The Elk Mountain pilot. [volume] (Irwin, (Ruby Camp), Gunnison County, Colo.) 1880-19??, 1880-08-19
CRESTED BUTTE
Situation .sd Prospects Of . atssiissn
Town.

1Hc interest WHICH your IcducIS
take in this embryo city, as manifested
by numerous letters of inquiry, in
duces me to send you some general
account of its location and prospects.
II will be.ssea by reference to Hay
den's Cor other) map of Colorado that
it is, in the FIRST place, more centrally
located in reference to the principal
mines of Gunnison county than any
other town. After once crossing the
continental divide going west,
whether We take one or the other of
the four principal passes, Cotton
wood, Alpine, Monarch or MarshalD, !,
the route thither is wholly on water
grade, and affords not only the easiest
and shortest wagon road, but also IT.
comparably the best railway route,
into the very heart Of the silver and
coal mines Of the county, and thence
onward through the Ute reservation
to Utah. That this is destined to be
the principal railway route no one at
all familiar with the topography Of the
country can reasonably doubt. There
promises already to be lively COM
petition between at least two railroad
companies for the prior occupancy Of
this favorite grade. But this town
must, in any event, become and
doubtless continue for some time to
be the western terminus. That it
will always be the most important
town on the line On the road west of
the range is insured by its geograph-
ical position and great natural re-
sources, as we'll as by the varied in
tcrests and industries which necessa-
rily center here, No one cognizant
of the facts relative to this place, and
familiar with the causes that contri-
butte to the rapid and permanent
growth of our western mining towns,
hesitate to rank Crested Butte as the
Culture great" The richest mining
camps in this county, which means
(in all probability the richest in the
State, are tributary to its trade, not
only in general merchandise and
mining supplies, but also of coke and
coal, of which she has at her very
doors an unbounded supply of the
finest quality. The advantages of her
position are such that wholesale
merchant located here and carrying
any line of goods consumed in a
mining camp, could distance, beyond
competition, rival located elsewhere;
and this would be equally true with or
without railroads. The most prom
ising mines so far opened in Gun
nison county are those of Ruby camp,
Redwell basin, Slate river, (both east
and west forks), and Washington
gulch. Now the whole scope of
country compromising these mining
camps is bowl-shaped; broken up of
course more or less by spars and peaks
and minor divides; but all draining
toward a common centre, the valley
of Slate river, where lies Crested
Butte, at its junction with Coal creek
and at an altitude of from one to
two thousand feet lower than the sur
rounding camps above mentioned.
Thus these towns and mines ON the
outer rim of the bowl are all easily &C
cessible by water-grade from Crested
Butte which is nearly equl-distant
from them all and is their natural ore
market and supply town as we'll as the
true smelling point for all this region.
1t is we'll understood among the
miners of this section that higher
net price can be realized for their ore
at Crested Butte than at Denver or
elsewhere in the State.
As might be expected from the
above facts the town is growing
rapidly, and the improvements which
are being erected are of a superior and
permanent character. The town
company is actively engaged in
grading streets, building sidewalks
and two saw-mills are running night
and day to supply the increasing de-
mand for lumber, 10th for home use
and the neighboring towns. The sll-
yer mines contiguous to town up both