The saga of early southwestern Colorado mining is a compelling tale of audacious prospectors, challenging landscapes, and the relentless pursuit of mineral wealth. Following the Mexican-American War in 1848, few Americans truly grasped the immense mineral potential awaiting discovery in their newly acquired territories, especially within the rugged, severe, and Ute Indian-occupied expanses of southwestern Colorado. Yet, this challenging region rapidly transformed into a vibrant mineral resource frontier, inviting intense exploitation from the beginning of the Territorial Period in 1861.
The history of early southwestern Colorado mining, particularly up to the Ute removal in 1881, can be distinctly categorized into three pivotal stages. Initially, the early 1860s saw gold placer mining flourish near Baker’s Park and within the Tin Cup mining district. This was followed by an era of significant silver mining along the Animas River near Silverton and in the Elk Mountain region of modern Gunnison County during the early 1870s. The period culminated in the late 1870s and early 1880s with the widespread development of hard-rock mining across the San Juan country and the growth of districts like Gold Brick near Pitkin in Gunnison County.
The Initial Gold Rushes and San Juan Exploration (1858-1861)
The first significant Colorado Gold Rush ignited in 1858 and 1859, spurred by William Green Russell’s party discovering gold “colors” along Cherry Creek, Ralston Creek, and Newlin Gulch near present-day Denver. The following year, 1859, marked the construction of the first “arrastra,” a Spanish ore-crushing device, at the Gregory Diggings near Blackhawk. Concurrently, placer gold operations commenced at Buckskin, Mosquito, Hamilton, Tarryall, Montgomery, and Fairplay, all situated on branches of the South Fork of the South Platte River. A second, even larger rush into the central Rockies occurred in 1860, with most prospectors flocking to the Gregory diggings near Central City. The overcrowding there prompted a widespread dispersion of miners in every direction.
In the spring of 1860, persistent rumors of mineral wealth drew a prospecting party, outfitted in California Gulch and led by Charles Baker, into the rugged San Juan Mountains. Reports of rich finds soon echoed back to more established camps, drawing hundreds of eager treasure seekers to Baker’s Park in the upper Animas River Valley. By April 1861, prospectors fanned out from Baker’s Park, initiating digs nine miles north in Eureka Gulch. However, Baker’s initial reports proved somewhat misleading, as placer operations yielded unsatisfactory returns. The camp at Baker’s Park eventually broke up in May 1861, leading many prospectors southward to the fertile Animas River Valley, where Animas City was established. Nevertheless, most early prospectors ultimately abandoned their efforts, and the outbreak of the Civil War drew many, including Baker, into military service for the Confederacy. Despite the initial lack of substantial discoveries, this expedition confirmed that southwestern Colorado’s mineral resources were concentrated in a broad belt, stretching diagonally from the San Juan country to the Elk Mountains along the Continental Divide.
Gunnison County Discoveries and Ute Challenges
The Tin Cup District in Gunnison County also witnessed early gold discoveries, first by Jim Taylor in 1860. The following year, Fred Lottis led parties across the Continental Divide from Granite, Colorado, to work placer gold fields in the region. Evidence of this early activity, such as rotted flumes, was later found near present-day Waunita Hot Springs in the 1870s. Minersville, the first true mining camp in Gunnison country located in Washington Gulch north of modern Crested Butte, housed approximately 200 people in 1861. By 1862, nearly 1,000 prospectors had swarmed the area, extracting close to a million dollars in gold through placer mining. However, by 1863, the placers were depleted, and increasing hostility from the Ute Indians led to the desertion of most camps. Large-scale mining would not resume until 1872, with the discovery of silver-bearing rock in the Elk Mountains.
