ...

Superstition

Creator:Brown, James B., photographer

Date:[1900?]

Three Native American women sit on a bench in the stadium at the Festival of Mountain and Plain in Denver, Colorado. Two of the women shy away and hide their faces from the camera, the other woman holds a baby in her lap. The women wear traditional clothing, dresses, wraps, moccasins, and braided hair. Spectators can be seen in the background.

Format of Original Material 1 photoprint : black-and-white ; 8 1/2 x 9 1/2 cm (3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.) on album page 16 x 23 cm (6 x 9 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: C Photo Album 215. Camera Talks, Type of Material Photographic prints; Black & white photographs

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Saloon, Colorado City, Colorado

Date: 1910

Two bartenders and two customers pose inside the Union Saloon, 605 Colorado Avenue, Colorado City, El Paso County, Colorado. The interior features a wooden bar with brass foot rail, spitoons, back bar with mirror, cash register, glassware, mounted bottle opener, glass doors over wooden shelves filled with liquor bottles, victorian wallpaper, cast iron stove, gas lamps and a glass display cabinet filled with cigar boxes. Several framed pictures of women, a clock with Roman numerals, and a State of Colorado liquor license hang on the walls. Signs read: "Walters Gold Label Beer In Bottles," "Anheuser-Busch," "Goetz Brewing Co., St. Joseph, Mo." "Gannymede '76 Whiskey." Tobacco items include "Banker, Chewing Tobacco Fit For A King," "Duke George," "Razzetti Bros. Inc., Sigari, Toscani," "Bugle," and "Virginia Buck."

1 copy photonegative ; 10 x 13 cm (4 x 5 in.); 1 photoprint ; 20 x 25 cm (7 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.)

Title supplied by cataloguer; hand-written on back of photoprint mount: "605 Colorado Ave."; Vintage photoprint is mounted on board.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

Thing of the past ...

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge motor car number 5

Creator: Richardson, Robert W.

Date: 1951

Three-quarter view of left side of motor car, from front end; Galloping Goose at depot, with Lee Linton. (Linton was one of the last seven locomotive engineers to work for the railroad.) Photographed: Dolores, Colorado, August 29, 1951.

Notes: Lightstruck negative. Title from inventory prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Opening of Manitou and Pikes Peak Ry.

Creator:Ogden & Irish.

Date: 1891

The Manitou and Pike's Peak Railway (Pikes Peak Cog Road) locomotive and passenger car near the train depot at Manitou Springs (El Paso County), Colorado. The building is constructed of rusticated stone and has a wooden porch at the second level with a railing. Men check the train for it's first trip.

Condition: discolored; Handwritten on back of photographic print "Train side of depot, Manitou. Opening of Manitou Pikes Peak Ry. 1891, June 30. Photographers name inked on original, reproduced on photograph. Title penciled on verso. Library owns additional iterations of this image in various formats: 1 copy negative ; 13 x 18 cm. (5 x 7 in.).

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Restaurant & Oyster Saloon

Date: [1870-1880]

Men and women pose on the covered balcony of the Garbarino House, Restaurant and Oyster Saloon (Poe, Crawford, Avenue Hotels) Washington Avenue, Golden, Jefferson County, Colorado. The two- story brick building features a corbeled cornice, arched transoms over shuttered french doors and a decorative balustrade. A banner hangs down across front: "Restaurant & Oyster Saloon;" a lantern streetlight shows on the dirt street.

1 copy photonegative ; 13 x 10 cm (5 x 4 in.); 1 photoprint ; 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5 in.)

Photoprint shows deterioration of original. Title supplied by cataloger.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

 

Thing of the past ...

The Cresson, still working, Cripple Creek region

Creator: Fick, William L.

Date:[1941?]

The Cresson mine's mill building, shafthouse, surface structures (one with "Safety First" painted on it), and head frame surrounded by tailings, Teller County, Colorado. Other mines dot what may be Raven Hill behind the Cresson.

Format of Original Material: 1 photoprint on album page ; (7 1/2 x 9 1/2 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: C Photo Collection 255. Colorado Mining, William L. Fick.

Notes: Album in 7 unnumbered volumes. Historical information bound in albums includes: "Gold and Silver Mining in Colorado: Leading Gold Producing Counties, Leading Silver Producing Counties," and "Colorado's Gold and Silver: The Shining Mountains, Gold Discovered, and Great Gold Strikes Early in 1859."; Title hand-written on back of print, with: "1504."

