Gold mining in Colorado , a state of the United States , has been an industry since 1858. It also played a key role in the establishment of the state of Colorado .
77-668: Explorer Zebulon Pike heard a report of gold in South Park , present-day Park County, Colorado , in 1807. Gold discoveries in Colorado began around Denver; prospectors traced the placer gold to its source in the mountains west of Denver, then followed the Colorado Mineral Belt in a southwest direction across the state to its terminus in the San Juan Mountains . The Cripple Creek district, far from
154-539: A Miocene volcanic caldera filled with quartz latite porphyry. The ore bodies are veins and replacement zones within the quartz latite. The ore minerals are gold and silver tellurides, with accessory fluorite. The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company formed in 1976 as a joint venture to restart mining in the district. From 1976 to 1989, the company produced 150,000 troy ounces (4.7 t) of gold by reprocessing tailings and mining two small surface deposits. The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company began
231-480: A Treaty of St. Peters agreement with the native Dakota Indians, purchasing the future site of Fort Snelling . The expedition proceeded further upriver, stopping to construct a winter camp at the mouth of the Swan River , south of present-day Little Falls, Minnesota , on October 16. On December 10, they continued upstream along the frozen river on foot, visiting several British North West Company fur posts along
308-586: A Royal, then Imperial French Army officer who had been tasked to tour the Mississippi frontier and draw maps that France might use if it were to try and seize the lightly settled heartland territory of the Mississippi River valley basin from the nascent United States further to the East. In the summer of 1805, General-in-Chief James Wilkinson ordered young Lt. Pike to locate the northern source of
385-552: A banded texture characterized by alternating darker and lighter colored bands and without a distinct cleavage . Gneisses are common in the ancient crust of continental shields . Some of the oldest rocks on Earth are gneisses, such as the Acasta Gneiss . In traditional English and North American usage, a gneiss is a coarse-grained metamorphic rock showing compositional banding ( gneissic banding ) but poorly developed schistosity and indistinct cleavage . In other words, it
462-834: A book so popular that it was translated into several languages for publication in Europe. He later achieved the rank of brigadier general in the American Army and served during the War of 1812 until he was killed during the Battle of York in April 1813, outside the British colonial capital of Upper Canada . Pike was born on January 5, 1779, in Lamington, New Jersey . He was the son of Isabella (Brown) and Zebulon Pike, and would follow in
539-572: A broad textural category for medium- to coarse-grained metamorphic rock that shows poorly developed schistosity, with compositional layering over 5 millimeters (0.20 in) thick and tending to split into plates over 1 centimeter (0.39 in) thick. Neither definition depends on composition or origin, though rocks poor in platy minerals are more likely to produce gneissose texture. Gneissose rocks thus are largely recrystallized but do not carry large quantities of micas, chlorite or other platy minerals. Metamorphic rock showing stronger schistosity
616-482: A cartographer who also acted as an interpreter. Walker transcribed and translated Pike's confiscated documents, including his journal. Spanish authorities feared the spread of both their democracy and Protestant Christian sects that might undermine their rule. During this time, Pike had access to various maps of the southwest and New Spain , and especially learned about colonial Mexico's increasing discontentment with Royal Spanish rule. Spain filed official protests with
693-496: A diary of the party's journey from Georgia to California, wrote on that day: "Lay bye. Gold found." In a notation above the entry, he wrote, "We called this Ralston's Creek because a man of that name found gold here." Ralston continued to California, but returned to 'Ralston's Creek' with the Green Russell party eight years later. Members of this party founded Auraria (later absorbed into Denver City) in 1858 and touched off
770-472: A few years, but then declined in the mid-1860s as the miners exhausted the shallow parts of the veins that contained free gold and found that their amalgamation mills could not recover gold from the deeper sulfide ores. Nathaniel P. Hill built Colorado's first successful ore smelter in Blackhawk in 1868. Hill's smelter could recover gold from the sulfide ores, an achievement that saved hardrock mining in
847-463: A gesture of reconciliation, arriving at their winter encampment on March 5. They re-embarked in their pirogues for the downriver journey on April 7, reaching St. Louis on April 20. Pike's was the second expedition besides earlier Lewis and Clark , dispatched by the U.S. government into its new western territories , and the first to return. After Lieutenant Pike returned from this first expedition, General Wilkinson almost immediately ordered him to mount
