Show K I I I 1 r fiK r t r U t K I 11 tat It I K ta H Stories of Early Days in I Leadville Read Like Fiction J T J 4 i J 1 2 i I vv V Jt K t L' L h h. Tho The restoration cf of silver as asa a t basic money metal at the tho close of the ho European war war war-a a prediction freely freely freely free free- ly mado made in certain financial quart quart- quarters quart quart-I ers recalls ers recalls t the e early days when were found bonanza silver deposits which startled the tho world for their richness and case ease of mining a time c when millionaires were made overnight overnight overnight over over- night and when the tho new camp was the most talked of point on two hemispheres says the tho Rocky Mona Monn- I tain tamn News The Tho unparalleled riches of Lead Lead- yule vilie especially on Carbonate and Fryer hills the like of which was only fabulous fabulous' I approached by the values of the he Nevada Comstock lode I veins started a mining stampede i from Irom four quarters df the com com- r asS which never has been equaled and in two years years' time tilLO gave to Lead Lead- Leadville i. i vilie ville a greater population than was then claimed by Denver Few people are aware that George Jo F. F Hook one of the discoverers of the famous Little PItts PIttsburg burg mine the first first big big strike in and whose mineral find made mado possible the millions milf millions mil mil- lions fons which for years poured in on f Horace A. A W. W Tabor is still living In Denver and enjoying the fortune which good luck brought to him thirty-eight thirty years ago August his mining partner partner partner part part- ner in the the Little Pittsburg and H. H I A. A W. W Tabor who staked grub-staked the two miners while prospecting both bath died minus worldly goods Gec George F. F Hook although ho he received a less sum Bum than than- did his partners for the reason that he sold his interests in inthe inthe the mine at an earlier date than they did still has his original fortune and some additions to it I The The sudden rise to affluence the names of Tabor Hook Book and linked with the vast wealth that overflowed overflowed over over- flowed from the workings of the LItI Littie Little Lit LIt- tie tle I Pittsburg is one romance which stands o out t clearest among among the wonderful wonderful won won- d tales of of Leadville's bonanza period The stor story of how the Little Pittsburg Pitts Pitt burg came to b be located never has Jeen en truthfully bi t. t t d t-kd t d according to Mr Hook look For the th ft reason reason when a Rocky Mountain News representative I asked the survivor of the Little Pittsburg's PiUs Pitts- burgs burg's original trio of owners to re relate re-I re late tate the facts in detail he complied I with the injunction that the facts be unvarnished It may be well to tell the truth at this late day said ald Mr Hook for forIn forIn forin In the tile past the fragmentary written they I accounts about the discovery of the Little Pittsburg mine were chiefly I I I guess work and fairy tales That it I sometimes takes a long time for truth I i to overtake falsehood is proved in IIi the case of August and myself Soon after we found the mine continued Mr Hook 0 a a mining reporter reporter reporter re re- re- re porter wrote in a Denver newspaper as a joker as he later later- explained 1 I I that the Little Pittsburg had been discovered by two itinerant shoemakers shoemakers shoe shoe- I I m makers kers who knew nothing of min min- I ing or prospecting and who as their i I j T Tabor bor stake grub was running low II decided that the spot on which they stood was as good a place to dig as tiny other and so commenced operations operations opera opera- I there The only truth tru In l- that statement j commented Mr Hook is la th that t and I 1 were shoemakers by trade I And yet in every Leadville history I th that T have seen that fairy tale Is I retold leto retold Id Iii In fact e had been mining more or less for twelve years in California Call Call- fornia gulch and over at Buckskin Joe and Fairplay in Park county He worked at the bench in winter months and mined during the summer I first went to California gulch gulchIn In In 1876 more than a year before the I town of Leadville was organized and V mined and prospected and worked at V permitted my trade as circumstances I As shoe makers and I 1 naturally naturally naturally ally fell In to together ether and in time we became mining partners I In the summer of 1877 we took I up a fractional claim near the head I of California gulch and made a success sue sue- cess of it notwithstanding the opposition opposition of Stevens and Wood owners of the Iron mine who claimed we weI weere I Mere ere trespassing upon their property We called our claim the Seventy lS seven seven ve and while working It we became became be- be came thoroughly posted as to the character of the yellow sand or I crystallized lead that filled up the sluices and caused so much trouble I to tr tn the placer miners In the gulch While e the Little Pittsburg was wasl the first sensational strike In the diey dis die y triet It was not the first carbonate carbonato find there by any means In the summer of 1876 