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge motor car number 3

Creator: Perry, Otto, 1894-1970

Date: 1939

"Galloping Goose," as train #376, on trestle. Photographed: near Franklin Jct., Colo., May 27, 1939.

Format of Original Material: 1 photonegative, Otto C. Perry memorial collection of railroad photographs.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Phantom curve

Creator: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942

Date: [1882-1890]

Men and women stand on and near Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company tracks near an area identified as Phantom Curve in Conejos County, Colorado. Rock formations are nearby. An excursion train is in the distance.

Format of Original Material 1 photoprint : albumen ; 17 x 23 cm (6 1/2 x 9 in.) mounted on album page.

Original Material Found in Collection W. H. Jackson sample album. Colorado Book VI

Digital Version Created From: W. H. Jackson sample album. Colorado Book VI. no. 272

Type of Material: Sample books; Albumen prints; Photographic prints.

Notes: Attribution to Jackson based on inclusion in bound W. H. Jackson sample album. Condition: print is discolored and stained. Hand-lettered title reproduced in print. Label on front of photoprint reads: "Out."; Mounted on verso of album page: WHJ-1394. Number: "4089" hand lettered on negative and reproduced in print.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Main St Dallas, Colo

Creator: Goodman, Charles, 1843-1912

Date: 1888

Dallas, Ouray County, Colorado, is a line of frame businesses. Signs read: "Saloon," "Restaurant," "Drugs," "Groceries," "Meat Market," "Montrose Merc Co's Branch House," and "Dallas [Ho]te[l]." Plows, lumber, and covered wagons edge the boardwalk, where people pose. Men stand on a platform scale in the thorougfare; women and children are on the balcony of the two-story hotel.

Format of Original Material: 1 copy photonegative ; 20 x 25 cm (8 x 10 in.); 1 photoprint on matboard ; 15 x 21 cm (6 x 8 1/2 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: C Photo Album 103. Thomas M. McKee album.

Notes: Formerly Mc286. Photonegative masked with paper and paint. Photoprint is faded. Previously attributed to Thomas McKee. Title inked on photoprint with: "Mt Sneffles and San Juan Range 14,250 ft. May, 1888."

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Emma Espinoza, Emma's Hacienda and El Patio Inn

Creator: Noel, Thomas J. (Thomas Jacob)

Date: 1982

Emma Espinoza stands in front of her restaurants Emma's Hacienda and El Patio Inn at 355 Main Street in San Luis (Costilla County), Colorado. Emma Espinoza wears a dark dress with a flowered apron and sun glasses. She is standing next to an entrance of the building under a Coors Beer sign affixed to the wall. Behind the Coors sign is a sign reading "El Patio Inn [Dine] & Dance." A sign over the door where she stands reads: "Joe's Saloon." Emma Espinoza is the proprietor of El Patio Restaurant. Her husband Joe Espinoza ran Joe's Saloon.

Source: loan, Tom Noel, 2010.

Item Owned By: Auraria Library

 

Thing of the past ...

Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show in Cheyenne in 1907.

Wyoming State Archives.

 

 

20 Children Killed as Passenger Train Hits School Bus East of Evans

 

Dorothy Smock lifts a blanket to find the body of her son, Bobby, along the road near the crossing. Dorothy Smock was haunted all her life by memories of that awful morning. (Jim Hitch/ Greeley Tribune/ 1961)

16 Others injured as "City of Denver" Train  Plows Into Greeley School District Bus

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

The years have not altogether diminished the grief felt that tragic day more than sixty years ago. Still, to this day, the bus accident is among the deadliest traffic accidents in Colorado history. As a result, federal legislation was passed by Congress requiring the drivers of certain commercial vehicles, including school buses, to stop, look, and listen for a train at all railroad tracks prior to crossing the tracks.

"On the cold morning of December 14, 1961, a school bus was hit by a train east of Evans, killing 20 children and injuring 17. 

Most of the children were from a small country school called Delta School, located on the eastern edge of Greeley (E. 20th street and Cherry Ave.). Five families lost two children each, and two of those families had no other children. Cousins died. One boy’s life ended on his 10th birthday. Brothers and sisters lived, while their siblings perished," as mentioned in the history of Bella Romero Academy, the K-3 Campus previously existed as East Memorial Elementary.