Renewed Exploration and Treaty Changes (Late 1860s-Mid 1870s)
The mid-1860s saw a lull in mineral exploration in southwestern Colorado due to dwindling placer gold deposits and the absence of permanent settlements. Yet, the memory of earlier mining served as a constant reminder of the region’s untapped potential. Although Baker’s Park and the San Juans fell well within the Ute Reservation established in 1868, prospecting efforts resumed in 1869. This time, prospectors like Adnah French and Dempsey Reese arrived from Arizona, exploring along the Dolores River. By 1870, they reached the Animas River, moving into Baker’s Park and initiating digs near Silverton. Concurrently, Sheldon Shafer and Joe Flarhieler, en route to Montana from Santa Fe via the Dolores River, located what would become part of the Shamrock, Smuggler, and Riverside lodes, which they collectively named The Pioneer.
The years 1870 and 1871 brought two significant discoveries that further fueled mining excitement in the San Juan region. The location of the Little Giant Mine in 1870, north of Arrastra Gulch near modern Silverton, and the 1871 discovery of rich silver veins along Henson Creek, forming the Ute and Ulay lodes west of present-day Lake City, drew numerous prospecting parties into the area.
During the early 1870s, many expeditions explored the Elk Mountains, between present-day Crested Butte and the mouth of Rock Creek. Parties led by Benjamin Graham and George and Lewis Waite prospected in and around the Schofield Pass and Crested Butte areas, uncovering substantial silver deposits. Jim Brennan, a Denver miner, also led a group into the rugged Elk range in 1872, discovering purportedly enormous fissure veins. The widespread rumors of large ore bodies spurred by these expeditions led to the first scientific mineral exploration of the Gunnison country. In 1873, Doctor John Parsons began exploring the area’s mineral and agricultural resources, aiming to establish an ore reduction plant on Rock Creek. Accompanying him was geologist Sylvester Richardson, who discovered silver along Spring Creek, east of modern Crested Butte, and extensive coal deposits west of the future town, along Ohio Creek. Based on these findings, Richardson planned a settlement with easy access to these discoveries, a plan that culminated in the eventual establishment of Gunnison City.
Mining in southwestern Colorado during the early 1870s remained largely exploratory, much like the 1860s. The crucial difference, however, was the dawning realization that the region’s true mineral wealth lay not in gold placer deposits along streams, but deep within the mountainous terrain in rich veins. Despite the promising discoveries and the establishment of numerous mining camps, several years passed before prospectors dared to winter in the region or consistently face the ever-present threat of Indian attacks. Through the early 1870s, miners routinely retreated east across the Continental Divide from the San Juans each fall, wintering in places like Del Norte or Saguache, Colorado, only to return in the spring to their claims. However, such limited and seasonal operations were deemed unacceptable by most miners, highlighting the pressing need for improved transportation routes, advanced mining equipment, and permanent settlements.
The Brunot Treaty and the Alfred Packer Saga (1873-1875)
The immense mineral resources of the San Juan region garnered widespread attention across the Colorado Territory after initial gold and silver veins were located from 1869 to 1871. However, this beckoning wealth knew no boundaries, and the Ute Reservation on the western slope became the scene of continuous trespass during this period. The ever-increasing tide of prospectors flooding the area proved impossible to contain. By 1873, Coloradans aggressively pressed for a revision of the 1868 Ute Indian Treaty, which legally prohibited entry into the southwestern Colorado mining frontier. The subsequent Brunot Treaty, enacted in 1873, opened four million acres in the heart of the San Juans to eager treasure seekers and settlers. Over the next two decades, these ceded lands became the stage for a succession of mining rushes. Ironically, immediately following the opening of the San Juans, the Indian Agency at Los Pinos Creek in Cochetopa Park served as a crucial way station for many migrating prospectors. From this agency emerged a story of one such prospecting party that continues to captivate and horrify.
