Mining

Victor: The End of the Road

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By Mike Rosso

Victor, Colorado, is not on the way to anywhere else. To get there requires dedicated purpose.

Those arriving for the first time will discover a time capsule of a town, a place that seems left behind from the modern world, yet still occupied by a hearty citizenry, who seem to prefer living at the proverbial end of the road.

The discovery of gold in the region in 1890 led to the creation of Victor in 1891, the “City of Mines,” along with neighboring Cripple Creek. At its peak around the turn of the century, there were nearly 18,000 residents in Victor and it was once the fourth-largest city in Colorado, but after World War I, the town saw a steep decline due to a labor war, depleted ore and the exodus of miners. The 2010 census has the town at around 397 souls.

In 1985, Victor was designated a national historic district, which led to the arrival of tourists. In 1991 Colorado voters allowed for legalized gambling to occur in certain towns in Colorado and nearby Cripple Creek became one of them, but the residents of Victor opted out, which is one of the reasons the town has maintained its charm and not become an old West facade for casinos like its neighbor to the northwest. Many employees of Cripple Creek’s casinos call Victor home. The Cripple Creek and Victor Mine still operates near town and is the largest current producer of gold in Colorado.

Walking the streets of the town, one is struck by the historic architecture, some of it crumbling, and some in the process of restoration. There is no Starbucks here, but evidence of its mining past is everywhere, in and on the outskirts of town. 

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Alma: North America’s Highest Incorporated Town

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Main Street, Alma, Feb. 2017. Photo by Laura Van Dusen.

By Laura Van Dusen

County: Park
Founded: 1873
Elevation: 10,578 ft.
Population: 270 (2010)

At just over two miles high, Alma is the highest incorporated town in North America. It was a gold mecca in 1859, later silver boomed, and, more recently, prospecting around Alma has focused on spectacular rhodochrosite crystals found at the Sweet Home Mine.

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Jack Haverly’s Towns for Suckers

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By Jan MacKell Collins

“Jack Haverly, Jack Haverly I wonder where you are. Are your fortunes cast with Sirius, or ‘neath some kindlier star?” – “Memories of Jack Haverly” by Eugene Field, the New York Times circa 1901

We all know certain people in our lives who never seem to hold onto their money, no matter how much they make. During the 1800s, Jack Haverly was just such a person.

Born Christopher Heverly in Pennsylvania in 1837, the budding capitalist first began working his way up in the world by selling peanuts and candy on passenger trains. He went on to work as a “baggage smasher” for the railroads and also as a tailor’s apprentice before finding where his heart truly belonged: the theatre.

Haverly’s first variety theatre, complete with a saloon, opened in Toledo, Ohio in 1864. As it turned out, Haverly made a great showman. His first performing troupe at the theatre, “Haverly’s Minstrels,” drew record crowds. A misspelling on a poster changed his last name, and he became known in entertainment circles as Jack Haverly.

Shortly after Haverly’s Minstrels debuted, Haverly acquired various partners and began taking his shows on the road. His travels took him across America and north to Canada. Along the way he married one of his showgirls, Sara Hechsinger of the famous Duval Sisters. When Sara died in 1867, he married her sister Eliza.

For over a decade, Haverly bought and sold numerous theaters and headed up an amazing thirteen performing troupes. He seldom had trouble finding investors, even as he became known as a compulsive gambler and speculator who sometimes threw his money away as quickly as he made it. He also had a bad habit of filing for bankruptcy, yet somehow always managed to stay afloat. Newspapers lost count of his failings and resurrections, but his friends never hesitated to loan him money when he needed it. They knew he would pay it back the next time fortune smiled upon him again.

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Private Property: Mt. Shavano Summit Riddled with Mining Claims

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By Maisie Ramsay

The entire summit of Mount Shavano, in the Sawatch Range, is located on private property, but not of the “trespassers will be shot” variety.

There are no fences. There are no signs. Save for a cairn and a couple of weather-beaten survey posts, there’s nothing to indicate that the entire summit block is composed of private mining claims – except, perhaps, the poor condition of the trail.