"A new school was built nearby and opened in 1963. East Memorial Elementary School was named in memory of these children. Inside the school, hangs a brass plaque that carries the names of the children who were lost that day. Outside, in front of the school, there are 2 trees that are dedicated in their honor. One was planted on the 25th anniversary of this tragedy; the other on the 50th anniversary."

Engineer Herbert F. Sommers manned the lead locomotive, No. 955, when it hit the bus. (COLORADO STATE PATROL /1961),

In 2007, a monument was dedicated at the scene of the bus/train accident. This monument is located near Weld County Roads 52 and 43 east of Evans.

Overturned bus in Evans tragedy Archive photo by Bob Waters, photographer Colorado State College Greeley.

"On December 14, 1961 the worst accident, to date, in Greeley’s history took place. The Union Pacific ‘City of Denver’ No. 111 train was traveling to Denver from Chicago, three hours behind schedule. In Greeley, Duane Harms was warming up his bus to start his route in the rural area of Weld County. Between 7:30am and 8:00am, Harms picked up a total of 36 children ranging in age from 6-16, with plans to take them to Delta School, Arlington Elementary School, Meeker Junior High School, and Greeley High School," notes a Guide to the School Bus Accident 1961 Collection at Hazel E. Johnson Research Center, at Greeley History Museum, 714 8th Street, Greeley.

"At 8:00 a.m., Harms moved to cross the railroad tracks when the ‘City of Denver’ No. 111, going 79 m.p.h., collided with the bus, cut the bus in half and destroyed the back end of the bus. In all, 20 children died at the accident and 16 children were seriously injured. Harms walked away from the accident. The bodies of the deceased were taken to the old Armory in Greeley, which had been set up as a temporary morgue, and the 16 injured were taken to Weld County General Hospital." 

Harms was charged with involuntary manslaughter. The trial started in March 1962, after a postponement for Harms’ well-being. During the trial, a controversy arose as to whether Harms had stopped at the tracks or not. Witnesses say that he did, the train engineers said he did not, and Harms himself could not remember. The trial lasted a total of four days with a jury of ten men and two women. The jury found Harms innocent of all charges.
As a result of this accident, and many others nationwide, stricter bus regulations regarding train crossings were put in place to ensure the safety of the children on board.

"The Crossing," was a complete series published by the Rocky Mountain News from Jan. 23, 2007, to March 2, 2007, with stories by Kevin Vaughan, photographs by Chris Scheider, Videos by Tim Skillern  and Laressa Bachelor.

The Crossing examined the lifelong implications of Colorado's worst traffic accident — a 1961 collision between a high-speed passenger train and a school bus a few miles from Greeley, a crash that took the lives of 20 children and left behind 17 survivors and a grief-stricken community. The stories, which were told with the support and participation of nearly every family touched by the tragedy, showed how a single moment in time twisted through decades, shaping people for the rest of their lives. 

After the "Rocky" ceased operations in 2009, access to this project was lost.

It has been resurrected, thanks in large part to the generosity of the staff at the Western History/Genealogy Department at the Denver Public Library, which holds all of the Rocky's archives. 

 The Crossing

https://thecrossingstory.com/chapters/intro/

The headlines above, and the following information from the front page of the Dec. 14, 1961,  Greeley Tribune appeared after a tragic bus accident killed 20 children and injured 16. The tragedy immediately plunged the Greeley farming community into shock. The driver of the bus, 23-year-old Duane Harms, was arrested of involuntary manslaughter and was forced to endure threats and crank calls and letters. Harms was found not guilty and immediately left Greeley with his wife and baby. Friends say he moved to California. His ties to Greeley were severed forever.”
Twenty school children were killed Thursday morning in a tragic school bus-train collision two miles east and a mile south of Evans.
The accident involving a Greeley School District (No. 6) bus, was the worst in the Greeley area’s history.