SECTION 10
#1732773173206924-531: A missing portion of Pike's confiscated journals, is usually told in two segments. The first sequence involves Pike's unlikely acquisition of a great treasure. The second is a description of Pike's discovery of the lost city "Palanor," said to be built by pre-Columbian European settlers, and his decision to hide the treasure there. As Michael Olsen shows, after Pike's death in battle, his military accomplishments were widely celebrated in terms of biographies, mourning memorials, paintings, poems, and songs, and he became
1001-573: A second expedition, this time to the Southwest to explore, map, and find the headwaters of the Arkansas River and parallel Red River of the South upstream from the lower Mississippi River . Additional objectives of this exploratory expedition into the southwestern part of the new Louisiana Territory were to evaluate natural resources and establish friendly relations with Native Americans. It
1078-596: A series of frontier posts, including Fort Belle Fontaine near today's St. Louis . General-in-Chief James Wilkinson (1757-1825), of the United States Army was appointed by third President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, served 1801-1809), as first Governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory and headquartered there, becaming young Pike's mentor. In 1796, Pike shadowed the expedition of General Georges Henri Victor Collot (1750-1805),
1155-589: A short side trip (February 12 to 14), Pike traveled to the North West Company fur post on Upper Red Cedar Lake (later renamed Cass Lake), designating the lake as the upper source of the Mississippi and taking celestial observations / calculations to determine its latitude . Pike and his men left Leech Lake on February 18, carrying diplomatic tokens from the Ojibwe chiefs to present to the Dakota chiefs as
1232-712: A subsidiary of Galactic Resources of Vancouver, British Columbia started open pit heap-leach mining at the Summitville mine . Mining ceased in 1992, and remediation started. However, Galactic Resources declared bankruptcy in December 1992, and the US Environmental Protection Agency stepped in to prevent releases of pollution from the property. The EPA declared it a federal Superfund site in May 1993. The total cost of environmental cleanup at
1309-475: Is a gneiss resulting from metamorphism of granite, which contains characteristic elliptic or lenticular shear-bound grains ( porphyroclasts ), normally feldspar , surrounded by finer grained material. The finer grained material deforms around the more resistant feldspar grains to produce this texture. Migmatite is a gneiss consisting of two or more distinct rock types, one of which has the appearance of an ordinary gneiss (the mesosome ), and another of which has
1386-488: Is a metamorphic rock composed of mineral grains easily seen with the unaided eye, which form obvious compositional layers, but which has only a weak tendency to fracture along these layers. In Europe, the term has been more widely applied to any coarse, mica -poor, high-grade metamorphic rock. The British Geological Survey (BGS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) both use gneiss as
1463-518: Is called gneissic banding. The darker bands have relatively more mafic minerals (those containing more magnesium and iron ). The lighter bands contain relatively more felsic minerals (minerals such as feldspar or quartz , which contain more of the lighter elements, such as aluminium , sodium , and potassium ). The banding is developed at high temperature when the rock is more strongly compressed in one direction than in other directions ( nonhydrostatic stress ). The bands develop perpendicular to
1540-449: Is classified as schist, while metamorphic rock devoid of schistosity is called a granofels . Gneisses that are metamorphosed igneous rocks or their equivalent are termed granite gneisses, diorite gneisses, and so forth. Gneiss rocks may also be named after a characteristic component such as garnet gneiss, biotite gneiss, albite gneiss, and so forth. Orthogneiss designates a gneiss derived from an igneous rock , and paragneiss
1617-600: Is commonly said that his expedition was an innocent exploration of the West, but that is not the case. This was a mission to prepare for a possible American invasion of the neighboring Royal Spanish provinces of New Mexico and Texas over the disputed southwest border from France's sale of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Beginning July 15, 1806, Pike led what became known as the " Pike Expedition ". In early November 1806, Pike and his team sighted and tried to climb to
SECTION 20
#17327731732061694-697: Is maintained to this day by the Pike National Trail Association. Pike was honored in 1901 by General William Jackson Palmer with a marble statue placed near the main entrance of the Antlers Hotel . Pike was later honored in 1926 with a bronze medallion portrait placed in the pavilion at Tahama Spring (named after Pike's Dakota guide, Chief Tahama ) in Monument Valley Park, Colorado Springs. For over two hundred years, historians have debated whether Pike