Private, high-elevation mining claims have precluded the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) from restoring the path to Shavano’s summit, leaving the route to degrade steadily with each passing year.

The Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI) has come up with a novel solution to this problem: buy the mining claims and give them to the Forest Service.

“Shavano was a high priority for the agency, but was stuck behind the private land inholdings,” said Lloyd Athearn, executive director for the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative. “I put together a proposal on Shavano to investigate who owns the lands and acquire them, whatever was necessary to build the trail.”

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Walking in Ben’s Footsteps – Leadville’s Guggenheim Home

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By Carolyn Coleman White

For nearly 30 years, the decaying building at 134 West 6th Street in Leadville, Colorado was a party place, its windows kicked out and graffiti sprayed on the walls. Neighborhood teens used to gather there, leaving beer cans, cigarette butts and other paraphernalia scattered on the once-glossy hardwood floors. During the 1950s and 60s, before it was abandoned, it was a boarding facility, with six apartments (outlines of the numbers can still be seen on certain doors) and two shared bathrooms, one upstairs and another down. “I made a baby in the bedroom right there,” claimed a frail, stooped great-grandmother named Lydia, who now lives across the street, as she pointed toward an upper left window. “My husband had a job at the Climax mine after we moved here from New Mexico. We liked the house, but when the baby came our rented space was just too small.”

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Book Review – The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado

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The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado, 1859-2009
By Duane A. Smith
Published in 2009 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN 978-0-87081-975-5
$26.95; vii+282 pages

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

After chronicling nearly every facet of gold and silver mining in Colorado, from the Caribou camp to Horace Tabor and Baby Doe, Duane A. Smith has now concisely written the colorful story in The Trail of Gold and Silver. With this, his 50th published book, his friends might wonder whether The Trail of Gold and Silver is meant to be the swan song of our most prolific miner of Colorado’s mining history. Well, don’t bet the claim on it.

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George Wade Foott – Art, Artifacts … and Whitewater

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Ever since we took over the reins of this magazine last March we’d been hoping to do a profile on George Foott. His wonderfully realistic historic paintings and his legendary boating skills — skills he was still developing well into his late 60s — were an inspiration to many in a variety of intersecting circles in Colorado.

Then suddenly, he was gone, a victim of the melanoma which had metastasized and quickly took George on December 17, 2009 at the age of 70.

Rather than write a tribute to the man ourselves we sought out some of his old friends, kayaking buddies and business associates and asked them to tell us about George in their own words. We thank them for their memories and contributions. — M. Rosso

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Book Review – Historic Photos of Colorado Mining

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Text and Captions by Ed Rains
2009 – Turner Publishing Company
ISBN:978-1-59652-535-1

Reviewed by Mike Rosso

Having spent several years as a photo restorist in Durango, working with museums in Durango, Cortez, Dolores and Silverton, I was eager to obtain a copy of Historic Photos of Colorado Mining when it was offered for review.

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San Juan Legacy – Life in the Mining Camps

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by Duane A. Smith
photographs by John L. Ninnemann
Published in 2009 by University of New Mexico Press
ISBN 978-0-8263-4650-6

Reviewed by Ed Quillen

The Sawatch Range is the highest in the Rockies, the Sangre de Cristo Range is the longest, and the Mosquito Range is the richest in overall Colorado mineral production. But it is the San Juan Mountains that provide the quintessential Colorado mining-camp imagery and lore: soaring jagged peaks, frothing streams in narrow gorges, steam-powered narrow-gauge trains, immense old mines in sites apparently accessible only by jaybirds, and Victorian towns in various states of preservation.

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From Redstone to Ludlow: John Cleveland Osgood’s Struggle against the United Mine Workers of America

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By F. Darrell Munsell
Published in 2008 by University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 978-0-87081-934-6

Reviewed by Virginia McConnell Simmons

With its inclusion of Ludlow, the scene of southern Colorado’s most deadly labor fight, From Redstone to Ludlow will hardly be mistaken for a tourist’s guide to Pitkin County’s tiny village of Redstone on the Crystal River. Rather, as the subtitle indicates, the text is a hefty study in Colorado labor history, specifically relating to coal mining. But who is the subtitle’s John Cleveland Osgood, a name that seldom appears in Colorado histories, except in advertisements that might lure travelers to Redstone? As author F. Darrell Munsell shows, he was the stubborn, aggressive leader of mining men in Colorado’s coal and coking industries at the turn of the last century.

