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Mining History of the Silverton Area
Howardsville | Middleton
| Mining | Methods of Processing
| Transportation | Mining Terms
Benchmark Dates
1858. Gold discovered in Colorado (a decade after California). The stampede
of late winter/spring of 1859 was called the Pike's Peak gold rush although
gold had not been found there; instead, 60 miles north near present day Denver.
1860. Charles Baker with a party of seven came over the pass at the head of
Cunningham Gulch (location of the Old 100 Gold Mine). The flat area from Silverton
to Eureka was called Baker's Park.
C Placer mining was disappointing.
C He wintered in the Animas Valley and established the first Animas City near present day Baker's Bridge. The first bridge was built in 1868.
C The Civil War delayed further movement into the area.
1868. The US government gave Utes title to San Juan mountains, but the following
year prospectors were sent up the Animas Valley. Baker, by then more of a
real estate agent than prospector, returned to Silverton with about 200 people;
none stayed permanently. He was reportedly killed by Indians.
1870. Some of Baker=s original team returned to the area. Gold was discovered
in Arrastra Gulch, opposite the Mayflower Mill. Once miners found veins of
quartz, the hard rock (or lode) mining industry was established in Silverton.
It was much more risky/expensive than placer mining.
C An arrastra (Spanish) is a bed of stone which utilized a heavy mill stone pulled around in a circle by animals to crush the ore.
C Spanish history in the area: Dominges and Escalonte (1776); Juan Antonio Rivera (1765).
1872. The first productive mine in the Silverton area was the Little Giant
in Arrastra Gulch. It took 58 days to bring in machinery for the mill with
mules/burros.
1873/74. Brunot Treaty (officially, AAgreement@) ratified in 1874, Abought@
3,000,000 acres, reducing Indian lands essentially to reservations. This explains
why Silverton and Lake City were founded in 1874. It was only then that miners
were legal to be there.
1882. Train arrived in Silverton.
1893. Silver crisis.
Mining Communities
Silverton.
C Briefly called Quito (same altitude as capital of Ecuador).
C Popular story about how Silverton got its name.
C At the height of mining era (1900-1912) population grew to 3,000; in the
mining district, 5,000. Now, there=s roughly 800 in the summer, 400 in winter.
C The Green Smelter built in Silverton in 1874 was moved to Durango in 1881.
C Silverton was snowed-in for 73 days in 1884 (4 Feb-16 Apr). In 1932, 90 days.
C The more technologically developed Mayflower Mill and tram were built 1929. The tram was gravity fed by the weight of ore; speed was regulated by electric motors. It also carried miners from mill to mine. It's the only tram in the area with towers built of steel. At top speed, it took 22 1/2 minutes to travel the 10,100' from mill to mine. Each of the 52 buckets carried an average of 1800 pounds of crushed ore. There were about 50 trams in the area.
C The first car in Silverton came over Stony Pass in 1910.
Howardsville
1871. Founded/named after George Howard, one of Baker's original group.
1873. Howard built a permanent cabin.
C First town in western one-third of Colorado.
C First brewery on the western slope (1876).
C First documented murder on the western slope.
C It was the original county seat of La Plata County, which was formed in 1874. The county seat was transferred to Silverton, and after statehood in 1876, to Parrott City. When Durango was incorporated in 1881, it became the fourth county seat.
Middleton
Middleton was a mining company town; miners were paid in script redeemable at the company store. They realized a profit of $ .25 to $ .50 per week.
Eureka.
Oldest of San Juan camps (Baker-1860). The town was founded by Howard to support his Sunnyside Mine 3 1/2 miles up the valley to the west. Once the largest gold mine in the US, producing 6,000,000 tons of ore from 95 miles of tunnels. It had as many as 200 workers underground with another 35-50 at the mill. The American Tunnel to Sunnyside (from Gladstone) opened in the 1960s. This is the latest mine to close (in 1991).
1896. Otto Mears' railroad arrived (all unused tracks in mining districts were removed in 1942 to support the war effort).
