Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-12-06
How the Famous Mining Town
Sprang Into e istence.
For Many Years the RIes .'oid Fields
Were Used as q Cattle Ranch-The
Discovery of IA Drunken
Blacksmith.

years cow pasture of two long-limbed
old kentuckians of the names Of Bob"
and Bill" Womax, who took up a sec
ton of land here under the desert land
act about 1876. In the early days of
gold excitement in Colorado, when
people crossed the plains with Pixies
Peak or Bust" painted on theirwagons,
some little gold was washed out here,
but not enough to encourage anyone to
stay. So the prospectors passed on
into the mountains and left the land
for the Womax brothers to feed their
cattle on.
They didn't dream, says the Chicago
Record, that gold was there, and be-
coming tired of the place about seven
years ago sold it to Bennett &c Myers,
firm of real estate agents in Denver
who had loaned them money. There
were 400 or SEQ cattle on the place, and
several hundred miles of fencing,
which inclosed about $4,000 acres of
government land. For all this Bennett
& Myers paid 100000, and when they
got the title they organized the Pixies
Peak cattle company, with a capital of
S1,OOO.OO0 But before they got things
ready to put the stock on the market
President Cleveland issued his procla-
nation ordering the cattlemen to tear
down all the fences they had erected
upon public land. That practically de-
prived the new company of $4,000 acres
of pasturage and knocked the profits
out of ranching in Colorado.
In February, 1891, Bennett & Myers
got letter from their foreman at the
ranch, saying that gold had been dis
covered there, and the prospectors
were digging holes all over the place,
which made it dangerous for the cat
tie. Several cows had already fallen
into these excavations and broken their
legs, and he asked for instructions
They wrote back to him to run the
miners off the place, but he replied that
they were already several hundred in
number, and it was folly to think of
disturbing them. He followed his let
ter to Denver a few days after and gave
his employers a description of affairs.
So they went up to make an inspection,
which resulted in the transfer of the
cattle to a less valuable pasture, and
the plating of town site on eighty
acres of the pasture. That sold off like
hot cakes, and the town of Cripple
Creek was born.
The man who discovered gold was a
drunken blacksmith of Colorado
Springs, of the name of Dick Wootcn,
who had been hanging around the
ranch for months at n time, and of
course found it by accident. He at
once advertised the fact among all the
prospectors and mining men in that
part of the country. and they came up
in swarms to scrape over the beds of
the streams and rake out the grass
roots. A man by the name of Frisbee
was the first to discover gold quartz
few weeks after Wooten's find. In less
than six months there were a thousand
prospectors at work in the valley, and
now more than 1000 miners are en-
ployed in the hundreds of mines that
lie on that ranch alone. They have
taken ont more than $1,000, 900 or S.
600. 600 in gold. The yield for the first
year was about 100000. In 1892 it
reached 81 ,5OO,Oo0 and in 1898 s., 400,
OOO The miners strike last spring put
things back enormously, but, notwith-
standing between four and five months
that were actually wasted, the yield
this year viii average 100000 month,
or total of 81, 500, COO. During this
month they expect to reach the S1,00O,-
900 mark, and next year the output will
be doubled.
Until recently very few of the miners
had been working with improved
machinery. Cripple Creek has been
emphatically a poor mans camp; that
is, the owners Of most of the mines
were men without capital to develop
them, and they were compelled to put
ter alopg with the most primitive
apparatus until they had made enough
to buy modern machinery.
The Independence mine, which is re-
garded as the most valuable in the
Cripple Creek district, is n good Illus
tration. 1t was discovered and is owned
by man named w. S. or "Bill" STRAIT
ton, carpenter at Colorado Springs,
who came up to the camp to spend the
Fourth of July in 1892 Wandering
over what Is known as Battle noun
tain, near the site of the present town
of Victor, he said in u jocular way to
his companion that he was going to
throw his hat down the hill and locate
d claim where it fell He drove his
stake, fled his papers, and worked
his assessment" according to law, and
after awhile he struck vein of gold
that is said to be richer than any other
that has been discovered here. He
had no money and was very shy of
partners. A Denver syndicate offered
him 81, 200, 900 for the property, and at
first he thought they were joking.
Little by little, as he got out the ore,
he was able to make improvements,
and upon the reputation of his mine he
succeeded in persuading q Chicago firm
to furnish him $4,000 plant that runs
by electricity, and is said to be the best
in the Cripple Creek camps. He gave
notes in payment, and within twenty
day after his machinery started was
able to take them up with his profits.
The mine is now paying 500, 900
month net, the bankers here say, and
there are millions of dollars in the ore
in sight.
They call Bill Stratton "the king Of
Battle mountain"
The Horse Came Beck.