The Placers In Between

In the late 1800’s, travel up the Arkansas River from Canon City to Leadville was an arduous route many endured as gold and silver fever drew people into the Upper Arkansas Valley. Leadville was the largest and most notorious mining camp, but small communities also sprang up along the Arkansas River and its tributaries, where thousands of mine claims produced silver, gold, and other ores. Historic Vicksburg and Winfield reflected mining’s boom days, while Granite stood at the center of a rich mining district and served as the supply point for the Clear Creek district to the west. By 1891, Granite’s population had reached 400 and was still growing, and two stamp mills there ran at full capacity processing local gold ore. In the spring of 1860, prospector Abe Lee sparked a rush to California Gulch when he exclaimed that he had all of California in his pan. Though that local gold rush lasted only 6 years, it was followed in 1877 by one of the richest and most famous silver districts in the world. Leadville alone produced $700 million in silver. The railroad arrived in 1880, and by 1882 Leadville had reached its peak, with an estimated population of more than 50,000, including outlaws and millionaires. Silver baron Horace Tabor made his fortune there, Elizabeth “Baby Doe” Tabor’s tragic story unfolded on Leadville’s streets, and figures such as Doc Holliday, Susan B. Anthony, Frank and Jessie James, Oscar Wilde, Buffalo Bill, and Texas Jack Omahundro spent time in the area during the 1880’s. Placer mining is the mining of alluvial deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient streambeds for minerals, including precious metals and gemstones carried by stream flow from their original source, and it is done through open-pit mining or by various methods of tunneling into riverbeds.

Colorado · United States