1917. 2nd Sunnyside Mill was built (the large concrete foundation). It had 100 stamps. At one time, 2,000 people lived here. Many died from influenza in 1918.
1978. On an early Sunday morning in June, 1978, Emma Lake, above the mine, broke through and flooded the mine. It crushed a locomotive and deposited mud that took two years to clean up.
Animas Forks. Elevation: 11,160.
1873. First cabin built; ten years later the population was 450. Most left for the winter.
C Named for its location between the north and west forks of the Animas RiverCoriginally called Forks of the Animas or Three Forks of the Animas.
C Became a town of substance by 1877C30 cabins, general store, saloon, post office, grade school, and newspaper. Possessed electricity, telephone, and telegraph (from Lake City).
C The blizzard of 1884 lasted 23 days and dumped 25 feet of snow.
C The railroad extended from Eureka in 1904Ca 7% grade negotiated at 4 MPH
with only two cars in tow. Coming downhill was more exciting.
C Seven snow sheds were planned; the first was wiped out by a snow slide the first winter, and plans were abandoned.
C Gold Prince Mill (the largest concentration mill in ColoradoC100 stamps) operated only six years (1904-1910). It was dismantled and used to construct the mill in Eureka in 1917.
C The Animas Forks Pioneer was the highest newspaper ever published in the US.
C Tom Walsh, owner of the Hope Diamond, lived in the bay-window house.
Mining
C The San Juans were so mineralized that more than 40% of their territory
was incorporated into mining districts. The majority of these minerals were
concentrated into a region of 250 square miles, bounded by Silverton, Lake
City, Ouray, and Ophir (which included Telluride).
C During the early period (1860-1890), the mortality rate was 75% the first year because of freezing, starvation, Indians, grizzly bears, avalanches, mine accidents, and claim jumpers. Many died at a young age of Aminers con," short for miners' consumption, or pnuemosilicosis caused by quartz dust from steam drills (introduced in 1876/77Ccalled Awidowmakers@). The problem was later mitigated by introduction of water. Life expectancy was 40 years.
C Pay at the turn of the century averaged $3.00, $1.00 of which went for room and board. Pay was higher in the Red Mt. area. Food was good except for the coffee.
C Glory holes were vertical air circulation/breathing holes.
C In 1873, over 3,000 mining claims had been staked. The first stamp mill was built despite government warning because the territory belonged to the Utes. In February, the government issued a warning for all miners to vacate the area.
C As a general rule in the San Juans, the higher the ore, the more pure it was. This was only partially true in the Red Mountain district, where the most valuable minerals were located in circular or elliptical vertical columns of mineralsCApipes@ (30' wide and 100'-300' deep) frequently located within larger Achimneys@ (100'-1200' wide and 300'-2,000' deep).
C Red Mountain began as a mining district in 1881. Most rich mines were discovered between 10,000' and 11,000'. Ore was produced that today would be equivalent to $100K/week.
- In the hectic days of Red Mt., prospectors staked claims on top of snow without even knowing what the ground looked likeCthinking that wherever they staked a claim, there would be silver.
- The railroad was extended here in 1988 by Otto Mears.
- Discovery of the Yankee Girl Mine (1882) opened the floodgates to Red Mountain. One of the most famous silver producers in the US--$2,000 per ton. One particularly rich section produced 2,500 oz. of silver per ton.
- National Bell Mine.
1878. Bland-Allison Act called for coinage of silver of at least 2M oz. but not more than 4M oz. per month.
1890. The Sherman Silver Purchasing Act guaranteed coinage of silver at a purchasing price of $1.29/oz; the US treasury would buy 4.5M oz of silver per month. The bi-metal standard was 16:1, gold-to-silver.
1893. Repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchasing Act. The bottom dropped out of the silver market to $ .50/oz. (Silver's high was $1.41/oz in 1919 and its lowest was about $.23/oz in 1929).
C Tommyknockers (elves in the mines)
- Legend going back hundreds of years in Cornwall, England.
- Some believed they took on the spirit of those killed in the mines.
It was important to keep on their good side by leaving crumbs around for them
to eat and speaking well of them. In turn, Tommyknockers would warn miners
of danger.
