Birmingham state herald., 1896-01-05
ROOMS OF EARLIER DAYS Colorado Gold Mine Excitement
 in the eos. SILVER MINES WORKED Fer the Yellow Metal-The Presence of the White Metal Was Unknown-A Tale
 of Shrewd Prospectors.

create a boom for their stocks brings to mind former boom in Colorado wild cats" a recital of which may prove in- teresting to the general reader and pos sibly instin little caution into the minds of those who, attracted by the glowing reports daily sent out from the field of operations, may contemplate investing money in the newly discovered mines.
 Previous to 1866 silver in Colorado was practically undiscovered. From the dis eovery of gold on Cherry Creek in 1858 had followed the prospecting of every bar and flat along the Arkansas, the Platte, Clear Creek, Bowder Cherry Greek and their af1iuents. All the coun- try east of the continental divide. the great Snowy range, had been explored in the eager search for gold. The sand and bowlder-strewn bars had yielded millions of yellow dust and nuggets
 From pan. rocker and sluice box the fat ted globes of quicksilver had come with their prec.ous loads of golden dust They were squeezed in a buckskin sack, the quicksilver escaping through the tough buckhide leaving the shining dust inside Or they were put into a retort placed in heated furnace. and the quicksilver would bubble out of the top leaving a shining golden button in the bottom. Then the same quicksilver was again put into the pans, rockers and sluices to again and again gather its load of gold.
 At Black Hawk, Central City, Idaho and Empire, stamp mills had been pounding to powder the ores from lodes discovered between 1859 and 1885, Thou sands of dollars had been squandered in new and experimental machinery, for ex- tracting the gold from the hard, refrac- tory ores found in the mines in this re- zion. This costly machinery was brought from the Missouri river, over 600 miles across the Indian-infested plains to Denver and Golden City in freight wagons drawn by mules or oxen, and in some cases packed on the backs of mules and burros up into the mountains at cost for tranSpOrta ton that would make gthe howlers against what is called rail way extortion" now-a days blush with shame. Ninety-nne per cent of these costly milling experiments were as use less for the purpose for which they were intended as they would have been had they been set up 300 miles east of Den yer and set to work crushing cactus and prickly pear with the expectEtfUm r1rHt it would result in the production of champagne. All that existed in Colorado in 1S66-7 was hope. Hope. that some process for milling the hard pyrites would be hit upon. Hope, that victims would be found in the east to buy the numerous prospect holes every man had for sale. Hope, that the railways then coming across the plains, one from Oma- ha, the other from Kansas City, would bring cheaper living and cheaper mining bor. Hope, for an influx of "tender- feet which they were eager to greet, and more eager to beat The railways arrived about 1869, but before that silver had been found, and the great silver state. then a territory. had been chris tened.
 About 1862 Stephen F. Nuckolls an ad- ,tytrn ,trft on the frontier of Missouri. had gone into Nebraska when the Indians left it in 1854 Feeling that he was too closely hemmed in by population of something less than 10000 people in the territory of Nebraska, he migrated in 1862 to Colo radO He pitched his tents in pretty park 5000 feet above the level of the sea, fifty miles west of Denver, at the conflu- ence of the right and left forks of South Clear creek There these clear. cold mountain streams came tumbling noisily down from the eternal snow and ice of the snowy range which lowered up 3000 to 5000 feet above the pretty park Here this "boomer" laid out town on the site
 where now stands the once prosperous silver mining town. Georgetown, Col.
 The steep. snow-capped mountains that oyer-topped the park and hid the sun until a. m and after D. m., were ribbed with lodes in which ore was found. Any "tenderfoot" could find these mines. and ore was on the top to be seen by them who ran." Keen MT. Nuckolls laid claim tc all of the universe that was in sight; then he went east to organize a company who were to "yank" millions out of the rock-ribbed mountains. In the east he found fools and their money" ready to. separate. With an inspector who was in the interest of the fools he returned to Colorado. By methods well understood by the innocent early settlers of Colorado he got a report from the emissary of the fools that enabled him to acquire $150,000 of the debased national currency of the day He sold gold mines in which there was no gold Some of them were pretty fair silver mines. but no one knew that. The purchasers put up stamp mill fed 1t the ore out of the mines they had bought. and it Is likely that several thou sands of dollars of silver was pounded < to dust by the heavy stamps and foated sinto the creek through the sluice in which the hungry quicksilver was grasping for the gold that came not to It's miserly clutch At last the patience, or the money. or both. of the victimized Invest ors was exhausted, and they joined the ranks of "tenderfeet" going east that Ehad been inaugurated by the fellow who. in '50, had crossed the plains, on whose wagon cover was painted "Pike's Peak or Bust" and on his return a few months later was added below the line: Busted, by G-d"
 In 1886, while every one In the great sil- yer state was. like Micawber, waiting for something to turn up," some one found out that these old mines that stephen F. Nuckolls had sold for gold mines were silver mines. and at once Georgetown absorbed all the life and held all the hopes of Colorado outside of few paying mines at Black Hawk and Central City, and the unexplafnable ! something that has always kept Denver going at a gallop. Two smelters were ready for work in the spring of 1867, X whenever the deep snow that covered the mines should disappear.
 In Georgetown there sojourned a couple of soldiers of fortune and pa irons of poverty. young fellows of svod education, who had come to Colorado to court fortune, and had received it's hard rebuffs complacently, satisfied if. they had comfortable cabin and grub stake" of flour and bacon Dr. Darnall and John w. Campbell were the names
 by which they had been known in the land of civilization. spoken of in Cobra do those days as "back in the states" For a diversion. and to escape the round