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

Epilogue: A Tale Well Told

257 David Lavender, in his One Man’s West, tells the tale of a heaven-bound prospector /miner stopped at the pearly gates by St. Peter. Inquiring why, the miner receives this startling answer: “You can’t come in. I passed a bunch of miners last month, and now they’re assaying their harps, digging up the golden streets and stoping out the Elysian fields. It’s driving the rest of the angels frantic.” “I’ll make a bargain with ye, Pete,” the prospector said. “If ye’ll let me in I’ll get rid of every mother’s son of them hard-rock stiffs.” The two struck a bargain, the gates opened, and in went the prospector . He quickly started a rumor . . . that there was a big gold strike in the vortex of hell. In an instant the entire mining population cast aside their crowns and disappeared over the rim. As the last one passed from sight, the old prospector suddenly grabbed up a pick and set out in pursuit. Amazed, St. Peter watched him start off. “So long, Pete!” he called over his shoulder. “I’m going too!” Epilogue: A Tale Well Told Epilogue: A Tale Well Told 258 This classic yarn, nearly as old as Colorado mining and extant in several variations , neatly captures the allure—the “fever”—of mining. How else may what transpired, in the years between 1859 and 2009, be comprehended, appreciated, and perhaps even logically explained? Why would men and women endure the uncertain life they did, starting with the Pike’s Peak rush, were it not for the lethal attractions of silver and gold? This has been their story, an industry’s saga, and Colorado’s legacy. Over a century and a half, the mining industry’s contribution to the state, and to generations of Coloradans, has been virtually infinite. Starting with 1859, those include lure, settlement, territorial status, statehood, publicity, development, investment, diversification of the economy, employment both within and outside the industry, transportation, tourism, advances in mining and smelting technology, and urbanization, to name just a few of the obvious influences and consequences. One cannot measure the impact on the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people who lived, worked, invested in, and visited Colorado mines and mining communities, or the influence of mining’s legacy on the tourists who still visit this fabled land. The stories and personalities of the participants colored much of Colorado’s history for its first half-century. The overwhelming majority of its political, business, and social movers and shakers had ties to mining, and their influence lasted well past the turn of the twentieth century. Though they were well known, equally important to the story are the vast multitudes of people who passed through camps, towns, and mining occupations but left little trace of their having come and gone. They were the heart and soul of an industry and their generation. The poet Thomas Hornsby Ferril captured their lives in his poem “Magenta.” The poem’s narrator, looking over a declining Central City, told of its lost glory and the women and men who resided there: The town was high and lonely in the mountains; There was nothing to listen to but the wasting of The glaciers and a wind that had no trees. And many houses were gone, only masonry Of stone foundations tilting over the canyon, Like hanging gardens where successful rhubarb Had crossed the kitchen sill and entered the parlor. . . . The men would measure in cords the gold they hoped To find, but the women reckoned by calendars Epilogue: A Tale Well Told 259 Of double chins and crow’s feet at the corners Of their eyes. Their story tells the real saga of Colorado mining during its glory years. What magnificent years those were, even if one counts only the ore mined out of the river bottoms and mountain depths. The industry was the major economic pillar of the state until World War I. In the decades from 1859 through 1922, gold and silver mining produced more than $1,163,829,926. In the years that followed, production never equaled that level. In the past decade, though, thanks to increasing world prices and Cripple Creek’s continuing production of more than 200,000 ounces per year, production—in dollars’ worth, at least—rivals that of earlier years. What this meant in 2009, with the average spot price...