 Bodies of the victims were taken to the old Armory on 8th Ave. Last time the Armory was used as a morgue was when the plane bombed by John Gilbert Graham crashed in southwest Weld County.
Sixteen youngsters were rushed to Weld County General Hospital by ambulance and private automobiles.
Seventeen doctors were called into action to handle the emergencies at the hospital.
The bus carried 38 and the driver.
The school bus was carrying students to Delta School, east of Greeley, Arlington Elementary School, Meeker Junior High School and Greeley High School.
Law enforcement officers barred admittance to the hastily prepared morgue, where white sheets covered the 20 victims.
The accident occurred about 8:30 a.m. at an open, but diagonal crossing.
The school bus, driven by Duane Harms, rolled onto the track first, and the westbound Union Pacific streamliner, City of Denver, No. 111, smashed into it at the rear.
Bus Carried Over 100 Yards
The impact carried the huge 60-passeger bus down the tracks more than 60 yards. The hood, engine, wheels and parts of the passenger section were ripped to shreds.
The engineer was Herbert Sommers of Denver. The crash did little damage to the train.
Speed limit for trains in that area is 79 miles an hour. The train was reported preparing to slow down priorto arriving in La Salle.

Historical photos from the court case against Duane Harms who was the driver when a school bus was struck by a train on Dec. 14, 1961. 20 children were killed in the crash. Harms was acquitted of manslaughter.

 
 

Historical photo from the site of the school bus crash that killed 20 children near Greeley, Colo., Dec14, 1961. Chris Schneider/Rocky Mountain News.

Cheyenne Falls, McElmo, Galloping Goose, Salida hotel, Briarhurst, more ...

Thing of the past ...

Cheyenne Falls

Creator: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942

View of Seven Falls on South Cheyenne Creek, South Cheyenne Canyon (El Paso County) Colorado. A man stands on a log bridge at the base of the waterfall. Another man sits in a rowboat in a pool of water. Shows wooden stairs.

Date:[between 1880 and 1890?]

Notes: Accession number: 86.200.1904; Attribution to Jackson based on the photonegative's inclusion in the History Colorado William Henry Jackson Collection.; History Colorado.; Condition: Taped, chipped.; Formerly Jackson 3004.; Number: "2004" handwritten on tape attached to negative.; Title and "3004" inked on negative.; R7201020348

Physical Description: 1 negative : glass ; 28 x 18 cm. (11 x 7 in.)

Is Part Of: History Colorado, William Henry Jackson Collection

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Dinner time in McElmo Canon

Date: [1890-1900]

Men and women camp in McElmo Canyon (Montezuma County), Colorado; shows a covered wagon, tent, cooking utensils, a dog, and a watermelon.

Denver Public Library Special Collections

 

 

Thing of the past ...

Eastbound Galloping Goose # 5, R.G.S. tr. 372 @ Placerville passing Rocky Mtn. R.R. Club excursion train

Creator: Trout, George A.

Date: 1949 May 28

Donor: George A. Trout

Front view of the Rio Grande Southern Galloping Goose motor car beside a Rio Grande Southern excursion train in Placerville (San Miguel County), Colorado. Members of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club walk near the trains or stand and sit on the back platform of the observation car.

Notes: Photographers information stamped on verso of print with: "negative no. 155."; Title inked on verso of photographic print.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Rio Grande Southern narrow gauge motor car number 6

Creator: Richardson, Robert W.

Date: 1951

Three-quarter view of left side of motor car, from front end, close view; Work Goose on r.h. spur in blizzard. (The Work Goose never carried passengers or freight. It was used in maintenance of way service.) Photographed: Durango, Colorado, December 19, 1951.

Title from inventory prepared by Western History Department, Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Hotel Monte Christo, Salida, Colo.

Creator: Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942

The three-story Hotel Monte Christo in Salida, Chaffee County, Colorado. The hotel is half-timbered frame building with a mansard roof, pendants, a central faceted tower, a balcony and a porch. A freight car, "C.R.S. Trust Series B, D.& R.G. 4590", sits on the tracks of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad near a harp switch. Groups of men stand beside the Queen Anne style stone depot near a clapboard building that reads "Arnold's Assay Office." Painted signs read "Safe Rheumatic Cure" and "Smoke Blackwell's".

Date: between 1883 and 1900?

Notes: Attribution to Jackson based on the photonegative's inclusion in the History Colorado William Henry Jackson Collection.; History Colorado.; Condition: masked, retouched.; Formerly Jackson 3220.; Number: "3220" inked on negative.; Title inked on negative.; Title on envelope for negative reads: "Salida - Monte Cristo [sic] Hotel."; Attribution to Jackson based on the photonegative's inclusion in the History Colorado William Henry Jackson Collection.; History Colorado.; Condition: masked, retouched.; Formerly Jackson 3220.; Number: "3220" inked on negative.; Title inked on negative.; Title on envelope for negative reads: "Salida - Monte Cristo [sic] Hotel."

