Homestake Mine Tragedy Archives - Colorado Central Magazine

The Homestake Mine: Then and Now

November 28, 2009January 1, 2001 by Staff

Sidebar by Allen Best

Homestake Mine Tragedy – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The story of how the Homestake Mine was discovered sounds too fanciful to be real. It was 1871, and the brilliant flash of placer gold at California Gulch from 1860 had dulled considerably. Still, prospectors searched.

One party of five prospectors rode to the flanks of Mount Massive, and continued north across Galena, stopping here and there to poke around as they followed the Continental Divide north toward 13,209-foot Homestake Peak.

Homestake Mine Tragedy Sources

November 28, 2009January 1, 2001 by Staff

Sidebar by Allen Best

Homestake Mine Tragedy – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Sources

Books:

Historic Avalanches in the Northern Front Range and the Central and Northern Mountains of Colorado, by M. Martinelli Jr. and Charles F. Leaf. 1999: Rocky Mountain Research Station.

History of Leadville and Lake County, Colorado, by Don and Jean Griswold.

Leadville: Colorado’s Magic City, by Edward Blair. 1980: Pruett, Boulder.

The vengeance against men for the muck called gold

November 28, 2009January 1, 2001 by Staff

Sidebar by Allen Best

Homestake Mine Tragedy – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hundreds of miners lost their lives to avalanches in and near the mining camps of the West. Colorado’s recorded deaths began as early as 1860, southwest of Denver, and have continued until as recently as November 1986, when a miner working in the La Plata Mountains west of Durango went to an early grave. During the last 14 years, Colorado averaged six deaths per year, nearly all among recreationalists.

The Homestake Horror

November 28, 2009January 1, 2001 by Staff

Poem by John Garvin

Homestake Mine Tragedy – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Homestake Horror

From lonely Homestake mountain,

Where the snow lies hard and deep–

From lonely Homestake mountain,

Where the rocks rise high and steep–

There came a tale of horror,

A deadening tale of woe:

“Ten men are lying buried–

The Homestake Horror of 1885

November 28, 2009January 1, 2001 by Staff

Article by Allen Best

Homestake Mine Tragedy – January 2001 – Colorado Central Magazine

THEY ALL HOPED they could get rich quickly. The plan was simple enough. Endure a winter at the remote Homestake Mine, and by summer, when the snow had lost its icy fastness on this timberline perch, the ten men would emerge with their fortunes.

For a young man in Leadville in 1885, taking risks was the only way left to make a fortune. The easy money had all been scooped up, with claims staked for miles around. It had all happened so fast.