The Silver Boom and Ranching in Colorado

Changing Colorado Again

Overview

Silver Boom › Ore City › Leadville and other Silver towns› Silver King and other Success

Silver Bust › Boom and bust cycle

Ranching › Cattle kings › Counting sheep › Range wars

Silver Boom

The 1870’s ushered in the silver era in Colorado

Discoveries were made from Boulder county to Dolores county› Leadville comes into its own

Started in Boulder County at Caribou Mine› 1869

Ore City

The initial findings were at California Gulch, in the Mosquito Range near the Arkansas River headwaters northeast of what was to become Leadville.

At first, this original discovery didn't seem like it was going to amount to much, › late April of 1860, placer gold was found in

abundance. By July, 10,000 people inhabited the spanking new

town of Ore City. Over a period of seven years, miners had brought ten

tons of gold to light.

Ore City

Oro City had a second lease on life when silver was discovered in the late 1870's

Newly-founded Leadville ended up with most of the recently arrived prospectors and those that follow along with them.

Come 1890, a mere 222 people occupied the once-thriving town. Today, all that remains of Oro City are abandoned buildings and ghosts.

Leadville and other Silver Towns

Leadville soon becomes the second-largest city In Colorado › Known as the Cloud City› Sits 2 miles above sea level

Silver in the San Juan's › Developed › Silverton, Telluride, Ouray and Rico › Durango would be a major supply town for

these towns

The Silver King

Horace Tabor › Moved with his wife Augusta to Leadville › Offers to Grubstake two prospectors

To give supplies in return for a part of whatever the prospectors dig up

› Prospectors hit the jackpot! The little Pittsburg mine was on of the first big

silver discoveries in Leadville› Horace bought more mines and made lots of

money › People began to call him “The Silver King”

Charles Boettcher

Moved to America from Germany › First store was in Boulder › 2nd store was in Leadville › He worked in the Hardware business › “ Hardware. Hard goods. Hard cash”

Boom to Bust

The boom was largely the consequence of large scale purchases of silver by the United States Government authorized by Congress in 1878. 

The boom endured throughout the 1880s, resulting in an intense increase in both the population and wealth of Colorado, especially in the mountain valleys

Boom to Bust

 In 1878, responding to pressure of western interests, the United States Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act authorizing the free coinage of silver

The government demand raised the price of the mineral substantially to the point where many additional mines were profitable

The boom continued unabated throughout the 1880s, a decade that gave the state many of the historic structures throughout its cities and towns

BOOM The boom also drove many extensions of the railway

network in the mountains, › such lines as the Denver, South Park and Pacific,

which built an early narrow gauge line to Leadville Extension of the railroad network up the Roaring Fork

Valley to the previously failed mining town of Aspen in the late 1880s› Made The extraction of silver ore there

economically feasible, and saved the town from near extinction.

The government’s purchases of silver were nearly doubled by the 1890

Sherman Silver Purchase Act, further extending the boom into the early 1890s. 

Bust! The repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893

› led to a collapse of silver prices After 1893, many mining camps

became ghost towns Collapse in state-wide economic

activity was amended › by the emergence of agriculture,

previously mocked as not feasible, as a large component of the state economy.

Colorado Ranching

Spanish people moving north brought the first livestock › Horses, cattle, and sheep › Many settled in the San Luis Valley along

the Rio Grande › Starving animals that made the journey

west were turned out and allowed to graze on the wild prairie grasses They soon gained back their weight and

grew stronger and fatter over time

Cattle Kings

John W. Iliff› Originally ran a store› Allowed people to pay

with animals Turned the animals out to

graze

› Decided to sell the store and get into ranching

› Sold beef to miners, settlers, soldiers and railroad crews

› Eventually ran a ranch with 35,000+ cattle that was along the South Platte River and was100+ square miles!!!

John W. Prowers › Raised cattle on what

use to be Cheyenne land

› His cattle herds competed with Iliff

› Had a ranch that was 400,000 acres of land

› Used differ cattle to try and find the best one that fit the plains of Colorado

Sheep!

Southern Colorado› Ranchers raised

sheep › Companies would

buy the wool from the ranchers

› Ranchers used herding dogs to help

› Introduced the Australian shepherded to Colorado

Range Wars

Cattle Ranchers didn’t like Sheep Ranchers

Sheep ranchers didn’t like Cattle Ranchers

Sheep ate too much grass and left none for the cattle

No one wanted to share land or water!

Problems between the groups got worse› Poisoned and killed

animals Ran sheep off cliffs

Problem with Farmers› No more open range › Barbed-wire and laws

stopped the open range

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RHfbPSwu-0