Early Mining and Transportation in Southwestern Colorado 1860-1881

The rugged landscape of southwestern Colorado, characterized by towering peaks, deep valleys, and a harsh climate, seemed an unlikely setting for a bustling mining frontier. Yet, after the Mexican-American War in 1848, this remote corner of the Colorado Territory became a focal point for prospectors and settlers seeking their fortunes in the region’s abundant mineral resources. From the early gold placer mining days to the development of hard-rock mining and the growth of permanent settlements, southwestern Colorado underwent a remarkable transformation between 1860 and 1881.

Initial Explorations and Gold Discoveries (1860-1861)

The story of mining in southwestern Colorado begins with the initial gold discoveries of the late 1850s and early 1860s. Following the Colorado Gold Rush of 1858 and 1859, which centered around the Denver area, prospectors began to venture further into the Rocky Mountains in search of new opportunities.

In the spring of 1860, a prospecting party led by Charles Baker, acting on rumors of mineral wealth in the San Juan Mountains, made its way into the rugged region. While the initial reports of rich finds proved misleading, the expedition sparked interest in the area’s potential. By April 1861, prospectors had spread out from Baker’s Park, digging nine miles north in Eureka Gulch. In May, the camp at Baker’s Park broke up, and many prospectors moved south to the fertile Animas River Valley. Despite the lack of substantial discoveries, it became apparent that southwestern Colorado’s mineral resources were located in a broad belt that stretched diagonally across the territory.

Around the same time, gold was discovered in the Tin Cup District of Gunnison County in 1860 by Jim Taylor. In 1861, Fred Lottis led parties across the Continental Divide from Granite, Colorado, and worked placer gold fields in the region. The first actual mining camp in the Gunnison country, Minersville, had a population of about 200 in 1861. By 1863, due to the increasing hostility of the Ute Indians, most camps were deserted.

Silver Mining and the Opening of the San Juans (1869-1873)

Exploration in southwestern Colorado was limited during the mid-1860s due to diminished placer gold deposits and the absence of permanent settlement. However, the memory of earlier mining ventures lingered, reminding prospectors of the region’s potential.

In 1868, the Ute Reservation was established, but the area was trespassed by prospectors. In 1869, Adnah French and Dempsey Reese prospected along the Dolores River. By 1870, they reached the Animas River, moved into Baker’s Park, and began digging near Silverton. At the same time, Sheldon Shafer and Joe Flarhieler located what is now part of the Shamrock, Smuggler, and Riverside lodes of the Atlantic Cable Group, which they named The Pioneer.

Two significant discoveries in the San Juan region caused further mining excitement in 1870 and 1871: the location of the Little Giant Mine and the discovery of rich silver veins along Henson Creek.

During the early 1870s, numerous mining expeditions searched the Elk Mountains. Jim Brennan found fissure veins in 1872. In 1873, Doctor John Parsons explored the mineral and agricultural resources of the area. Accompanying Parsons was a geologist, Sylvester Richardson, who discovered silver along Spring Creek, east of modern Crested Butte, and large coal deposits west of that future town, along Ohio Creek.

Despite the richness of the discoveries and the establishment of numerous mining camps, it took several years before prospectors were bold enough to winter or face the threat of Indian attack. Throughout the early 1870s, miners retreated east across the Continental Divide each fall, returning in the spring to resume work on their claims. Transportation routes, advanced mining equipment, and permanent settlements were needed.

The potential mineral resources of the San Juan region received widespread attention across the Colorado Territory. The Ute Reservation was the scene of continual trespass. By 1873, Coloradans pressed for revising the 1868 Ute Indian Treaty. The Brunot Treaty, enacted in 1873, opened four million acres in the heart of the San Juans.

The Alfred Packer Incident (1874)

In January 1874, a party of 21 men, on their way to the central Rocky Mountain gold fields from Utah, stopped near present-day Montrose at the encampment of Chief Ouray. Six men, including guide Alfred Packer, left the camp and continued eastward.

On April 16, 1874, Packer arrived at the Los Pinos Agency alone, claiming to have been abandoned by the others. Packer’s conduct invited suspicion, and Agent Charles Adams accused Packer of killing and robbing the five prospectors. Under pressure, Packer confessed to the killings. In June of 1874, photographer J. A. Randolph stumbled onto the bodies of the five slain men. Packer’s well-worn trail showed that he had made frequent visits to his victims and had subsisted on their flesh. Packer never paid in kind for his gruesome deeds.

Boosterism, Government Surveys, and Intensified Mining Rushes (1875-1876)

During the mid-1870s, many Coloradans began advertising the Territory. Accounts of rich soil and mineral wealth in the Rocky Mountains brought about a public clamor for scientific surveys to examine these rumors of riches.

