The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-10-16
COLORADO SHADOWS.
A Side OF the Picture that ia not Often
Turned to the Public Gazc-A Few Large
Fortunes Made, but disappointment and
Misery the Common Fate.
Denver Letter in s. Pnul Pioneer. Press

Dcnpcr Letter in 81. Paul Pioncer-Pscss.
The mineral wealth stored away in the
vast mountain ranges passing through
the central and western portion of Colo
RADIO is certainly very great-great, judg
ing from indications upon the surface, fal
beyond the power of man to compre
hend.
Commencing in the north, the rich
placers and gold-bearing veins of Boulder
and Central, with great fssure veins oi
Georgetown, the silver queens, resources
are to be found that will produce work
for the present and future generations. as
nothing short of centuries of hard labor
can remove the precious metals stored
away in the clefts of the fint-like rocks
of these mountains.
Passing on to Leadville and vicinity,
those vast deposits of carbonate of lead
are found which are so rich in silver, and
which, if they do not extend indefinitely
into the earth as the fssure veins do, at
least spread out over vast surfaces. From
Leadville down the Arkansas valley in
dications could not be better, and the
names of Cleora and Poncho Springs, as
mining localities, are heard on all sides.
Passing still farther down the valley to
Custer county, that great mining camp
of recent date is found, which is second
only to Leadville in the excitement it
caused and which it resembles somewhat
in the nature of its mineral formation.
This camp, Silver Cliff by name, so noted
for its mineral found sticking even to the
grass.roots, is situated in the beautiful
Wet Mountain valley, and surrounded
by thriving farms and stock ranches
presents great contrast to other mining
towns, which are usually exposed near
the tops of black and barren mountain
ranges.
West and southwest of Silver Cliff,
over the range, are to be found the world
renowned Gunnision and San Juan
countries, filled with their immense fs-
sure veins, which will furnish work for
untold generations of eager fortune
hunters.
It is no wonder that, with these vast
exposures of mineral wealth, backed by
the marvellous stories from.the assayers,
ofhundreds and even thousands of dollars
to the ton, that can be taken from this
"dirt," that men lose their senses, lose
their power of calculating, and spend
years of their lives and thousands OF
their accumulated capital, to reap 2
what fortune much greater than the
one put in (? Not by legitimate business,
fou
Let us see, judging by the only criteri-
on we have-the past-what the relative
chances for small capitalists and labor
ing men are in mining as compared with
other occupations.
1t is estimated that there are at least
100000 men prospecting in Colorado
this summer. These men do not waste
their time, but work hard from early
morning until late at night climbing and
tramping over the roughest of country,
and digging in the hardest of ground.
Led on and on by the widest of enthusi-
asm from one place to another, now in
one locality where rich strike is re-
ported-then over the mountains to the
next. place, where fortune is sure for
any one that comes-but it turns out
about the same in each case it is disap-
pointment everywhere.
Come with us along the Chicago creak
near Idaho, with your trout-rod /;
fishing has been good, and as a black
and stormy evening approaches we will
90 back to good shelter and comfor-
table night. But as we struggle along
over the rough ways of the canon, let us
stop a moment to view but one of the
many prospectors scattered over the
Rockys. He is sitting on Q rock beside
the prospectholein the hard ground which
has cost him days of exhausting work
to hollow out, his head slightly turned
to one side, is resting upon the hand,
which in turn is supported by the handle
of his pick. The long white beard,
flowing over the rough miners coat be-
longs to face with discouraged and
tired out look, while the eyes with their
far away expression as if they were gaz-
ing into the distant past, show plainly
enough that he has not struck "pay dir" +"
This lone man as he sits there in the ap.
preaching darkness appears to he in
every way in sympathy with surrounding
nature. The black and ragged rocks rise
thousands of feet upon either side, while,
scattered over them, the scrub pines
hanging from every crevice give out their
mournfull wall in chorus with the rush.
ing waters of the creek. In the back
ground, up the canon, is an impenetra-
Bile blackness, while over head from ridge
to ridge the threatening clouds are arched.
With one exception the scene is one
which Ruskinso aptly calls mountain
gloom. This exception is cloud at one
side of the gorge brilliantly illuminated
by the setting sun, and from which is
thrown a single stream of light across
the valley, touching the hair and fore
head of the miner, and bringing out his
features in strong relief. Let US hope
the miners gloom has an invisible stream
of light across its dark track in the shape
Of some pleasant memory of the past.
The old man probably knows there is but
one bonanza for ten thousand prospec-
tors. Still, with that fascination which
leads on the gambler, and against far
more fearful odds, lie will try it again.
Tomorrow he will perhaps cross over
the mountains to Leadville; and as the
chances are ninety-nine to one that he
will not strike, he will either get out of
the mountains, add one more to the $50
silent sleepers, not covered by the sod,
resting in the carbonate camps city of
the dead, or, if be has friends, be one of
the scores shipped East for final resting
place.
One hundred thousand prospectors in
the mountains, one-quarter Of them in and
around Leadville and Ten Mile; thou
sands upon thousands of prospect holes,
and less than fifty paying mines in this
locality; thousands of holes around
Silver Cliff, and half q dozen paying
mines-thcse are facts the prospector
does not appreciate until it is too late.
In the first place the vein is to be
found. That may be comparatively easy,
but will it pay to work it? is the impor-
tant question. If it will pay, has the
miner the capital to develop it? Sup