By Donna Wichelman
(Note: For those who have enjoyed the WWII series I began in November 2023, I will return to the series after my Gilded Age historical romance is released in December 2024 by Scrivenings Press. In the meantime, I hope you will enjoy the blog series on the Territory of Colorado.)
Looking back on the beginnings of the United States of
America, one might say we've always been a nation of immigrants. Before the
fifteenth – sixteenth centuries, when the Spanish and French arrived on North
American soil and established settlements, indigenous populations roamed
the land for millennia. But once word spread about the vast land of North America
with its abundant resources, more and more English and Europeans arrived
seeking personal prosperity, escaping oppressive governments, and desiring
religious freedoms.
The same values that brought men and women to a new
continent drove the Revolutionary War toward the end of the eighteenth century, because men like George Washington and
Thomas Jefferson perceived the loss of those principles at the hand of King George III of Great Britain, which had birthed the first thirteen United Colonies. Jefferson wrote a Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1776, collected fifty-six signatures, and proclaimed those values—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—to be self-evident, and
a new nation was born.
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Over the following century, immigrants filled with hopes and
dreams of a new and better life streamed to the United States of America, where
it was rumored the streets were paved with gold. Each new boat that arrived contained people in pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
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| Castle Gardens, Battery Park, New York: First Official American Immigration Station Opened March 1855 19th Century Illustration1357311458.jpg Dreamstime.com |
Castle Clinton Museum, aka Castle Gardens, New York
Dreamstime_l_198086920.jpg
But while the entire eastern seaboard
belonged to the United States, territories across the continent, like Colorado
and Louisiana, still belonged to the Spanish and French. It wasn’t until 1846,
when the United States went to war with Mexico, that a treaty was finally
reached in 1848, giving the Territory of Colorado to the United States.
Most Easterners still avoided the Rocky Mountains, deterred by the rough terrain. Trappers and others who were brave enough to move west took advantage of the system of trade set up by the Spanish with the Native American tribes of Utes, Arapahos, and Cheyenne and established trading posts, allowing for easier travel west.
But then a different report regarding gold arose, only this time it was of the shiny metal kind found along the rivers and streams on the plains and in the mountains.
In 1850, a party of Georgians, heading west during the California gold rush, found a meager supply of gold on Ralston Creek near present-day Golden, Colorado. But it wasn't until 1858, when William Green Russell organized an expedition and camped along the confluence of the Cherry Creek and South Platte Rivers (now the heart of downtown Denver), that they found profitable deposits. Russell's men established a small settlement named Auraria that later became Denver.
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One troy ounce California placer gold nugget - Natural gold specimen |
George Jackson, a member of Russell's party, reasoned that gold on the plains flowed down from the mountains. He
ventured into the Clear Creek gorge where the valley opened up at Floyd
Hill. Following the path to present-day Idaho Springs, he discovered his first gold on January 7, 1859. Rumor spread, and prospectors flocked to the
mountains, where they found significant amounts of placer gold along
rivers and creeks.
Gold discoveries also sparked fierce competition for
claims and available resources, and prospectors moved west.
Two brothers in Russell’s party,
George and David Griffith, deterred by the competition, moved up
the valley to the confluence of the Main and South Clear Creeks. Having learned by experience in California to look for hard rock veins called lodes on the
sides of the valley, they were not disappointed. And though they also found a
silver vein, they initially ignored it for the gold.
More prospectors descended on the area,
establishing camps that evolved into settlements. The one near the West and
Main Forks of Clear Creek became known as George’s Town.
The gold bubble burst in 1864, when the constant need for more
investment capital never paid off. Investors, including George Griffith, pulled out.
But in the fall of 1864, three
prospectors—Robert Steele, James Huff, and Robert Taylor—discovered an
extremely rich silver lode eight miles south of
Georgetown on Mount McClellan at 13,200 feet. They headed to Central City to assay their samples, discovering a value of two to five
hundred dollars per ton. The silver boom was on.
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Silver nuggets isolated on black background close-up |
By the summer of 1865, Eastern prospectors flocked to the region, and by September 1866, Clear Creek County
was declared “indisputably” rich in ores by Central City’s Weekly Miners’
Register. Georgetown flourished. The town built a post office, and William
Barton—a Bostonian—started construction on a two-story hotel. New clapboard buildings housing banks and business enterprises sprung up in a growing business
district.
Remains of an Old Mine Near Silver Plume, Colorado: Donna's Gallery 2019
The thriving community also needed
the infrastructure required, and soon, eastern missionaries created
churches, lawyers established law offices, and Georgetown’s first newspaper,
the Colorado Miner, ran its first edition in May 1867. On January 28,
1868, the Territory of Colorado legislature declared Georgetown an official
town.
Easterners weren’t the only ones investing in the mines. Attempting to raise capital to build smelting
plants, mine owners pursued investment from abroad. Robert Orchard Old—a native
Englishman who had moved to America—was one man who banked on the silver
industry. In 1868, he formed a joint-stock company—the British and Colorado
Mining Bureau—with its main offices in London and branches in Colorado. The
company shipped ores to England for smelting with the plan to open smelting works in Colorado. His bureau
remained prosperous until 1873.
According
to historian Christine Bradley in The Rise of the Silver Queen, “The
town’s early rustic appearance [in 1872] gave way to fine homes, level
sidewalks, a few trees, and elegant fences … The streets of Georgetown were
packed with new arrivals from every point of the globe …” including Cornish,
Welsh, and German miners, Italian retailers, Irish workmen, and the Frenchman
Louis DePuy, who turned a small bakery into the elegant and now historic Hotel
de Paris. It was also a town where formerly enslaved people could earn a living
and invest in mines. All these elements coincided to create international flare
and intrigue as people descended upon Georgetown to make their mark in the
mining community.”
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| Modern View of Hotel De Paris, Georgetown: Donna's Gallery, December 2019 |
In September's blog, we’ll look at how
one immigrant group made its mark on the mining industry of Colorado.
Donna received her master's degree in mass communication, journalism from San Jose State University and became a communications professional before writing full-time. Her short stories and articles have appeared in inspirational publications. She has two indie-published romantic suspense novels, Light Out of Darkness and Undaunted Valor, in her Waldensian Series. Her Gilded Age historical romance, A Song of Deliverance, will be released by Scrivenings Press in December 2024.
Donna and her husband of forty years participate in ministry at their local church in Colorado. The love spending time with their grandchildren and bike, kayak, and travel whenever possible.
Thank you, Connie!
ReplyDeleteI guess much of the west was settled because of gold and silver!
ReplyDeletePatty, Indeed, true! Thanks for reading!
ReplyDelete