Physical Description: 1 negative : glass ; 18 x 28 cm. (7 1/2 x 11 1/2 in.)

Is Part Of: History Colorado, William Henry Jackson Collection.

 

Thing of the past ...

Briarhurst at Manitou

Creator Jackson, William Henry, 1843-1942

Date: [1888-1900?]

Briarhurst, in Manitou Springs, Colorado, a Tudor style residence of Dr. William Bell (rebuilt in 1888 after an 1886 fire), with carved local stone, bay windows, and a sun porch. Men, women, and boys are in the yard with tennis rackets, balls, net, a tea service, and a dog.

Notes: At head of title: 3008. Formerly F23618. Photoprint has a daub of glue left of center. Title hand-written on front of photoprint.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Silver bricks

Creator: Collier, Joseph

Date: 1875

Boston & Colorado Gold and Silver Smelting Company workers pose by stacked silver ingots in Empire Forks, Clear Creek County, Colorado; metallurgist Richard Pearce is to the left.

Format of Original Material 1 copy negative ; 18 x 13 cm (7 x 5 in.); 1 photoprint on stereo card : stereograph ; 10 x 18 cm (4 x 7 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: Collier's Rocky Mountain Scenery.

Digital Version Created From: A. W. Spring.

Type of Material: Film negatives; Stereographs

Subject: Boston & Colorado Gold and Silver Smelting .

Notes: Condition: worn emulsion; negative is masked with paint. Formerly F5519. See also: X-60031. Title printed on back of stereocard, with: "No 130. The silver bars, thirty in number, here presented, are the product of the Boston & Colorado Gold and Silver Smelting Company, Black Hawk, Colorado, and are piled in front of the Company's bullion rooms. They weigh 2,200 lbs., and are worth $45,000."

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

The houses on Glenarm Street

Creator McClure, Louis Charles, 1867-1957

Date:[1900]

Donor: Thomas Shrock Lindsay

People and brick houses on Glenarm Place, Denver, Colorado. Standing at 2140 are (possibly) John and Martha Shrock with Bina May Conrad in white dress. In front of 2130 is Mary Rebecca Shrock Conrad with children John, Martha, and baby David.

Format of Original Material: 1 copy photonegative ; 10 x 13 cm (4 x 5 in.); 1 photoprint : black-and-white ; 13 x 18 cm (5 x 7 in.)

Original Material Found in Collection: Louis Charles McClure papers.

Black & white photographs

Notes: Label on back of photoprint: Houses on Glenarm Place, photo covers from 2130 at left to 2140 at right. Standing in front of 2140 are believed to be John and Martha Shrock with Bina May Conrad in white dress. Persons in front of 2126 are unidentified renters. In front of 2130 is Mary Rebecca Shrock Conrad (sister to Ada May, Mrs. L. C.), with three of her children: believed to be baby David who died as a child and John and Martha, circa 1900. Title hand-written on photograph mount shown on copy negative.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

Thing of the past ...

Victor Daily News

Photographer: Harlan, Andrew James.

Men wear hats, suits, vests or suspenders, and pose on wooden sidewalks in front of frame commercial buildings in Victor (Teller County), Colorado. A horseshoe is above the door at the Victor Daily News building near a sign that reads "Law Office." A man identified as W.E. Rohde poses beside a dog in a doorway of the Rohde & Goss Real Estate building. A painted sign in the window reads: "Mining Brokers."

Date: [between 1890 to 1898?]

Notes: "In the Crippl [sic] Creek District" inked below photographer's stamp on verso..; Condition: masked.; Formerly F-44124; Handwritten on envelope: "C-Victor-Bldgs"; Photographer's stamp on verso.; Title penciled on verso.

History Colorado.

 

Thing of the past ...

Snow, December 5, 1913, Central City, Colorado

Creator Lake, Harry H., 1860-1952

Date: [1913]

An unidentified man dressed in a suit stands on a sidewalk in Central City, Colorado, holding a shovel. Enormous piles of snow that are taller than the man line Eureka Street in front of him. Signs marking a bank, a millinery, the Teller House and the J. W. Williams Assay Office mark the storefronts behind him. The St. James Methodist Church stands in the background.