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Court overturns ban on heap-leach gold mining

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Brief by Allen Best

Mining – February 2009 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Colorado Supreme Court this week said that Summit County — and other Colorado counties — cannot ban the method called heap-leach that uses cyanide and acids to remove gold from crushed ore. Gunnison, Gilpin, Conejos, and Costilla counties had also adopted similar legislation.

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Like renewable energy? Then you’d better like mining

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Brief by Allen Best

Mining – December 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Do you support renewable energy? Energy independence? If so, then you’d better support domestic miners, says Jim Burnell, of the Colorado Geological Survey.

Burnell recently spoke in Ouray, a one-time mining town on the edge of the rich mining districts of the San Juan Mountains. His speech was reported by the Ouray Watch.

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New company steps up to attempt mining near Crested Butte

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Brief by Allen Best

Mining – November 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Another mining company has stepped up to the plate, this time paying at least $500,000 to take a swing at that gigantic molybdenum deposit within the bowels of Mt. Emmons, the mountain literally in Crested Butte’s backyard.

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Despite faltering economy, Climax still set to re-open

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – November 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Climax Molybdenum Mine north of Leadville is still on schedule to resume production in 2010 as the $500 million renovation continues.

At least, that was the situation when we went to press. Climax is a subsidiary of Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold, and on Oct. 14, the parent company’s CEO told Bloomsberg News Service that the company might defer some projects to conserve cash while metal prices dropped, which had people wondering whether Climax was one of those projects. But on Oct. 15, a company spokesman said the Climax project will proceed on schedule, and “in terms of our near-term plans, we are fully proceeding with Climax.”

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Uranium proposal has South Park residents worried

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – July 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

In theory, “in situ leach mining” is a relatively benign way to retrieve minerals from the earth. In practice, though, the proposal has the neighbors in South Park worried.

At issue is an area northeast of Hartsel, where Horizon Nevada Uranium has been staking uranium claims that would be mined by an “in situ” (Latin for “on site” or “in place” ) method. Dozens of holes would be drilled over the mineral deposit; some would be “injection wells” and others “recovery wells.”

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Mine proposal back on simmer at Crested Butte

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Brief by Allen Best

Mining – May 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

It was two steps forward, then two steps back for a potential molybdenum mine at Crested Butte. Kobex Resources Ltd. of Vancouver, B.C, has withdrawn its plans to develop an ore body in the community’s backyard.

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The clog near the top of the Arkansas

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – March 2008 – Colorado Central Magazine

Does a major environmental disaster loom for the Arkansas River above Pueblo? There was sure a lot of talk about it as we went to press.

The fear is that high water, thanks to a heavy snowpack, will force its way past an obstruction in the Leadville Mine Drainage Tunnel, surge past the treatment plant, and roar down the Arkansas River, carrying a heavy load of minerals and other pollutants that kill aquatic life, from tiny bugs to brown trout.

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Last Chance Mine’s access disputed by neighbors

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – September 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Last Chance Mine near Creede, featured in the July edition of Colorado Central, has run into some trouble with its neighbors.

The mine, owned by Jack and Kim Morris, allows visitors to collect specimens from the dump rock — some of it gorgeous “sowbelly agate” from the fabled Amethyst Vein. People pay for specimens, but are not charged to use a guest house, although donations are welcome.

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Driving the Bachelor Historic Tour

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Sidebar by Steve Voynick

Mining – July 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Last Chance Mine is only one of many sights along the Bachelor Historic Tour. When measured in terms of mining history, mountain scenery, and photographic opportunities, this 17-mile-long auto route through Creede’s mining district just might be the best in the West.