1771-517: Is one from a sedimentary rock . Both the BGS and the IUGS use gneissose to describe rocks with the texture of gneiss, though gneissic also remains in common use. For example, a gneissose metagranite or a gneissic metagranite both mean a granite that has been metamorphosed and thereby acquired gneissose texture. The minerals in gneiss are arranged into layers that appear as bands in cross section. This
1848-510: Is subjected to extreme temperature and pressure and is composed of alternating layers of sandstone (lighter) and shale (darker), which is metamorphosed into bands of quartzite and mica. Another cause of banding is "metamorphic differentiation", which separates different materials into different layers through chemical reactions, a process not fully understood. Augen gneiss , from the German : Augen [ˈaʊɡən] , meaning "eyes",
1925-461: The Leadville district began in April 1860, with one of the richest discoveries of Colorado placer gold at California Gulch , the site of Oro City . Another rich discovery was made at McNulty Gulch along the headwaters of Tenmile Creek. The placers were exhausted within four years, but lode gold was discovered in 1868. The gold discoveries led to the discovery of the silver deposits in 1877, and
2002-815: The Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Red River Expedition in 1806. Pike's second expedition crossed the Rocky Mountains into what is now southern Colorado, which led to his capture by the Spanish colonial authorities near Santa Fe , who sent Pike and his men to Chihuahua (present-day Mexico) for interrogation. Later in 1807, Pike and some of his men were escorted by the Spanish through Texas and released near American territory in Louisiana . In 1810, Pike published an account of his expeditions,
2079-601: The Mississippi River , explore the northern portion of the newly created and beginning to organize the Louisiana Territory , and expel any British / Canadian roving fur traders illegally trading within the new western borders of the expanded United States . Pike left St. Louis on August 9, 1805, proceeding upstream by pirogue . He and his crew reached the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers on September 21, where he negotiated
2156-472: The New York shore of Lake Ontario , for what became his last military campaign. On this expedition, Pike commanded combat troops in the successful attack on York (now Toronto ) on April 27, 1813. Pike was killed, along with numerous other American troops, by flying rocks and other debris when the withdrawing British garrison blew up its ammunition magazine as Pike's troops approached Fort York . His body
2233-646: The Pike's Peak Gold Rush , prospector George A. Jackson discovered placer gold at the present site of Idaho Springs, where Chicago Creek empties into Clear Creek . It was the first substantial gold discovery in Colorado. Jackson, a Missouri native with experience in the California gold fields, was drawn to the area by clouds of steam rising from some nearby hot springs . Jackson kept his find secret for several months, but after he paid for some supplies with gold dust, others rushed to Jackson's diggings. The settlement
2310-545: The Alma mining district are Snowstorm, home of the famous Snowstorm Dredge , and Cincinnati. In 1882, the Alma Placer Mining Company owned roughly 640 acres of placer mines. The only hindrance is that this type of mining can only be conducted during the short summer months. After prospectors established placer mines all over Park County's gulches, they moved on to the more difficult mountain veins to plunge
2387-749: The Colorado Mineral Belt west along Clear Creek, then over the mountain passes to South Park and to the headwaters of the Blue River. Placer gold was discovered in the Breckenridge , or Blue River district, in 1859 at Gold Run by the Weaver Brothers, at Georgia, American, French, and Humbug Gulches on the Swan River, on the Blue River itself, and at the confluence of French Gulch and the Blue River. Harry Farncomb found
Gold mining in Colorado - Misplaced Pages Continue
2464-646: The Louisiana border on July 1, 1807. Pike was promoted to the rank of captain during the southwestern expedition. In 1811, Pike fought with the 4th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Tippecanoe under General (and future ninth President) William Henry Harrison (1773-1841). He was promoted to colonel of the 15th Infantry Regiment in July 1812. Pike's military career also included service as deputy quartermaster -general in New Orleans and inspector general during
2541-601: The Mississippi River, through Louisiana Territory, and in New Spain, during the Years 1805–6–7 . These journals and maps gave Americans important information about trade opportunities along with the blueprints for the Santa Fe Trail. It was popular and was later translated into Dutch, French, and German editions. It became popular reading for all American explorers who followed him in the 19th century. Pike's capture by