Denver Public Library Special Collections.

 

 

Eureka spirits are finest anywhere

 

Eureka, Colorado, about 1900. William Henry Jackson photo.

 Long suffering Ghost town trouble continues

By Rob Carrigan, robcarrigan1@gmail.com

Right from the start, the spirits in the San Juan County ghost town of Eureka have seemed to want folks living in the place to suffer from time to time.

"Eureka is suffering more rapid erasure than the results of mere decay," wrote historian Lambert Florin in his 1970s book "Ghost Towns of the West."

"Its store buildings are torn down, the lumber to be put into more active service in Silverton. There is no main street in Eureka, which once boasted 'the finest saloons anywhere,' This pride in alcohol emploriums had been continuous since 1896, when, of the several buildings comprising Eureka, the saloon was the finest.

Recently, even in the years following Florin's advise, things don't seem to be improving.

January 21, 2022

The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Interior (DOI), the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the State of Colorado announced a settlement with Sunnyside Gold Corporation and its Canadian parent company Kinross Gold Corporation resolving federal and state liability related to the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site, which includes the Gold King Mine and many other abandoned mines near Silverton, Colorado.

If entered by the court, this agreement provides for the continued cleanup of mining-related contamination within the Upper Animas Watershed and will protect public health and the environment by improving water quality, stabilizing mine source areas, and minimizing unplanned releases.

Under the agreement, Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation will together pay $45 million to the United States and State of Colorado, and the United States will dismiss its claims against Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation. The United States will also contribute $45 million to the continuing cleanup at the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site and Sunnyside Gold Corporation and Kinross Gold Corporation will dismiss its claims against the United States.

“Today’s settlement holds these companies accountable for their past mining operations at the site,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This settlement demonstrates the Justice Department’s and cleanup agencies’ continuing efforts, together with our state partners, to ensure that Superfund sites are investigated and remediated.”

“This settlement addresses the cleanup responsibility of the private mining companies and the federal government and ensures that site cleanup work will continue,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Working with our state and federal government partners, the cleanup will protect the environment and the health of the people who live, work, and enjoy recreational activities in the area.”

“This settlement will allow EPA to continue our important cleanup work at the site to protect human health and the environment,” said Director Betsy Smidinger of EPA Region 8’s Superfund and Emergency Management Division. “We look forward to working with our state and local partners to use these funds which will be utilized to improve the environment for the people who work, live, and recreate in the area.”

“The Gold King spill is a vivid reminder of the dangers associated with the thousands of abandoned and unclaimed hard rock mines across the United States, particularly in the West,” said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau. “Mining companies should be held accountable for these sites that put communities and tribal lands at risk of disastrous pollution. I’m proud that the Department of the Interior was able to play a part in this important settlement.”

“We are committed to protecting where Coloradan’s live, work and play,” said Director Tracie White of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Hazardous Material and Waste Management Division. “This settlement will allow continued cleanup of this Superfund site, in coordination with our federal and local partners, to ensure the protection of human health and the environment for generations to come,”

EPA leads cleanup activities at the Bonita Peak Mining District Superfund site, and DOI and USDA retain authority on publicly managed land. Recent interim cleanup work at the site, including efforts to stabilize mine waste and reduce contaminant releases to surface waters from source areas, have improved environmental conditions and will inform the development of future cleanup remedies for the entire site under an adaptive management framework. EPA has already spent over $75 million on cleanup work at the site and expects to continue significant work at the site in the coming years.

December, 2021

Contractors working on an EPA mine waste drainage remediation project at the Gold King Mine, now owned by the federal government and lying more than a mile from SGC’s Sunnyside mine, breached the plug in the lowest-level tunnel, resulting in pressurized acidic water contaminated with heavy metals to burst out of the tunnel.

The waste flooded into Cement Creek, high above the mountain town of Silverton. The bright yellow-orange wastewater flowed into the Animas River and caused panicked reactions by communities downstream as far away as New Mexico and Utah. It also caused communities to shut down drinking water plants and irrigation diversions.

EPA scientists said the contamination was mostly iron and that other metals in the water posed no human health hazard.