In response to public demand, Congress sent out a new group of experts between 1867 and 1878 under the direction of the Army and the Department of the Interior. Ferdinand V. Hayden and William H. Jackson examined geologic formations, flora and fauna, the topography, and the scenery of much of southwestern Colorado in the years from 1874 to 1875.

By 1875, the effects of the Brunot Treaty, government surveys, and booster-style advertising of southwestern Colorado were seen in numerous intensified mining rushes to the San Juan area.

Much of the San Juan mining excitement in the mid-1870s was attributable to rich finds made outside Lake City when Enos Hotchkiss located the Hotchkiss mine in 1874. The widespread distribution of the newspaper helped to quickly transform struggling Lake City from a cluster of cabins into a roaring mining town of 2,000 inhabitants. The continued production of the Hotchkiss Mine and the nearby Ute and Ulay Mines and the erection of the Crooke and Company smelter made 1876 a promising year for the Lake City mining district.

By 1876, mineral discoveries were made on the upper Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, and the Sherman townsite was laid out. Other towns created around this rich area included Whitecross, Burrows Park, and Tellurium. South on Lost Trail Creek, the town of Carson developed. Along Henson Creek, west of Lake City, the Henson townsite, Capitol City, and Rose’s Cabin developed.

Growth of Mining Towns (1877-1879)

The San Juan mining rush of 1874 was mainly centered in those areas that had been sites of placer prospecting in the 1860s and early 1870s. The Baker’s Park region received some 2,000 prospectors in 1874.

The townsite of Silverton was established and became the hub of the mining boom in the mid-1870s, giving new life to the mining camps in the Animas River Valley. Howardsville and Eureka were both platted in 1874. Animas Forks was laid out in 1877.

In the year following the Silverton boom, Augustus "Gus" Begole and John Eckles headed northwest from Green Mountain above Howardsville to prospect along the Uncompahgre River. The location of these mineral deposits in the summer and fall of 1875 created a rush to the area from the nearby mining towns. Judge R. F. Long and Captain M. W. Cline laid out a townsite at the juncture of Canyon Creek and the Uncompahgre River, which they named Ouray. In August 1876, Ouray was incorporated and had a population of 400 inhabitants.

In the three years between 1877 and 1879, lode prospecting was rapidly extended in the entire San Juan region. In 1878, the town of Ophir was laid out. Charles Sharman established San Miguel City on the San Miguel River. The mining towns of Placerville and Columbia in the San Miguel River Valley were laid out. Otto Mears helped reincorporate the town as Telluride in September 1879. In 1878, John Glasgow and Sandy Campbell came northwest from La Plata City. In the spring of 1879, Colonel J. G. Haggerty reported that ore from "N****r Baby Hill" proved very rich in silver. The towns of Ouray. Silverton, Ophir, and San Miguel City emptied their hundreds into the Rico region. Rico was incorporated on February 25, 1880, and the Grand View smelter began operations shortly after.

Development and the Growth of Permanent Communities (1880-1881)

In seven years from the enactment of the Brunot Treaty, the San Juan region had been the scene of remarkable growth and development. Miners and prospectors were joined by town promoters, merchants, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and road builders. On May 1, 1881, telephone service was extended to Lake City, and in the following summer, lines reached Silverton and Ouray.

The original Territorial Counties of southwestern Colorado were dissected in 1874 into the new counties of Rio Grande, Hinsdale, and La Plata. San Juan County was made from the northern part of La Plata County in 1876. Following Colorado Statehood in 1876, Ouray County was created from the western portion of San Juan County, and Gunnison County was formed from the western part of Lake County. In 1881, Ouray County was divided to establish Dolores County.

At the same time, massive migrations to the Leadville mining district prompted success for a few and dashed hopes for many. Lack of opportunity in Leadville after 1879 motivated a small army of argonauts west to look at the increasingly acclaimed mining regions across the Continental Divide.

The miners who came to the Gunnison country in 1879 and 1880 were not unaware that the region was located on a direct line between Leadville and the San Juan mining region. The initial rush to the Gunnison area in the spring of 1879 was concentrated in a few well-known regions within the Colorado Mineral Belt.

South of Tin Cup, on Quartz Creek, Frank Curtis established the Quartzville camp in the Gold Brick Mining District in early 1879. A major rush to the district occurred when assays on ore samples from the area’s mines ran as high as $2,000 per ton. By mid-May, close to one thousand people had lived in the town, and many had mined the surrounding area. North of the Taylor Park and Gold Brick districts, west of the Coal Creek camp of Crested Butte, rich silver discoveries led to the organization of the Ruby Mining District in May 1879. At the juncture of East River and Copper Creek, north and west of Ruby, the town of Gothic was incorporated on July 17, 1879, when large silver-producing mines attracted nearly 5,000 miners and settlers. Near the headwaters of Tomichi Creek, along the Continental Divide, the towns of White Pine, Tomichi, and North Star sprang up. Amid all the excitement during 1879, Crested Butte and Gunnison City were destined to become the two most important towns in the Gunnison country.

