The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1879-05-22
THE WONDERS OF LEADv1LLE,

SILVER REaIoN-wHAT HAS BEEN,
WHAT IS, AND WHAT is TO COME.
Correspondence Of the New York Post.]
LEADvILLE, Coll, April 80, 1879.
1t was about the middle of last summer
that the value of Leadville as carbonate
camp was discovered. California Gulch,
on which the present town stands, was an
old mining camp, having been worked for
gold from 1859 to 1867, the yield running
down from So, 100000 in 1860 to about $780,
900 in 1866, when the diggings were aban-
doned. In those days it Is said the gold
miners caulked their log cabins with what
they supposed was mud, but was really car
Donate worth $400 ton. Who discovered
the carbonates is a disputed question, but
there is no doubt that W. II. Stevens, OF
Lake Superior mining fame, a resident of
Detroit, was one of the first, if not the first
to undertake systematic mining operations
for silver in this camp. Old California and
Nevada miners scoffed at the idea of finding
anything of value in the carbonates. They
were soft, not hard. They were ''pancake
deposits" not veins. The oldest and wisest
among them had never seen any metal ex-
tracted from such stuff. Still, Stevens had
his adherents, too. Numbers of men swarm
ed upon the hills and began to sink shafts
They were speedily rewarded. The Little
Pittsburgh, which has enriched all its own
ers, was struck at thirty eight feet below the
surface, and other discoveries speedily fol-
lowed. Romantic stories are told of the VIZ
cissitudes of fortune which befell the early
discoveries-how the Gallagher brothers
wandered from store to store vainly begging
for sack of flour to enable them to 60 on
with their work, and next week struck min
eral, and sold out for know not how many
hundred thousands, on which they are liv-
ing in splendor in the Champs Elysees how
Long and Derry were just about to give up
In despair, when old Long struck his pick
into the ground in his rage, and uncovered
the wall of fissure vein, one of the very
best in camp at the present time how a
small grocer ''grub-staked'' hungry miner
who struck mineral within couple OF weeks,
how the small grocer bought out the miner,
sold small interest in his mine for for
tune, bought othes mines, made money out
of all of them, and is now Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor w. A. Tabor, president Of the bank Of
Leadville, and man whose income is reck-
oned in millions. Whatever of truth there
may be in these attractive tales, there is nc
doubt OF the fact that by August of last year
layers of carbonate, carrying silver varying
in quantity from 800 to 40 ounces per ton,
began to be discovered throughout the range
of hills which encircle the town Of Lead
Vile on the east, and that great fortunes
solid fortunes-began to be realized by the
lucky discoveries. The carbonates were ir
every case save one nearly horizontal depos'
its, lying at depths varying from thirty five
to one hundred and thirty fve feet below
the surface. In scarcely any case was blast
ing required in the shafts. Two dollars 6
ton was a common estimate for the cost O.
extracting the ore.
Such astonishing bonanzas created an ex
element far and wide-a furore far exceed.
ing the Black Hills fever, and which can on
ly be compared to the California rage O
ls48. Ten thousand people poured int
Leadville during the last three months o
of 1878, and huge machinery for smelling
works and saw mills was hauled over tn
mountains at an enormous expense. Yo,
must remember chat these fortune hunte
were going not to pleasant region lik'
California or Nevada, but to barren wilder
ness ten thousand feet above the sea, wher
the soil will not even grow potatoes, wher
snow falls every month in the year, and
man had his hands and feet frozen last Au
gust. Still, no hardships deferred the ad
venturers. Trade and business were du
throughout the world, and during the thre
months ending 3lst March, 1879, at leas
fifteen thousand men found their way
Leadville, a large proportion Of them toilin
| painfully on foot one hundred and fift
miles through the snow from Denver 9
Canon, When first visited Leadville
| March last it was full of men who had n
home, who slept on the sawdust on BARRON
floors, who all seemed to have money enoug
to get food without working, and who sper
their days in barrooms, gambling-house
dance-houses, or on the sidewalk in Ches
nut street, discussing the last great strik'
Half bed in a miserable attic was wort
from 81 to 50 night. Stores rented at Il
per centum Of their cost. Mechanics wage
were 81 or So a day. To force ones wa
into the postoffice through the throng whic
beset it from morning till night require
no small exertion of strength. Busine
was blooming Small storekeepers turne
over their entire stock in two days, and the
vainly wrote and telegraphed for fresh sup
plies. Town lots worth $50 in Octobe
1873, readily commanded SO, 900 in Marcel
1879.
returned to the ''camp" Geadvill
though an organized city, with Mayor, A
dermen and all other civic functionaries,
still called a camp by all but s'tenderfeet
a week ago, and marked change was ey
dent. Prospecting on snowshoes in sno
from four to eight feet deep had exhauste
the patience Of many, and the three stae
lines reported that they carried nearly
many passengers to as from Denver an
Canon. Both In Chestnut street and at tt
postoffice the crowd had diminished. LODI
ings we're easily to be obtained. VI Il
fifteen hundred houses (mere board hut
that were under way on the Goth of Marc
many were finished and many were uno
cupied. Storekeepers complained Of Il
dizziness Of business. Real estate had cea
ed to move, and the unfortunate owners d
clared with tears In their eyes that the be
bid they could get for lots which cost the
$50 six months ago was 81 500 cash. It "