The Red Cloud chief., 1879-06-05
i wonan,s Description Of Leadville.

u WOU1urs DeeStspuvu VI A~eSss
The following IL from IN article In
the Nay A1antse, BY Mrs. Helen Hunt
Jackson:
California Guleh, In which OF on
which the new town Of Leedviue
growing up, lies q right angles - The
Arkansas Valley, and about 12 miles
from the head waters Of the ArkAnsas
River. II was . Wild gulch. its sides
grown thick with spruce forests. and .
little snow-fed creek making its way
down among them. But the waters OF
the creek held gold, and men soon found
IL cut, Gu. down the spruce forests, and
begsn placer mining al along the sides
Of the guich. They are torn up and
Yfddled, to-day, as IL m EARTHQUAKE had
shaken them violently. All this while,
in the stony mountains nj the head OF
the gulch, lay stores untold OF solid sill
yer, Of which the miners lower down,
working for gold sands by the handful,
never SO much q dreamed. II Is the
old story Of treasure biding the time OF
the man who knows its secret. One
day, q man who knew one stone from
another picked up q bit Of mineral and
handed it slyly and significantly 3 his
comrade, saying nothing. The COM
rade, experienced in the ways Of mines,
took it, saying nothing, and pocketed
It,. The gulch was fall cf meoi there
were thVse working by their side TO
whom one word might be a hint. Later,
a3ono. the two comrades conversed with
each other on the subject Of this bit of
Stone. They took cautious and secret
ramhles over the mountain side. They
said not one word TO any bedy for two
years, but quietly possessed themselves
largely OF lands. To day in one mine
which these two men y you may 80,
Il Il said, 5000, 600 worth Of silver;
not infer it, trust, hope, believe it. from
the {" dip" or "bearing" or "vein,"
as is usually the case in silver mines,
but see it; the walls of the galleries are
it. The miners simply chop the walls
down foot by foot, and wheel u the
ore in barrows.
And the whole range is believed to be
full of the precious metal. 1t is the west
ern slope Of the mountains lying back Of
Fair Play, on whose eastern slopes
many profitable mines have been work
ed for wears. 1t is odd that miners did
not at once think that II one side OF .
mountain were made of silver the other
Was likely to be. But they did not;
and 90 the Leadville silver bided its
time.
The town Is a marvel. In six months
q tract Of dense spruce forest has been
converted into q busting village. To
be sure, the upturned roots and the
freshly backed stumps Of many Of the
spruce trees are still In the streets
of the town; fallen spruce trees,
too, on which you al sit
down to rest, and here and there clumps
of superb tall standing, which at
ford a most grateful protection from
ColOrado's hot May sun. Great spaces
of scorched s~age-brush are to be seen,
its gray stalks looking as twisted as II
they had been wrung out wet and
thrown down to dry. Great spaces COW
cred with chips, also; nobody had time
to pick up his chips, and they are han
dy to burn; the houses are all log cab
ms, or else plain, implanted board
shanties. Some of the cabins seem to
burrow in the ground; others are set
upon posts, like rooted bedsteads.
Tents, wigwams of boughs, wigwams
of bare poles, with q blackened spot in
front, where some body slept last night,
but viii v sleep again; cabins
wedged in between stumps; cabins built
on stumps; cabins with chimneys made
of fowerpots or bits of stovepipe-I am
not sure but out of old hats; cabins half
rooted; cabins with sail-cloth roofs;
cabins with no roof at all this repre-
sents the architecture of the Leadville
homes. The Leadville places of bust
ness are another thing; there is one
compact, straight street, running east
and west, in the center of this medley of
sage brush, spruce stumps, cabins, and
shanties. Here are shops, restaurants,
billiard rooms, dance-halls, banks, law
yers' offices, hotels, livery-stables-all
that q town needs. There are fairly
built wooden houses, principally of the
battlement-front style, and n story
high-a few of them two stories high
and not without some pretense Of finish
the platforms and steps in front of them
make one continuous line of lounging
grounds for Leadville men. l counted
46 at one time in a short distance, men
either leaning against door-posts, or sit
ting with their elbows on their knees.
The middle of the street was always
filed with groups of men talking.
Wagons were driving up and down as
fast as if the street were clear. 1t look
ed all the time as if there had been a
fire and the people were about dispers-
ing, or as If t~own-;neeting were just
over. Every body was talking, neatly
every body jesticulating. All faces
looked restless, eager, fierce. 1t was a
Monaco gambling-room emptied into a
Colorado spruce clearing.
The town lies well up on the slope;
the mountain off.look toward the west
is good-the broad, green valley of the
Arkansas, some miles wide, and
the Sawatch mountains, ali from
10000 to $4,000 feet high, all snow
topped, hey ond. From higher points
on the mountain, where clearings have
been made for the miners. the view is
made much more beautiful by the near
foreground of the solid green of the
spruce forest. Just in the edge of the
forest are large reduction works, their
suIOAo pouring uP'a PeiPe1uoi ~iuiiu
column of almost rainbow tints. Here
one may see long rows of bins filed
with the ore from different mines. 1t
looks simply like yellow dirt, but fire
turns it into solid silver. 1 looked into
the mouths of the great furnaces; the
molten mass dubbed and seethed;
from one opening ran the worthless
" Stag" from the other the shining
metal. The Stag was caught in an iron
vessel shaped like an inverted beehive,
and swung between two wheels. BY .
long tongue two men drew it out, emp
tied the fiery metal on the ground and