The Trail of Gold and Silver: Mining in Colorado, 1859-2009

9: “The Everlasting Love of the Game”

151 Mabel Barbee Lee, in trying to portray the allure of mining for her readers, recalled a meeting she had had with an old-time Cripple Creek prospector during a 1951 visit to the then ghost-like town. No longer the exciting, booming “metropolis” of her youth, Cripple Creek languished in yesterday: The shine of hope and faith in the old fellow’s eyes followed me long after he had disappeared from sight, and it came to me, as it had once long ago, that it wasn’t the gold he wanted. It would likely slip through his fingers in no time, or be given away for the asking. It was the enticing hunt that led him on, the elusive chase, the everlasting love of the game. The “enticing hunt,” the “elusive chase,” the “everlasting love,” or, as David Lavender described it in his novel, Red Mountain, “the frame of mind of the people”1 —all these things spurred the miners on as they rushed, claimed, developed, and then moved again to chase a new dream. “The Everlasting Love of the Game” 9 “The Everlasting Love of the Game” 152 It had started with the Pike’s Peak rush of 1859, which even in the 1890s seemed a long time ago. By 1890, a generation had passed and the early days had become the stuff of history and romanticized stories. Industrial mining had replaced the legendary prospector and his burro, and workaday reality had supplanted the strike-it-rich dreams of yesteryear. Except for Aspen, there had been little to cheer about recently. Colorado mining seemed to have reached old age as the century neared its end. Mining would continue, but it lacked the glamor, the excitement, and the individual rags-to-riches stories of wealth that spawned early Colorado mining history legends And yet, in that last decade of the nineteenth century, a faith—a fond hope—still tantalizingly beckoned: that maybe, somewhere over the next mountain, the “mother lode” still lay hidden waiting for some lucky prospector. The 1890s, the “Gay Nineties” of folklore and legend, were anything but gay in Colorado mining. There were a few exciting days, but there were far more depressing ones. Before the decade ended, the “jack ass” prospector’s dream of stumbling into his own private bonanza would be gone, and the day miner’s hope of owning his own mine would fade away. In their place would be the “modern” industrial world of absentee owners, professional management , stockholder demands, and labor/management confrontations. Silver did produce one more excitement early in 1891, when Creede roared into the spotlight and reached the $1 million production level within a year. “It was day all day in the daytime, and there is no night in Creede,” sang local newspaperman-poet Cy Warman. Like its fellow strike areas, Creede, in its own mind, was the best-ever mining district. Look out, world, shouted the Creede Candle (January 14, 1892): “Certain it is, no other camp yet opened in Colorado could show six as rich producing mines as those opened within eight months from the time the first real intelligent prospecting was done.” Overpromoted as a second Leadville and overly exploited, Creede shone briefly, but fate dealt it a bad hand. It was silver’s last hurrah. Except for the continuing decline in the price of silver, the early years of the decade were good to the state’s mining industry. With silver production at about the $20 million level and gold moving up from $4 million to $5 million annually, Colorado mining had never produced so much. To maintain that level of silver production, however, more ore had to be mined every year, taking from the future to pay for the present. Part of the euphoria resulted from the passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890. After more than a decade of wrangling, the silverites finally caught a break. Eastern Republicans were terrified by the possibility of inflation, which they were convinced “free silver” would bring about, but “The Everlasting Love of the Game” 153 they needed western votes to pass a high protectionist tariff. Westerners were not strongly in favor of the idea, but were willing to go along if a bargain could be struck. The resulting vote-trading led to passage of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, balanced by the higher McKinley tariff. After enactment of the former, the...