2618-605: The Spanish and travel through the Southwest gave Pike insight into the region. For example, he described the politics in Chihuahua, which led to the Mexican independence movement, and described trade conditions in the Spanish territories of New Mexico and Chihuahua. In some eastern regions of North America, a tradition or legend pervades often referred to as The Lost City of Palanor or Zebulon's Gift which has been attributed to Pike's journals. The myth, said to be derived from
2695-645: The United States about Pike's exploring expedition, but since the nations were not at war (and the Kingdom of Spain was rebelling against Napoleon Bonaparte's younger brother, who was put in place to rule Spain and was also fighting Great Britain in the Peninsular War ), Commandant Salcedo released the American military men. The Spanish escorted Pike and most of his men back north, releasing them at
2772-668: The Wrightman Fork of the Alamosa River . Gold veins were discovered in 1871, and large-scale production started in 1875 after the construction of a mill. By 1880, the Little Annie vein helped make Summitville Colorado's largest gold producer. Over 100,000 ounces of gold were produced by 1890. Operations were continuous until 1906, then sporadic after that. Gold production up to 1990 was 520,000 troy ounces (16 t). In 1985, Summitville Consolidated Mining Company,
2849-458: The amphibolite or granulite facies. These form most of the exposed rock in Archean cratons . Gneiss domes are common in orogenic belts (regions of mountain formation). They consist of a dome of gneiss intruded by younger granite and migmatite and mantled with sedimentary rock. These have been interpreted as a geologic record of two distinct mountain-forming events, with the first producing
2926-538: The appearance of an intrusive rock such pegmatite , aplite , or granite the ( leucosome ). The rock may also contain a melanosome of mafic rock complementary to the leucosome. Migmatites are often interpreted as rock that has been partially melted, with the leucosome representing the silica-rich melt, the melanosome the residual solid rock left after partial melting, and the mesosome the original rock that has not yet experienced partial melting. Gneisses are characteristic of areas of regional metamorphism that reaches
3003-654: The area, though that area had been actively mined since 1860. The principal districts were the Alma - Fairplay district on the headwaters of the South Platte River , and the Tarryall district along Tarryall Creek northwest of Como, Colorado . Important lode gold deposits were later discovered above Alma. A floating dredge worked the floor of the South Park valley east of Fairplay from 1941 to 1952, leaving
3080-416: The bottom of the deck in the other direction. These forces stretch out the rock like a plastic , and the original material is spread out into sheets. Per the polar decomposition theorem , the deformation produced by such shearing force is equivalent to rotation of the rock combined with shortening in one direction and extension in another. Some banding is formed from original rock material (protolith) that
3157-529: The depths for riches. Lode mining costs more than surface mining, and there are also significant risks to this method including a loss of air supply, explosions, and implosions. Like everyone who came West had hoped, gold was found in the lode mines. The first lode mine in the Alma district was located in Buckskin Gulch, and it was explored by local icon Joseph Higginbottoms, aka Buckskin Joe. That first claim
Gold mining in Colorado - Misplaced Pages Continue
3234-402: The direction of greatest compression, also called the shortening direction, as platy minerals are rotated or recrystallized into parallel layers. A common cause of nonhydrodynamic stress is the subjection of the protolith (the original rock material that undergoes metamorphism) to extreme shearing force, a sliding force similar to the pushing of the top of a deck of cards in one direction, and
3311-515: The distinctive gravel ridges that can still be seen. Production from the Tarryall district was 67,000 troy ounces (2.1 t), almost all from placers. The Alma-Fairplay district produced 1,550,000 troy ounces (48 t), more than two-thirds of which came from lode deposits. Before any prospectors in Park County began excavating the mountains, they used placer mining to extract gold from
3388-524: The district. In 1897, half a million Troy ounces of gold was produced, and in 1900, 900,000 troy ounces, two thirds of the US output. By 1920, 41 mines were active, and cumulative gold production was over 500 tons. Located a few miles southwest of Pike's Peak , the Cripple Creek district wasn't discovered until later in the "rush", which was known as the " Pike's Peak Gold Rush ", because Pike's Peak
3465-432: The district. Other smelters were built nearby. Through 1959, the district produced about 6,300,000 troy ounces (200 t), mostly from sulfide veins in gneiss and granodiorite . The early gold discoveries were at the northeast end of the Colorado Mineral Belt , a large alignment of mineral deposits that stretches northeast-southwest across the mountainous part of Colorado . From Idaho Springs , prospectors followed