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Another chance for the Last Chance Mine

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Article by Steve Voynick

Mining – July 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

TEN YEARS AGO, time was rapidly running out on the Last Chance Mine. Its glory days as one of Creede’s richest silver mines were long past, and decades of inactivity had left its rutted access road nearly impassable. Perched precariously on a canyon wall high above West Willow Creek, the mine itself was little more than some collapsed portals, a sagging ore bin, a few decrepit cabins, and piles of rock strewn with bleached timbers and rusted cables.

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Restarting Climax: The who, when, and why

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Article by Steve Voynick

Mining – June 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

ALTHOUGH I HAD heard rumors of dancing in the streets, I didn’t see it myself, at least not on Harrison Avenue. But judging from the banner headlines in the Herald Democrat and the joyful comments of Lake County’s commissioners, Leadville’s mayor, and dozens of local merchants and residents, salvation is nearly at hand. And in Leadville, salvation means only one thing: the reopening of the Climax Mine.

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Miners consider comebacks in the San Juan Mountains

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Brief by Allen Best

Mining – June 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

The startling prosperity of China and India continues to reverberate in mountain towns and valleys of the West. Those surging economies of Asia have caused heightened demand for all manner of minerals, which in turn is producing some attention to the potential of renewed mining.

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Climax plans to resume production

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – May 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

After a year of study and speculation, Phelps-Dodge announced in early April that it plans to re-open the Climax Molybdenum Mine in 2009. The mine sits atop 11,318-foot Frémont Pass about a dozen miles northeast of Leadville.

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Phelps-Dodge sells Mt. Emmons, no word on Climax

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining -March 2006 -Colorado Central Magazine

Phelps-Dodge, the company that owns the mothballed Climax Molybdenum Mine a dozen miles north of Leadville, still hasn’t announced the results of a consultant’s study it commissioned in 2005 to determine whether to re-open the mine.

The price for molybdenum, a metallic element used as a lubricant and to harden steel, remains high –about $25 a pound at press time, a little under what it was a year ago. But no one knows how long that will last, and the company doesn’t want to spend millions to get the mine running again, only to close it quickly because the moly price has dropped below production costs.

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Moly price stays up, but no word on Climax

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – January 2006 – Colorado Central Magazine

Metal prices are high, which means we will likely hear more talk of mining hereabouts. Much of the talk will focus on molybdenum and the mothballed Climax Mine a dozen miles north of Leadville, which in 1980 employed more than 3,000 people.

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Cotter closing uranium mill and mines

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – December 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

The Cotter Corp., which runs a uranium mill in Cañon City, had been expanding production to meet increased demand for uranium, which is fetching higher prices these days — from $7.50 a pound in 2001 to $33.25 in late October. However, the price may not be high enough for the company to make money.

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Bankruptcy: The end of the line for ASARCO?

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Article by Steve Voynick

Mining – September 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

ASARCO LLC, formerly ASARCO Inc., a company that most old-timers still call the American Smelting & Refining Company, or simply “AS&R,” has been part of Leadville for more than a century. AS&R quickly grew beyond its Leadville roots, first becoming the keystone of the Guggenheim family fortune, then a multinational, billion-dollar conglomerate of metal mines, mills, smelters, refineries, and related businesses.

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Crested Butte doesn’t sound worried

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Sidebar by Allen Best

Mining – July 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

It’s another example of a butterfly flapping its wings in Beijing affecting the weather in the Rocky Mountains. This year, those Beijing butterflies – often used as a metaphor to describe causality – are part of the reason why two old Colorado towns, Leadville and Crested Butte, could become mining towns once more.

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$30 Moly and the future of Climax

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Article by Steve Voynick

Mining – July 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

EVERY TEN YEARS OR SO, the Climax Mine seems poised to rise from its ashes, hiring hundreds of miners, bringing the good times back to Leadville, and reclaiming some measure of its former glory as a major source of molybdenum. After circulating quietly for a year, new rumors went public on May 26 with a front-page article in Leadville’s Herald Democrat headlined: Is Climax Making a Comeback?