Methods of Processing
C Double jack team.
C Crushing: A stamp was a 500-1500 lb piece of metal, raised by steam and allowed to fall and crush the rock. It was quite loud; a normal conversation was not possible near a mill.
C A stamp could process five tons of ore a day; the more stamps, the greater the capacity of the mill. The largest mills in the area were at Animas Forks and Eureka (100 stamps).
C Once crushed to a powder, ore would be mixed with water and made into a slurry. Rising to the top was slag, which was discarded. The remainder was then poured through troughs where heavier metals sink to bottom (20% effective). In the later Mayflower Mill, the sand was mixed with water, chemicals, and air bubbles. Lead, silver and zinc stuck to the bubbles and floated to the top in what is called a flotation process. Gold was separated out at a shaker table. The final product of this particular mill was about 90% pure.
C It was then transported to the smelter (99% pure) in Durango. Coal-fired heat melted it to a liquid. Molten liquid would be poured into a cylinder and allowed to cool, with different metallic bands separating out by weight. After it cooled, it was broken into pieces at the dividing line between metallic bands.
C Important factors in the development of gold mining and extraction from lower grade ores in 1890s was development of new ore reduction processesCalso, cheaper (railroad) transportation and the silver crisis of 1893.
C Methods of ore reduction:
- Cyanidation: a cyanide solution, with gold dissolved, was deposited on zinc or copper plates where the gold precipitated.
- Concentration: ore crushing and application of intense heat.
- Amalgamation: suspending ore slurry over liquid mercury; gold-mercury amalgam then subjected to intense heat.
C In the early days, pack trains over the head of Cunningham Gulch to Pueblo
cost $60/ton; completion of a road over Stony Pass in 1879 decreased cost.
D&RG RR further decreased cost to 1/5 of the original; after one year
of operation, railroad shipping rates dropped to $12/ton. Anticipation of
this was why mills stockpiled minerals awaiting arrival of the train.
C Mills were constructed as close to mines as possible to minimize transportation costs. Prior to the railroad, ore and coal were shipped by mule train; after the railroad reached Silverton, coal was still offloaded from the train onto mules for delivery to mills.
C Wagon freighting averaged $.25 per ton-mile for roads less than 12% grade. For steeper grades, animals were better.
C Burros carried 150 lbs and mules carried 300 lbs on average. They would
actually carry 250 lbs upgrade and 350 lbs down. Mules required feeding whereas
burros could eke out an existence on scarce mountain grass and were more sure-footed
on ledges.
C Animals spent their lives in mines and in the process became blind. As a result, the state legislature required animals to be stabled at the surface when off-duty. (Story of Polly).
C Efficient transportation of ore was contingent upon roads, and they did not exist. Otto Mears, a Russian emigrant labeled APathfinder of the San Juans,@ constructed many of the roads and railroads in the area. In 1877 he built a road from Animas Forks to Lake City, and it was there that ore was processed from mines in the Animas Forks/Mineral Point area prior to the train's arrival in Animas Forks.
C Boot - a round of explosives that does not detonate.
C Doghouse - lunch room or break station.
C Drift - mine shaft, usually 8' x 8'
C Fire in the Hole - predetonation warning.
C Highgrading - practice of Acollecting@ gold specimens w/o company permission.
C Muck - mud or rock fragments.
C Cycling a round - mucking the previous shift=s rock.
C Single jack - 4-lb 2-headed hammer welded in one hand by one man.
C Double jack - longer 6 to 8-lb hammer.
C Pie Can - lunch bucket.
C Steels - piece of hand steel with a sharpened edge used with a hammer.
C Stope - area or pocket drilled and blasted out as a mineral vein is followed.
Sources
The Silverton Story by Mary Ann Olson
The Mountain of Silver by P. David Smith
The Historical Encyclopedia of Colorado
Snowflakes and Quartz by Louis Wyman
Stampede to Timberline by Muriel Wolle Gordon Clouser
Mining the Hard Rock by John Marshall April 15, 2009
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