Earlier, in 1991

In 1991, after more than 140 years of mining activity, the Sunnyside mine, the last major mining operation in Silverton, Colo., closed down. In its heyday Silverton produced two million ounces of gold, 51 million ounces of silver and hundreds of millions of pounds of copper, zinc and lead from the enormous collapsed San Juan volcanic caldera.

 August 5,  2015

On August 5, 2015, contractors working on a mine-waste drainage remediation project for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) breached the plug in a tunnel at the entrance to the seventh level of the Gold King mine on Cement creek, above Silverton, Colo.

The pressure of an estimated three million gallons of water laden with metals including mostly iron, but also lead, aluminum, zinc, and cadmium blew out the plug installed in 2003 and poured down Cement creek into the Animas river, creating a plume of yellow-orange water that panicked residents as far away as New Mexico and Utah, but which was quickly diluted and according to EPA chemists was never toxic to humans. View an animation of the Gold King Mine plume.

To put this in perspective the EPA says on its Gold King mine website, “The Gold King Mine release was equivalent to four to seven days of ongoing GKM acid mine drainage. The total amount of metals entering the Animas River following the 9-hour release was comparable to the amount of metals carried by the river in one to two days of high spring runoff. However, the concentrations of metals were higher than historical acid mine drainage. Samples collected did not exceed EPA’s recreational screening levels.”

June 4, 1978

 

Famously here in Colorado, there was Lake Emma, and the Sunnyside Mine incident.

"On June 4, 1978, a major physical disaster struck the Sunnyside Mine. At that time rich gold was being mined on the Spur vein under Lake Emma. Although previous core drilling had been done to determine that the mine was a safe distance from the bottom of the lake, 70 feet above.  The lake had been formed thousands of years ago by the scouring action of a glacier. When the glacier passed over the hard quartz-gold vein, it plucked a thin sliver of rock from the downhill side of the vein.  The sliver, about 20 feet in diameter, extended downward about 65 feet below the bottom of the lake," wrote Allen  G. Bird in "Silverton Gold," in 1986.

"On a Sunday afternoon, when the mine crews were at home, lake Emma broke through the spot and emptied thousands of gallons of water and over one million tons of mud into the mine. The crater on the surface was the length of three football fields and about 500 feet wide. The water and the mud had about 1,800-foot fall to reach the American Tunnel level. A 20-ton Plymouth Locomotive parked below the main ore pass was completely flattened. All timber, except for a 200-foot section between "G" and "F" levels, was stripped from the Washington Incline Shaft. All mining tunnels, including the mile-long Terry and the two-mile-long American were filled to the top with mud. Although the mine was insured for $900 million, the insurance company refused to pay any damages. After an expensive court battle, the insurance company was ordered to pay, although they actually paid only about $5,500,000. Had the breakthrough occurred any time other than Sunday, over 125 men would have been killed, leaving no survivors," wrote Bird.

"We all had a close call when Lake Emma  flooded and caved in the mine," said Silverton Miner Terry Rhoades in oral histories captured in "Colorado Mining Stories, Hazards, Heroics, Humor" by Caroline Arlen. " The engineers had actually tested it under the lake for depth. They figured it was a fault going up there, because there was real bad water coming through. They didn't realize it was half full of mud," Rhoades said.

"The guys that were driving that stope — I think it was Fred and Harry Castle — they refused to go to work that Friday night because they said that water was pouring out of there. That Sunday it came through. Luckily nobody was underground. There were places, like where I had been working, where the mud wouldn't have got you, but there was no way you would have been able to make your way out of there, You would have starved to death." 

In the same book, Rick Ernst agrees.

"When Lake Emma caved in and flooded the mine, that was the beginning of the end, right there. The lake was over the mine. I guess they had us mine up too close to it. It was real lucky it waited until Sunday to cave in. it could have happened any other day of the week. Nobody was underground Sunday. The usual shift was about 125 people. It would have killed everybody," Ernst said.
 

But there were other tragedies prior.

 

1860s 

 

"The  beginnings of the place were in 1860, when Baker, (for whom Baker's Park, the locale of Silverton was named) and his party did some digging in the banks of the rushing Animas River. Eureka was no boom-town, but grew steadily and slowly. The Sunnyside mill was easily the leader as a producer of income for the populace.There was even train service available to Eureka beginning in 1896," Florin noted.