3542-464: The first large-scale open pit mining in the district in 1994. The Cresson mine open pits are located a few miles north of Victor. Mining continues today under the ownership of Newmont Corporation , which boosted gold production from 211,000 troy ounces (6.6 t) in 2014 to 451,000 troy ounces (14.0 t) in 2017, and 322,000 troy ounces (10.0 t) in 2019. Some miners who worked in this district died in different ways including flu, pneumonia, in
3619-639: The footsteps of his father, who had begun his own career in the military service of the United States in 1775 at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War . Through his father, he was a direct descendant of Robert Pike , who was famous being an opponent of the Salem witchcraft prosecutions of 1692 . Zebulon Pike Jr. grew to adulthood with his family at a series of outposts in Ohio and Illinois —the United States' northwestern frontier at
3696-419: The founding of the city of Leadville . The Little Johnny silver and lead mine, dating from 1879, was further developed in 1893, by John F. Campion and James Joseph Brown , which resulted in the production of large deposits of high-grade gold-copper ore. The Leadville district produced 3,200,000 troy ounces (100 t) of gold, mostly as a byproduct of silver mining. Prospectors found placer gold in 1870 in
3773-485: The gold dredges can still be seen along the Blue River and Snake River , and the remains of a dredge are still afloat in a pond off the Swan River. Prospectors discovered rich placer deposits on the west side of South Park in 1859. The deposits were in valleys on the east side of the Mosquito Range. The town of Alma, Colorado , the heart of this district, was established on December 2, 1872 by miners working
3850-521: The gold rush to the Rockies. The confluence of Clear Creek and Ralston Creek , the site of Colorado's first gold discovery, is now in Arvada, Colorado . A gold discovery in 1858 in the vicinity of present-day Denver sparked the Pike's Peak Gold Rush . In 1858, prospectors focused on the placers east of the mountains in the sands of Cherry Creek , Clear Creek , and the South Platte River . However,
3927-529: The gold to its source veins in the hills. Gold in some upper gravel benches north of the Blue River was recovered by hydraulic mining . Gold production decreased in the late 1800s, but revived in 1908 by gold dredging operations along the Blue River and Swan River . The Breckenridge mining district is credited with production of about 1,000,000 troy ounces (31 t) of gold. The gold mines around Breckenridge are all shut down, although some are open to tourist visits. The characteristic gravel ridges left by
SECTION 50
#17327731732064004-595: The granite basement and the second deforming and melting this basement to produce the domes. However, some gneiss domes may actually be the cores of metamorphic core complexes , regions of the deep crust brought to the surface and exposed during extension of the Earth's crust . The word gneiss has been used in English since at least 1757. It is borrowed from the German word Gneis , formerly also spelled Gneiss , which
4081-561: The later part of the War of 1812 (1812-1815). Pike commanded the advance guard of an American force which was defeated—primarily because of the poor planning and half-hearted effort of his commander, Henry Dearborn —at the first Battle of Lacolle Mills in November 1812. Pike was promoted to brigadier general in March 1813. Along with General Jacob Brown , Pike departed from the newly fortified rural military outpost of Sackets Harbor , on
4158-473: The local waterways. Placer mines began to appear all over Park County after 1861. Placer gold was found in Tarryall, Fairplay, Alma, Breckenridge , and Leadville . A notable amount came from the beds of the South Platte River . Many placer claims existed to the south and west of Alma. The mining town of Montgomery in Hoosier Pass had another small placer gold operation in 1911. Two notable placer mines in
4235-521: The middle amphibolite to granulite metamorphic facies . In other words, the rock was metamorphosed at a temperature in excess of 600 °C (1,112 °F) at pressures between about 2 to 24 kbar . Many different varieties of rock can be metamorphosed to gneiss, so geologists are careful to add descriptions of the color and mineral composition to the name of any gneiss, such as garnet-biotite paragneiss or grayish-pink orthogneiss . Continental shields are regions of exposed ancient rock that make up
4312-606: The mine, at home, or suicide. A list of dead miners has been recorded in a small notebook labeled "Dead". A photocopy of the notebook is held by the Cripple Creek District Museum . Colorado gold production was 270,000 ounces in 1892, 660,000 ounces in 1895, peaked in 1900 at 1,400,000 ounces, and reached over one million ounces in 1916 for the last time. Gold production in 1922 was 300,000 ounces, and 200,000 ounces in 1928. The Gold Reserve Act helped increase production to 370,000 ounces in 1936. Production
