page_title: Leadville, Colorado
section_title: Settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Leadville, Colorado / History / Settlement
context_page_description: Leadville is the statutory city that is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,602 at the 2010 census and an estimated 2,762 in 2018. Leadville is situated at an elevation of 10,152 feet.
  A former silver mining town that lies among the headwaters of the Arkansas River in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, the Leadville Historic District contains many historic structures and sites in its dynamic mining era. In the late 19th century, Leadville was the second most populous city in Colorado, after Denver. Leadville is notable for having many 14,000 foot peaks viewable from town.
context_section_description: The Leadville area was first settled in 1859 when placer gold was discovered in California Gulch during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. By 1860, a town, Oro City (oro is the Spanish word for gold), located about a mile from present-day Leadville, had sprung up, and a year later its population had reached more than 5,000. But the boom was brief because the placer-mined gold soon ran out, and Oro City never became a major settlement.
  The early miners had noted that mining for placer gold was hampered by heavy black sand in the sluice boxes, and in 1874 it was discovered that the heavy sand that impeded gold recovery was the lead mineral cerussite, which has a high silver content. Prospectors traced the cerussite to its source, present day Leadville, and by 1876 had discovered several silver-lead lode deposits.
  Horace Tabor, who became known as the "Leadville Silver King", and his wife Augusta were among the first prospectors to arrive in Oro City. Tabor tried his luck at prospecting while his wife worked as a camp cook, laundress, banker and postmistress.
caption: Leadville, as viewed from California Gulch - early photo, date unknown
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