Although not incorporated until 1880, the town of Gunnison owed its inception to the silver mining expeditions conducted in the early 1870s. Sylvester Richardson organized a stock company, and 20 cabins were erected on the present site of Gunnison by the summer of 1874. In June 1879, Richardson formed another town company. The company plotted the townsite of Gunnison City in April 1880. By its incorporation, an estimated 25,000 people crowded into the Gunnison country, and the town’s population reached nearly 2,000.

The camp of Crested Butte came into existence when, in 1877, coal was discovered at Mount Crested Butte by the Jennings brothers. By 1879, the town served as a way-station for the hordes of prospectors en route to the surrounding gold and silver mining country. Growth led to its incorporation in 1880.

Challenges and the Importance of Transportation

Much of the early mining development took place well above the timberline, with the attendant high cost of living and transportation. The failure of small smelting operations led to a gradual recognition that such enterprises were futile in this remote corner of the State. The early mining camps of southwestern Colorado were isolated. Since the early mining towns did not attract agricultural settlement, foodstuffs and commodities had to be imported.

Roads were an even more immediate concern. The history of early transportation in southwestern Colorado is in the development of the toll road. Rugged mountains, steep gorges, and river valleys could be breached only by roads built by private enterprise.

Otto Mears, often called the "Pathfinder of the San Juans," led pack trains, built toll roads, maintained freighting outfits, and finally became a railroad builder. He was also heavily involved in politics and Indian affairs. The chronicle of his toll road building began in 1870. Realizing the San Juans were undergoing a mining rush in the mid-1870s, Mears and associates incorporated 1874 their second road, the Saguache and San Juan Toll Road.

The Ouray and Lake Fork Wagon Road Company was incorporated in November 1876. By spring of the following year, Mears bought the company’s stock. Deciding that the former owners’ plan was too ambitious, he built a road from Ouray to the present town of Montrose. Wishing to connect this road with his Saguache and San Juan Toll Road, Mears incorporated, in September 1877, the Lake Fork and Uncompahgre Toll Road Company.

Otto Mears profited from toll road construction during the great mining rushes to the San Juan mountains in the mid to late 1870s. Work on the Poncha, Marshall, and Gunnison Toll Road was completed during the spring of 1880.

In 1881 and 1882 alone, Mears and his associates completed the Dallas and San Miguel Toll Road, the San Miguel and Rico Toll Road, and the Durango, Parrott City, and Fort Lewis Toll Road. Much of the road building during this period was accomplished by upgrading existing but inferior roadbeds.

Between 1883 and 1884, Otto Mears began a task that would mark his finest achievement as a road builder. A road from Ouray to Silverton over Red Mountain (known as the "Million Dollar Highway") was constructed in two stages.

The completion of the Silverton-Animas Forks-Mineral Point Toll Road in 1886 marked a watershed in Otto Mears’ life. Since 1870, he had built a network of roads almost 450 miles long. Freight could be moved into the area more cheaply, and lower-grade ore could be shipped profitably.

Otto Mears’ accomplishments were quickly copied by road construction in the Gunnison country. During the mining boom in 1879 and 1880, toll roads were completed in the Quartz Creek, Tomichi, and Taylor Park mining districts.

Access to mining camps and towns in southwestern Colorado was made more accessible by the construction of better road grades and stage lines.

No history of early transportation in southwestern Colorado would be complete without mention of the homely and unromantic burro.

Challenges and the Dawn of a New Era

While the mining camps in southwestern Colorado struggled to gain a permanent foothold from 1860 to 1881, the ill effects of rapid and extensive development became evident. Too many small claims were permitted, resulting in shafts being sunk almost side-by-side. At the same time, the surface was cluttered with buildings, shaft houses, equipment, and waste dumps.

The year 1881 marked the beginning of a new era as agriculture and rail transportation entered the southwestern Colorado frontier. That year alone, the Ute Indians were removed from the Western Slope, and the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad reached southwestern Colorado at Durango and Gunnison. Ten years earlier, agriculture, ranching, and permanent settlement throughout the entire region were premature speculations, but they became blossoming realities in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

The early mining and transportation history of southwestern Colorado is a testament to the ambition, resilience, and resourcefulness of the people who sought their fortunes in this challenging yet rewarding landscape. From the initial gold discoveries to the development of hard-rock mining and the establishment of permanent communities, the region underwent a remarkable transformation that laid the foundation for its future.