4389-497: The mineral belt, was one of the last gold districts to be discovered and is still in production. On June 22, 1850, a wagon train bound for California crossed the South Platte River just north of the confluence with Clear Creek and followed Clear Creek west for six miles (9.7 km). Lewis Ralston dipped his gold pan into a stream flowing into Clear Creek and found about a quarter of a troy ounce (worth almost $ 5, equivalent to $ 180 today) in his first pan. John Lowery Brown, who kept
4466-521: The most productive gold-producing district in Colorado, and the third-most productive in the United States (after Carlin, Nevada and Lead, South Dakota ). Many of the mines in the district were quite deep and difficult to drain. The almost five-mile (8.0 km) Roosevelt Tunnel was a mine drainage tunnel dug between 1907 and 1919 below the Cripple Creek area to drain the mines and simplify ore haulage. The Cripple Creek mining district covers
4543-516: The name "Crazy Bob". His efforts finally paid off in 1890, when he found the El Paso lode. Winfield Scott Stratton discovered what became his Portland Mine at the site of Victor. By 1893, 10,000 miners working the district produced one third of Colorado's gold output. Gold cyanidation was introduced in 1895, and used alongside chlorination in the mills for gold extraction . By 1895, half of Colorado's gold production of 660,000 ounces came from
4620-487: The namesake for dozens of towns, counties, and ships. His memory faded after the Civil War but rebounded in 1906, at the centennial of his Southwest Expedition. His 20th-century reputation focused on his exploration, and his name appeared often on natural features, such as dams, islands, lakes, and parks. Pike's Peak remains the second most visited mountain in the world. Pike's expedition route of approximately 3,664 miles
4697-494: The new United States' desire that the Ojibwe and Dakota cease their mutual hostility and invited the chiefs to attend a peace conference back in St. Louis (all declined the invitation to travel through several hundred miles of hostile territory). On February 10, they ceremonially shot the British red ensign flag from the fur company's flag pole, replacing it with a fifteen stars and fifteen stripes Star-Spangled Banner American flag. On
SECTION 60
#17327731732064774-450: The old colonial capital of Santa Fe of the Royal Spanish province of New Mexico and on further south to the Chihuahua City capital of Chihuahua province, and presented to Commandant General Salcedo, who was governor of the state. Pike was treated well and invited to formal social dinners but still not quite given the treatment of a visiting diplomatic dignitary, and his men were kept prisoner. Salcedo housed Pike with Juan Pedro Walker,
4851-583: The placer deposits on the plains were small, and when the first rich discoveries were made in early 1859 in the mountains farther west, the miners abandoned the placers around Denver. Although the economic portions of the gold placers around Denver were quickly exhausted, producers of construction aggregate in the area sometimes recover small amounts of gold from their sand and gravel washing. The plains counties of Adams , Arapahoe , Douglas , Denver , Elbert and Jefferson are each credited with having produced small amounts of gold. On January 5, 1859, during
4928-419: The site has been estimated to be between $ 100 and $ 120 million (equivalent to between $ 220 and $ 260 million today). In 1998, the general manager and the environmental manager of the mine pleaded guilty to federal pollution charges, and were each sentenced to six months probation and $ 20,000 fines (equivalent to $ 37,000 today). The Sneffels -Red Mountain- Telluride district, in San Miguel and Ouray counties at
5005-413: The source of the French Gulch placer gold on Farncomb Hill in 1878. His strike, Wire Patch, consisted of alluvial gold in wire, leaf and crystalline forms. By 1880, he owned the hill. Farncomb later discovered a gold vein, which became the Wire Patch Mine. Other vein discoveries included Ontario, Key West, Boss, Fountain, and Gold Flake. Lode deposits were developed in the 1880s, as prospectors followed
5082-614: The southwest end of the Colorado Mineral Belt , was discovered in 1875. Thomas Walsh developed the Camp Bird Mine in 1896. The district is within and adjacent to a Tertiary volcanic caldera. Deposits are chimneys and veins in Tertiary volcanics and intrusives, and in older sedimentary rocks. Production through 1959 was 6,800,000 troy ounces (210 t) of gold, as well as considerable silver , lead , and copper . "Part-time cowboy and full-time drinker" Robert Womack found gold float in 1879, which led him to digging countless prospecting holes in an attempt to find its lode, earning him