In January 1874, a party of 21 men, en route to the central Rocky Mountain gold fields from Utah, paused near present-day Montrose at the encampment of Chief Ouray. Despite Ouray’s dire warnings of impending severe winter weather, six men—Israel Swan, Frank Miller, George Noon, James Humphrey, and their guide, Alfred Packer—chose to leave the camp and press eastward. On April 16, 1874, Packer arrived alone at the Los Pinos Agency, claiming he had been abandoned by the others. Packer recounted a harrowing tale of hardship, suffering, and near starvation. Yet, he appeared remarkably healthy and well-fed for a man who had endured such an ordeal. His suspicious request for liquor as his first meal, rather than food, immediately raised eyebrows among the agency dwellers. Packer’s conduct at the agency consistently invited suspicion, eventually leading Agent Charles Adams to accuse him of killing and robbing the five prospectors. Under pressure, Packer confessed to the murders. In June 1874, near present-day Lake City, Harper’s Weekly photographer J. A. Randolph stumbled upon the grisly discovery of the five slain men’s bodies. A nearby shanty and Packer’s well-worn trail leading from it to the bodies chillingly revealed that he had frequently visited his victims, subsisting on their flesh. Today, a monument and plaque commemorate the five “who were murdered early in the year 1874 while pioneering the mineral resources of the San Juan country.” Packer, however, never fully paid for his gruesome deeds; after his death sentence was reversed and a forty-year sentence commuted, he died in Littleton, Colorado, on April 23, 1907, allegedly a confirmed vegetarian.
Publicity, Scientific Surveys, and Intensified Rushes
During the mid-1870s, many Coloradans grew concerned about the declining population in the central Rockies and along the Front Range, prompting a vigorous advertising campaign for the Territory. In an atmosphere of fervent “boosterism,” figures like Ovando Hollister, in his Mines of Colorado, publicly championed the belief that a new era was dawning for Colorado, and that it was virtually impossible to exaggerate the mineral resources, especially in the southwestern portion of the territory. The numerous accounts of rich soil and mineral wealth in the Rocky Mountains ignited a public demand for scientific surveys to substantiate these rumors of riches. Unlike earlier expeditions by Gunnison and Fremont, which often focused on the mountains as barriers to progress, these new exploration parties were directed to extol the virtues of the Rockies.
In response to public demand, Congress dispatched a new cohort of experts between 1867 and 1878, operating under the direction of the Army and the Department of the Interior. To enhance the productivity of the ongoing search in Colorado’s mountains, there was a critical need for more detailed topographic knowledge. To address this, Ferdinand V. Hayden and William H. Jackson, under the Department of the Interior, meticulously examined the geologic formations, flora, fauna, topography, and scenery of much of southwestern Colorado from 1874 to 1875. The information published in their seminal Geological and Geographical Atlas of Colorado and Portions of Adjacent Territory was instantaneously seized upon by railroad builders, mining investors, and land developers, providing crucial data for future expansion.
By 1875, the combined effects of the Brunot Treaty, comprehensive government surveys, and aggressive booster-style advertising of southwestern Colorado were undeniably evident, manifesting in numerous intensified mining rushes to the San Juan area. This period truly marked a turning point, transforming a once formidable wilderness into a bustling frontier of opportunity and profound change.
Conclusion: A Legacy Forged in Gold and Silver
The period of early southwestern Colorado mining represents a monumental chapter in American history, transforming a remote and formidable wilderness into a beacon of opportunity. From the first speculative gold finds to the systematic extraction of rich silver veins, the region’s mineral wealth drew countless individuals seeking fortune and a new life. The challenges were immense: the harsh climate, the rugged topography, and the inevitable conflicts with the indigenous Ute people who originally called this land home. Yet, the relentless drive of prospectors, coupled with critical geopolitical shifts like the Mexican-American War and the Brunot Treaty, paved the way for unprecedented development.
The era was defined by a progression from simple placer mining to advanced hard-rock techniques, driven by scientific exploration and the sheer determination to overcome obstacles. From the tragic tale of Alfred Packer to the ambitious surveys of Hayden and Jackson, the human stories behind the quest for riches are as varied and complex as the veins of ore themselves. The legacy of early southwestern Colorado mining is etched into the landscape, visible in the ghost towns, abandoned mines, and the enduring spirit of communities that rose from the dust of gold and silver rushes, forever shaping the identity of this unique part of the American West. This pioneering period laid the foundation for Colorado’s rich mining heritage and its economic future.