Stevens and andWood andWood Wood staked claims on what was wasS wasI I S afterward known as Long and and Derry I V hill bill In the winter of 7 1876 the Gallagher brothers located the Camp I k r L i. i Bird and Charleston claims in the same samo section In the summer of 1877 the Carbonate mine which gave the name to Carbonate hill was discovered disI discovered discovered dis dis- covered by Halleck and Cooper and andI I following that were located the tho Crescent Crescent Crescent Cres Cres- I cent and other claims on the same hill The following winter did not develop develop de do- any mining excitement In the spring of 1878 George Fryer who had been mining near Fairplay arrived arrived arrived ar ar- rived in the district and with William William William Wil Wil- liam Lovell commenced to sink ahole a ahole ahole hole at the foot of a spur of at Carbonato Carbonate Carbonate Car Car- bonate bonato hill bill and immediately north of it It was afterwards named Fryer I i I i 1 I I I I i I j hill hlll I They sunk Bunk and timbered a shaft about sixty feet teet deep and there struck mineral They named it the Now New New Discovery The news new spread rapidly and caused great excitement In II camp Miners rushed to the scene to Inspect the find among others and myself That was on a Saturday Wo We took samples of the ore are examined them carefully and spent tho the afternoon walking over the hill bill and making observations as to the lay of the land I expressed my belief to that i the ore are in It the New Discovery New New- Discovery shaft was not in place that it originally came further up the hill and had been by the Cle elements carried down downto to the point where disclosed by Fryer and Lovell The ground adjacent to the New Discovery claim wa was open to location location loca loco tion and that night we decided if we could get necessary assistance to stake a claim there and work It It was essential that we wo secure a R grub grub- stake We agreed to go to alor for it Tabor was then running the main outfitting and merchandise store in Leadville having consolidated d his I two stores stores one one at Oro and one at Malta Malta Malta-In in the newly organized town own and was then doing a heavy business ss ss He Ho had staked grub other ther miners and was doing more to promote mini mining min min- i ing iti than any other man In the tile dis dIs- He Ho readily greed agreed our to It was was that in In return for fora a third one third one Interest In whatever might be found he was to pa pa lIa our board at a Leadville boarding and meet the incidental expenses of working tho the property and Ito I Ito Ito to share alike and d do the laborI labor I was anxious to begin operations operations operations opera opera- the next Sunday morning but thought there was no cause for tor hurry and we did dilI not return to the hill Monday What was our ouri chagrin to find that the claim ad adjoining adjoining adjoining ad- ad joining the New Discovery the Discovery the ground that we had coveted had coveted had been staked by others others' But there again good luck came into play It developed that the richest mineral lay further up the tho hill hill We didn't know it at the time but we did the best we ve could and drove our stakes into ground higher lup up on the timber-covered timber hillside That was on Monday April 22 We had our own picks and shovels and commenced to dig that after after- noon We put up a hand windlass and one of us worked below while the other felled trees tree and cut shaft U Umbers timbers bers Th The hill was was then covered with a heavy growth of pine trees May 1 eight days after comm commencing commencing nc- nc ing operations while I was working at the bottom of the shaft my pick struck a hard formation It was the stone lime-stone which afterward cap was afterward I found to lie at the bottom of the I blanket vein everywhere on Fryer I J Jand and Carbonate hills I cleared away the loose graveland gravel graveland graveland and earth from the tho limestone and then recognized d thin layers of tho the well known carbonates lying on top of the hard formation I 1 knew that we wo were on the eve of entering a mineral zone rote and I called up the theto shaft to inform my partner of the good news The shaft was twenty-eight twenty feet I deep and we had struck the contact I at that depth The wise men of the I district who had bad taunted us with wasting our time had figured It out if we reached mineral at all it would be at a depth of at or 00 feet We carried the news to Tabor that night and the three of us made plans for further work We started Ia a drift drUt from the bottom of of the shaft I and at once entered the big ore are body I that made Leadville famous We I I continued that drift thirty feet and and twenty-nine twenty feet of at that distance was was was' in oro Of ot course courso all Leadville was ex ox- cited Every man in camp visited the th scene and marveled at the tho size atthe of at the ore are body and its richness The happiest man of all was Tabor who turned over to others the business of I his store storo In order ardor that he might give 1 i iL L his time to tho the operation of tho mine In