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Military will try to jump-start oil shale

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – April 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

When the price of crude oil rises, especially when there’s turmoil in the Middle East, there comes talk of developing the immense oil-shale reserves of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. How vast? Try two trillion barrels, or 60% of the world’s known supply.

Often there’s a little action – like a pilot project – to go with the talk, but in general, if crude is selling for $10 a barrel, then we hear that oil shale won’t pay until the price goes up to $25. And if crude is $40, then shale won’t pay until $50 … you get the idea.

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Gold mining returns to Lake City

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – April 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

Last year, we reported on the closing of the Sweet Home Mine near Alma. It started as a silver mine in 1873, and was resurrected in recent times to produce rhodochrosite, a red gemstone that was declared Colorado’s official state mineral in 2003.

The mine closed on Oct. 18, 2004 because the declining number of crystals being found did not bring enough income to cover the expense of mining. Reclamation work will soon be underway at the site.

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Uranium is making a comeback

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – January 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine

Cañon City residents won a battle in December when the state government refused a request from the Cotter Corp., which operates a uranium mill on the south side of town.

Cotter had wanted to process 400,000 cubic yards of radioactive soil from a New Jersey Superfund site. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment denied the application, but renewed the company’s operating license, so that it will still be able to process uranium and vanadium ores.

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Sweet Home rhodochrosite mine ends production

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – December 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

One of Colorado’s few remaining hard-rock mines has closed its portal and gone out of production. The Sweet Home, which sat above Alma, started as a silver mine in 1873, but is best known for its production of rhodochrosite, a red gemstone.

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Climax: Two decades later

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Article by Steve Voynick

Mining – July 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

ON FEBRUARY 16, 2004, it seemed that the off-and-on-again rumors of the past 20 years had finally come true. The headline of a front-page, above-the-fold article in The Denver Post announced “Leadville Taps Vein of Hope.” An accompanying color photo showed a cluster of earth-colored mill buildings set against snow-covered, open-pit benches on the side of Ceresco Ridge — a signature image of the Climax Mine. More than a few folks probably glanced at that headline and thought of skipping work at Copper Mountain or Vail to rush up to the mine on Monday morning to fill out employment applications.

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Investors get nervous, so gold price rises

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – May 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine

Some investors are apparently pessimistic about the American economy, because they’ve been putting their money into gold — either by buying the metal itself, or by investing in companies that mine gold.

Such demand, according to the Reuters news service, explains why gold prices were near a 15-year high as we went to press — about $425 an ounce.

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Putting a ghost town to work

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Brief by Central Staff

Mining – September 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine

Some mining camps get preserved, but most just fade away, or turn into a collection of cabins.

But in New Mexico, they’ve come up with a new use for a mining company town — a training ground for the new U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

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A rational discussion

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Letter from Charlie Spielman

Mining – August 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed,

Many thanks for your learned, objective, and fair defense of the potential mica mine on Poncha Pass, as well as of mining in general. The mining industry also owes you its sincere appreciation for a rational discussion of the pros and cons regarding a neighboring mining operation.

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Property owners should learn about mineral rights

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Letter from Dave Delling

Mining – July 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Dear Ed:

I enjoyed your May issue very much but especially the two articles on the proposed mica mine on Poncha Pass. Your article presented a realistic and balanced appraisal of what might be expected if this early stage exploration project ever developed into anything. That’s unlikely since most mineral exploration projects never get beyond that stage based on technical issues alone. You put it all in perspective.

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Using the products of mining to protest against mining

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Letter from Ed Rogers

Mining – June 2002 – Colorado Central Magazine

Hi Ed,

Enjoyed your article on the Mica mine [May edition] very much. Being a geologist and in minerals exploration for twenty years it hit a home run with me. Nothing galls me more then folks who drive a low gas mileage SUV, wearing gold watches and bracelets, silver buttons, sitting encased in a metal vehicle going to protest a mine. The protesters were probably alerted to the meeting via the internet looking at a computer which is loaded with metal which was mined and which gets power from a coal burning power plant. Gads let’s insure that this lifestyle is preserved, but not in their backyard!

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