PIKES PEAK GOLD RUSH, ORIGINAL WOODCUT FROM THE AUTHOR’S COLLECTION[/caption]

Many a man lost his fortune during the financial panic of 1857 and the event helped to fuel the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Before the end of 1858 several parties from Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska made the long trip across the plains. Most of them wintered in the neighborhood of modern Denver, but some of them went to the mouth of the Fountain River where Pueblo now stands, and others to the future site of Boulder.

In September 1858, a prospecting group from Lawrence, Kansas, platted out a town site on the east side of the Platte River they called St. Charles. On November 4, 1858, the town site of Auraria was laid out on the west side of the Platte River at the mouth of Cherry Creek. It was named after the town in Georgia where the Russell brothers and most of the original prospecting group had come from. When most of the group from Lawrence returned to Kansas for the winter, St. Charles was sold to the Denver Town Company. It was named after Governor Denver of Kansas.

By December of 1858, about 1,000 men had traveled to Auraria. As soon as they could, these prospectors would follow the placer gold in the river gravels up many of the streams emerging from the Snowy Range looking for the source lode of the first placer gold discoveries in the territory made by W. Green Russell and his brother the previous summer near Auraria.

Placer gold is the gold dust and nuggets that are found in river gravels. The source of placer gold deposits is the rusty disintegrated residue of gold-bearing quartz veins that the miners called “blossom rock” that was the surface expression of the “Mother Lode” that lies at depth. The first placer gold discoveries in the foothills of the Snowy Range were made during the winter of 1858 by hearty prospectors who could not wait for the spring thaw. They braved the winter storms to prospect far up into the uncharted terrain of western Boulder and Gilpin Counties.

At the end of January 1859, B. F. Langley discovered placer gold where a timber-filled creek (Lump Gulch) met South Boulder Creek (just east of present-day Rollinsville). He named the placer workings the “Deadwood Diggings.” By the end of March in 1859 he had recovered considerable gold from the gravels.

Native Americans showed George Jackson the hot springs near present day Idaho Springs in November of 1858, and later in January of 1859 he discovered placer gold in a branch of South Clear Creek that he named Chicago Creek. These placer workings were called the “Jackson Diggings” and in April he founded the town of Idaho Springs.

The first mention of gold in Boulder County was on January 7, 1859, when an Arapahoe Native American by the name of Cut Nose, showed about $50 (2.5 ounces) of shot gold to mountain man Jack Jones, aka William McGaa. Cut Nose claimed to have found the gold in “a crevasse in the mountain” while he was hunting for elk and mountain sheep. He later told the Missouri Republican on February 23, 1859, that the gold was, “a pretty fair specimen, from the size of a pea to a large buck shot.” Even though Cut Nose was never able to locate the crevasse again, there is a pretty good chance that this gold came from Boulder County.

Captain Thomas Aikens, his son James and 18 men set up a camp they called Camp Red Rock, at the mouth of Boulder Canyon in mid-November of 1858. On January 16, 1859, his son James Aikens discovered placer gold in Gold Run Creek, below present-day Gold Hill.

These first discoveries near Gold Hill were incredibly rich and at least 4,838 ounces of placer gold was recovered during this first year from the gravels of Gold Run Creek. In June of 1859 Gold Hill established itself as Mountain District #1, Nebraska Territory (Colorado had not become a state yet). Mountain District #1 formed a provisional government, the first governing body in the territory. Gold Hill was founded later in the year with 15 houses and at least 1,500 people living mostly in tents.

The City of Boulder was laid out by a group of men from Nebraska City, including A. A. Brookfield, on February 10, 1859, and by the 20th of the month, there were 60-70 houses being built. By February 12, 1859, Oliver P. Goodwin reported “The Boulder district diggings, as far as prospected are the richest yet discovered, paying $3-$5 (0.15-0.25 ounces of gold) per day to the man, but one drawback, 280 men and not a single white woman.”

In what could be the first published reference to mining in Nederland, John H. Buell reported on February 20, 1859, that gold was found 25 miles up Boulder Creek. Only mule or pony packs could travel up Boulder Canyon so Dayton (later Nederland) was established on the road between Central City and Ward as a trading post to supply the local prospectors. The first placer mine near Nederland was referred to as the “Jefferson Diggings.” The gold region of western Boulder County was named the Grand Island Mining District and the first mining claims were staked in 1861. The early prospectors were not on the lookout for silver until the Caribou Mining district was discovered in 1869.

References:

Fossett, F., 1876, Colorado, Its Gold and Silver

Mines, Farms and Stock Ranges and Health and

Pleasure Resorts: 1st ed., Crawford, N.Y.

Hollister, O.J., 1867, The Mines of Colorado,

Samuel Bowles and Co., Springfield Mass., 45 p.

Lovering, T.S., and Goddard, E.N., 1950, Geology and ore deposits of Front Range, Colorado:

U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 223,

319p.

Thayer, W.M., 1888, Marvels of the New West,

Henry Hill publishing Co, Norwich Conn., 715

p.

Bastin, E.S., and Hill, J.M., 1917, Economic geology of Gilpin County and adjacent parts of Clear

Creek and Boulder Counties, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 94, 379 p.