a short time every foot of ground on Fryer Carbonate and adjoining adjoining adjoining ad ad- joining hills was staked out and the excitement grew by leaps and bounds as one shaft after another reached the contact The news spread to tho the outside world and the greatest of all mining stampedes set fet in Leadville in two years years from from the spring of 1878 to 1880 grew 1880 grew from Crom a few hundred hun hun- hundred dred to people to a claimed population population population tion of Why did we wo name It the Little Pittsburg In honor of my boyhood city I suggested to my partners that we call It the Pittsburg but we found that another claim of that name al already already already al- al ready existed and when I went to Granite the county seat to file the necessary recording papers I wrote Little Pittsburg burg In the blank line lino and let it go at that With such a vast amount of ore oreIn oreIn orein In sight there was no difficulty in making a big paying mIne of the Little Pittsburg We put on a new hoisting apparatus hired as many miners as could be bo advantageously employed cut working stations and commenced to take out the oro ore In two months fr from m the date of the strike the mine was producing 10 a week and a month later the output was more than double that sum The only limit was the hoistIng hoisting hoisting hoist hoist- ing capacity Marketing of at the ore are also cut a figure There was no smelter in Leadville then in fact none in the state all the ore are had to be shipped to St. St Louis for treatment Edward Harrison who afterward built built- the first Leadville smelter at the time represented the St. St Louis plant and bought the tho Little Pittsburg ore are sample to ascertain Its value and then shipped the ore to St. St Louis The The heavy tonnage was was hauled by wagon to the end of the tho South Park railroad which at that period of at Its construction was still In Platte river canon Notwithstanding the heavy heavy- transportation transportation transportation trans trans- and treatment charges the Little Pittsburg was in bonanza fro from the start The first lot of ore sold was six tons and great was our satisfaction when we got returns of ofa ofa ofa a net value of at over a ton The whole ore are body ran in excess of at that sum sum- sum and the lower four tour feet averaged averaged aver aver- aver j aged 0 0 a tonI tonI ton j jI I s sold td to my partners my Interest In the the In September of the he sanI nr feet I In case sha sh- sh a sum agreeable to me I invested most mose f the money In bonds and later I Il l fed on a visit to my old childhood home home In Germany While I 1 didn't receive for my one- one third Interest nearly as much money as my partners later on got for their shares I 1 have never regretted that I 1 sold out when I did The sale and my accumulated profits out of the mine gave me a comfortable fortune as much money I 1 know knew as would do me for the rest of my days and I 1 have not been disappointed That Is the story of how we found and developed the Little Pittsburg Of its subsequent history I do not Care are to speak as I wasn't there Exciting events crowded one another another another an an- other after Hook quit the mine A thirty day option and bond given given on n the property to a syndicate of or Denver men was about to expire and in the tangle which followed Tabor and lost The failure of the syndicate to take up the option was really another another another an an- other chapter of good luck as subsequent subsequent subsequent quent events proved In January 1879 sold his one-half one Interest for David David David Da Da- vid H H. Moffat M off at and United States Senator Senator Senator Sen Sen- ator Jerome B. B B. B Chaffee were the pu pur pur- chasers At that Raches Rache's share of t the profits from from ore are sold amounted amount amount- ed to so that he let left camp I his friends say with over to his credit Tabor continued to operate the Little Little Lit LIt- tle Pittsburg burg with as many man miners as ashe ashe he ho could place in the workIngs workings workings work work- ings of at a comparatively new mine time Old-time miners say that Tabors Tabor's development de de- development of the Little I was a masterpiece of at mining an and engineering engineering en en- skill although his mining experience had been 11 rated to placer work Tabor bought other claims on both Fryer and Carbonate I tills and perhaps not fully tully realizing realizIng realizing I ing the fact at the time laid the fo foundation for the enormous wealth that was to come to him Horace Tabors Tabor's big year was 1879 In May or one year after the mines mine's location the c camp mp was electrified by bythe bythe the announcement that he had sold his one half Interest in the Littleto Little Pittsburg to Moffat and Chaffee for fora a cool million dollars The Tha news added to the furor of speculation which had bad the whole o of tu the Leadville population and prices of or orall all property mining and otherwise e doubled trebled over night The money paid to Tabor TaDor was in four monthly Installments Ills His share of at the ore are marketed had Continued on Page Six 1 i i |