5159-596: The stable cores of continents. The rock exposed in the oldest regions of shields, which is of Archean age (over 2500 million years old), mostly belong to granite-greenstone belts. The greenstone belts contain metavolcanic and metasedimentary rock that has undergone a relatively mild grade of metamorphism, at temperatures of 350–500 °C (662–932 °F) and pressures of 200–500 MPa (2,000–5,000 bar). The greenstone belts are surrounded by high-grade gneiss terrains showing highly deformed low-pressure, high-temperature (over 500 °C (932 °F)) metamorphism to
5236-559: The summit of the peak later named after him ( Pikes Peak ). They made it as far as Mt. Rosa, located southeast of Pikes Peak, before giving up the ascent in waist-deep snow. They had already gone almost two days without food. They then continued south, searching for the Red River of the South's headwaters, and built a fort for shelter during the winter. However, they had crossed the border, whether through confusion or deliberation. Royal Spanish authorities captured Pike and some of his party on February 26, 1807. Pike and his men were taken to
5313-481: The time. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1799 and promoted to first lieutenant later that same year. Pike married his cousin Clarissa Harlow Brown in 1801. They had one child who survived to adulthood, Clarissa Brown Pike, who later married President William Henry Harrison 's son, John Cleves Symmes Harrison. They had four other children who died before reaching adulthood. Pike's military career included working on logistics and payroll at
5390-457: The way. They reached the fur post at Leech Lake on February 1 and stayed nearly three weeks. Pike informed the traders they were within the new boundaries of the United States and henceforth required to abide by its American laws and regulations. Pike met with many prominent Ojibwe chiefs, prevailing on them to surrender the medals and flags given to them as tokens of allegiance by the British and offering American peace medals . He also relayed
5467-750: Was 380,000 ounces, before the War Production Board limitation order L-208 stopped gold mining in 1942. Production restarted after World War II with 168,000 ounces in 1947. Gold production was 66,000 ounces in 1960 and 22,000 ounces in 1967. Production reached 37,000 ounces in 1972 and 72,000 ounces in 1978. Only one Colorado mine continues to produce gold, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine at Victor near Colorado Springs , an open-pit heap leach operation owned by Newmont Corporation , which produced 322,000 troy ounces of gold in 2019 and reported 3.45 million troy ounces of Proven and Probable Reserves as at December 31, 2019. Zebulon Pike Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779 – April 27, 1813)
5544-512: Was a landmark visible 100 mi (160 km) out on the plains. The towns of Cripple Creek and Victor were established to serve the mines and miners of the district. Among the principal mines were the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine at Cripple Creek and Stratton's Independence mine , at Victor, Colorado . Gold production up to 1990 was 21,000,000 troy ounces (650 t) worth about US$ 17 billion at 2008 prices), making it
5621-540: Was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. As a U.S. Army officer he led two expeditions through the Louisiana Purchase territory, first in 1805–1806 to reconnoiter the upper northern reaches of the Mississippi River , and then in 1806–1807 to explore the southwest to the fringes of the northern Spanish-colonial settlements of New Mexico and Texas . Pike's expeditions coincided with other Jeffersonian expeditions, including
5698-424: Was brought by ship back to Sackets Harbor, where his remains were buried at the military cemetery. The Spanish authorities confiscated some of Pike's papers, which were not recovered by the United States from Mexico until the 20th century. Pike wrote an account of his expeditions, some of which had to be recreated from memory, which was published in 1810 as The expeditions of Zebulon Montgomery Pike to Headwaters of
5775-750: Was called the Phillips Lode Mine. In the first two years, the mine produced $ 300,000 worth of ore. Once the gold had dried up in Buckskin Gulch, they moved on to quartz . Paris Mine, also located off Buckskin Gulch, is another lode mine producing oxidized gold. Off Mosquito Gulch, the London Lode Mine produced gold, silver, and copper. Magnolia Mine in Montgomery was well known for producing gold, lead, silver, and copper, but it also produced quartz, pyrite , and limonite . The history of
5852-587: Was later renamed Idaho Springs, after the hot springs. In May 1859, John H. Gregory found a gold -bearing vein (the Gregory Lode) in Gregory Gulch between Black Hawk and Central City. Within two months, many other veins were discovered, including the Bates, Gunnell, Kansas, and Burroughs. Other early mining towns in the district included Nevadaville and Russell Gulch . Hardrock mining boomed for
5929-466: Was truly an explorer, or if he was a spy. Gneiss Gneiss ( / n aɪ s / nice ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock . It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks . This rock is formed under pressures anywhere from 2 to 15 kbar, sometimes even more, and temperatures over 300 °C (572 °F). Gneiss nearly always shows
#205794