| Show it NEARLY HISTORY AND ROMANCE OP OF COLORADOS FAMOUS CARIBOU MINE the discovery of the lai largest gest most developed and likewise the oldest silver mine in boulder county colorado i was due to an accident more than it was to any though tout program of prospecting or premeditated search for ore according to a story in the boulder county miner of recent date the caribou mine located on the north face of caribou 1 ou hill four miles west of nederland is now 56 years old i having been discovered in 1869 since the day when a lone prospector picked up several pieces of glistening blos blossom som rock quite cuite stained with aih metallic oxides laying strewn over the ground thousands of men many of whom have ion long Z since passed f from rom this life to the more quiet side beyond the river have toiled in this mine it has been sunk to a depth of over a thousand feet and as it has been driven farther and farther into the earth levels and hundreds of tributary drifts have kept pace with it in the gigantic movement of depleting an apparently exhaustless haust less lode has produced in silver the mine has produced over worth of silver ore and it is possible that at least a quarter of that sum or more went to waste in the extravagant and crude milling processes of the early days which being the case the total production might be considered at around worth of the white metal and it has for the greater part of the past fifty six years been the dominating force in shaping the economic crity or depression of boulder county revenues from this mine and its fellows during the seventies leventi es and early eighties built the present court house building as it stands today in boulder the man who actually discovered the caribou vein was william martin who in company with george lytle and a hunter by the name of conger had followed traces es of blossom rock to a place where it could no longer be seen strewn wa over aver the ground and where the outcropping cropping out vein could be seen in a crevice in the earth ore found in crevices each of th the e three struck one of these c crevices bevic conger called his the poor PO r man ds as best bes I 1 t descriptive of his own financial condition while martin gave his the appellation caribou from a rich mining district in british columbia ave years before 1864 conger had been on one of his numerous hunting trips in the hills around arapahoe peak when he accidentally discovered a vein bearing gold ore but as his find was so far removed from the nearest settlement tl ement no one could be interested in it and anait it was tem lem pora rily abandoned conger drifted northward A few years later while at cheyenne he be had a chance of viewing some ore taken from the silver mines of nevada and the resemblance between this ore was at onte once struck by and some of the loose rock he had often dover around the scenes of his rambles in southwest boulder county he immediately returned and enlisted the aid of conger and martin with what results we have already seen discovery made in 1869 last day of summer 1869 this discovery was made the row how the new mine and its owners awner s fared in these early days ys is well told in an edition of fossetta Fos Cb colorado colorado lorado published in 1876 to ce central i aral city and i specimens of the ore brewere were taken n assayed alsaye dand and were vae found to be enoff enormously I 1 bously r rich With light t to io th the e nemr newly y hearts t the h e prospectors returned with supplies found aund camp cafrie ari in the mountains and worked am j away ry r iiii ahby had d a goodly sup supply p lyof ly ware of 1 ard piled prospect H h hole 1 e then came the lori lorig 9 and tedious t taska a ski W cutting a rom rb acl through the timber to the nearest ranch and road miles mile s away down on middle boulder A wagon load of ore was finally taken to the e sm smelling smelting e biting elting works at black hawland hawk Haw kand and yielded dundr hundreds i eds of dollars 1 the fondest expectations of our silver silven hunters was realized and sleeping or waking dreams dream of sudden wealth were without doubt with them conger sells to partners r previous to this time conger had exchanged his 0 one e sixth right in the caribou for the entire right of hi his s pa partners in the poor man both lodes have since prove proved d good enough to keep but winter soon came on which at this mine min feet beet above the sea is long and severe and af most one continuation of storms a and nd snows driven from the peaks above work was continued however in order to have a supply of ore ready for the smelter at the earliest approach of summer martin and his partners carried carfield their winters supplies in on their r backs that season and built bailia a log og cabin on the townsite of caribou by the following june the strike of these pioneers h had ad been noised abroad and miners and prospectors began to flock cock in from the settlements et tle ments in large numbers in the meantime the ore was kept rolling out ot of the caribou and in return goodly rolls of bright crisp green backs found their way into the miners pockets other discoveries co followed such as the columbia spencer boulder county trojan and sovereign people in july and august of 1870 several hundred men had gathered in the valley al just east cast of caribou hill they camped under trees in brush houses bouses and in tents tenth until log cabins and frame buildings stores and hotels had been erected and the town of caribou was fairly under way the idaho the no name and seven thirty were also discovered at this time cincinnati man makes a cleanup clean up A D breed a wealthy capitalist of Cincin cincinnati who had become interested in silver mining and milling at blaek black hawk purchased the western half of the caribou for 50 7 Se september pember 21 1870 work was continued on both p parts arts of the mine with great vi vior vigor 6 or J is said to have been take bout that season seasor and the shaft was feet deep in in january in one year breed had obtained short tons of ore most of it paying good profits this same year he built a large silver reducing mill one hundred sixty five feet by one hundred on middle boulder creek four miles distant this mill was constructed at N nederland ed erland near the site tod today y occupied by the wolf tongue 6 mill the original caribou byners owners continued to realize largely on th their air part of th elode hollanders buy the whole thing for in the spring of 1873 the entire mine and mill we were resold sold in holland for one half paid in stock and the remainder paid in money martin conger and lytle received cei ved about of this sum the holland syndicate which bought the property was also called th the e minin mining 6 coni conar pany nederland it was head headed edby by P H van diest a m n ing engineer of great repute this sale marked the zenith of the caribou mines mines early history and its romantic history from then on with its many ups lips and downs cannot be told under tinder anything less than a volume of its own |
