Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-12-27
CRIPPLE CREEK.
How the Famous Mining Town
Sprang Into Existence.
4 FOR Many Ysara the Rich Gold fieids
Were Used as a Cattle Ranch-The
Discovery of Drunken
Blacksmith.

old KentuclSians of the names OF BOD
and "Rill" WomaX, who took up 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 their wagons,
some little gold was washed out here
but not enough IT, encourage anyone &c
stay. So the prospectors passed on
into the mountains and left the land
for the Womax brothers to feed theil
cattle on.
They didn't dream, says the Chicago
Record, that gold was there, and be
coming tired cf the place about seven
years ago sold it to Bennett & Myers,
firm of real estate agents in Denver
who had loaned them money. There
were 400 or 500 cattle on the place. anc
several hundred miles of fencing
which inclosed about $4,000 acres OF
government land. For ell this Bennett
& Myers paid $4,000, and when they
rot the title they organized the Pixies
Peak cattle company, with a capital OF
S1.oOO,OO l3ut before they got things
ready to pat the stock on the market
President Cleveland issued his procla'
n.ation ordering the cattlenen to tear
down all the fences they had erected
upon public land. That practically de-
urived the new company of 50,00occr
Of pasturage and knocked the profits
out of ranching in Colorado.
In February, 1891, Bennett & Myera
rot q 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
lers, and he asked for instructions.
They wrote back to hin 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. lie followed his let
ter to Denver a few days afterand gave
his employers a description of affairs.
SO they went up to make an inspection,
which resulted in the transfer of tho
cattle to Il less valuable pasture. and
the plating of q 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 Wooten,
who had been hanging around the
ranch for months at time, and Of
course found it by accident He at
once advertised the fact among all the
prospcctors and mining men in that
part of the country and they came up
in swarms to serape over the beds OF
the streams and rake out the grass
roots. A man by the name Of Frisbec
was the first to discover gold quartz Il
few weeks after Wooten's find. In less
than six months there were thousand
prospectors at work in the valley, and
now more than 1900 miners are on
ployed in the hundreds Of mines that
lie on that ranch alone. They have
taken out more than $1,000 00 or 3d.
100000 in gold. The yield for the first
year was about 100000 In 1897 it
reached sl,50o.0O0, and in 1893 s., AGO.
900 The miners strike last spring put
things back enormously, but, notwith-
standing between four and i've months
that were actually wasted, the yield
this year Will average 500, 900 month,
or a total of S9,500,00o. During this
month they expect to reach the $780,
600 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 poor mans camp; that
is. the owners of most of the mines
v-cre men without capital to develop
them, and they we're compelled to put
ter along with the most primitive
apparatus until they had made enougl
to buy modern machinery.
The independence mine, which is re
garded as the most valuable in th'
Cripple Creek district, is a good illus
tration. 1t was discovered and is ownet
bv man named W. S. or "Bill" STRAIT
ton. a carpenter at Colorado Springs
VINO came up to the camp to spend tn
Fourth of July in 1892. Wandering
over what is known as Battle Inouu
tain, near the site of the present tow
of Victor, he said in ocular way t
his companion that he was going +
throw his hat down the hill and locat
a claim where it fell He drove hi
stake, filed his papers, and ''worl1e
his assessment" according to law, an
after awhile he struck vein of gol
that is said to be richer than any othe
that has been discovered here. ii
had no money and was very shy c
partners. Denver syndicate offere
him 81 900, 600 for the property, and q
first he thought they were joking
Little by little as he got out the or,
he was able to make Improvement
and upon the reputation of his mine h
succeeded in persuading Chicago fir
to furnish him $4,000 plant that run
by electricity, and is said to be the be!
in the Cripple Creek camps. He CAV
notes in payment, and within twent
day after his machinery started ",
able to take them up with his profit
The mine is now paying 100000
month net. the bankers here say, an
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