"Looked at from above , on the road continuing up the canyon, the town is seen to be situated on an 'island' extending over the elbow formed by a curve in the river. This got the center of the town out from under the terrific avalanches so common in late winter, though fringe areas were devastated," he said.

1938

 

"When the Sunnyside mills closed 1938, the town died. Now, even the mill is gone. Only impressive foundations run up the steep mountainside of camp town glory days."

1911

In 1911, William Terry enlarged and refitted the Eureka Mill with a zinc ore separator, which increased its operations. Joseph managed a workforce of 90 employees producing 180 tons of ore per day, double the usual average per worker.

 1917

In 1917, the U.S. Smelting, Mining, and Refining Company (USSRMC) made a generous offer to the Terrys for the Sunnyside Mine. Forming the Sunnyside Mining & Milling Company, the Sunnyside, Washington, and Gold Prince groups were consolidated. The company made plans for yet another mill at Eureka capable of treating 500 tons per day and of finishing driving the Terry Tunnel from the mill site to undercut the vein system at great depth.

Sunnyside Mill fire in 1919.

But, no sooner had they bought these mines when the company was plagued by problems, including the Sunnyside surface plant burning down, forcing the mine’s temporary closing, the influenza epidemic of 1918, avalanches, and power blackouts. However, the Sunnyside Mill was completed at Eureka, the surface plant was rebuilt, and the mine complex housed 220 workers.

During these busy construction days, Eureka was busy, as workers filled the available housing and provided business for local merchants. With the Sunnyside Mill finished in 1918, the town’s permanent population grew to about 250 people. The town boasted several boarding houses, a barbershop, J.F. Warnock’s Mercantile, McJunkin Station that sold feed and fuel, the Eureka Hotel and restaurant, A.L. Lashbaugh Livery, a doctor named William Carter, C.F. Worden’s billiard hall, as well as several mining companies and assayers.

Pool hall in a ghost and gold-mining town in 1940. Russell Lee photo.

 1920

A national recession hit, in the early 1920s and industrial metals’ price dropped to the point that operations at the Sunnyside Mine were suspended once again. In 1922, the mine reopened, 216 men were working, and 500 tons of ore were processed per day. The company then began to focus on developing its adjoining claims, and by the next year, its workforce reached 360 men.

Sunnyside Mill, Eureka (San Juan County) Colorado; shows mining ore processing buildings on a hillside, in 1929.

1930

The Great Depression caused the Sunnyside to suspend work in 1930, and it remained closed until 1937. That year, the Sunnyside Mining & Milling Company was Colorado’s largest gold producer. The accessible ore reserves were almost gone, and in 1939, the company laid off the workforce and closed the mine.

1939

The Silverton-Eureka segment of the Silverton Northern Railroad also stopped operations in 1939. In the final years of its operation, the railroad operated a unique railcar and a favorite of the miners. The little railbus “The Casey Jones” was built in the shops at the Sunnyside Mill. It can be seen today at the San Juan Historical Society’s museum in Silverton.

1941

The Sunnyside Mill continued to operate until 1941. The railroad removed its tracks in 1942, and the post office closed the same year. The mill facilities were sold for scrap in 1948. By this time, the town was abandoned and comprised of empty buildings.

Automobile modified to be a rail car at the Sunnyside mine, Eureka (San Juan County), Colorado.  William L. Fick photo.

 

Things of the past ... Turn of the Century, Palmer Lake

Thing of the past ...

Main Street, Wilson (Post Office) Store, McIntyre Cottage, Rocklands Hotel, Rocklands Store in Palmer Lake, 1912.

Thing of the past ...

 

Harry S. Maddox, station agent, Palmer Lake, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D. &.R. G.) , note Express Signage on corner, 1899. Maddox was later agent Monument, and had other local positions with D & R.G.

Thing of the past ...

Newell McIntyre with best friend and shot gun, in front yard of McIntyre cottage in Palmer Lake. Rocklands Hotel in the background. Date: 1890s-1920?

 

Thing of the past ...

 

Palmer Lake as a vacation destination for men and women wearing hats and paddling in skiffs with train, tank and buildings in background. Date: 1890.

 

Thing of the past ...

Denver & Rio Grande rail dept in Palmer Lake about 1900. Men, women, and dogs on busy, wooden platform as frequent train arrivals come in.