Hi! My name is Gayle. Russau told me about this forum and CP invited me to post.
My great-great-grandfather was a miner at Cache Creek. He brought his wife and 6 children with him in 1861. He mined, practiced law, and had an Indian trading post. He moved around some, farming near Buena Vista and near Salida, before settling in Fairplay in 1873. He was also a probate judge in Lake County and Park County. He died in 1882.

I am writing a book about Wilburn Christison and the regional history. He was involved in many of the major events like the Lake County War. He also had some well-known mining partners like Father Dyer and Captain Sullivan D. Breece, the man who owned Breece Iron Works and who Breece Hill at Leadville is named after. I've been reading and learning about prospecting and mining. But I want to make sure what I write is accurate. I am also researching his old mining claims and companies and running into questions with that. His practice of law also had a lot to do with mining.

So far, I've barely scratched the surface on his mining activity. I spent an afternoon in Leadville looking through mining records. The earliest record I found was he was a partner in the Cash Creek Ditch company in 1862. He was elected president of the Ohio Lode District May 7, 1864. I haven't been able to find where the Ohio Lode District was. I'm guessing it changed names quickly or was incorporated in another district. He filed a claim with Breece in May 1864 on the Pennsylvania Lode in Hope District. Then in June, he was one of ten men who formed the Pioneer Lode Prospecting Company. The company was formed to sink shafts on the Elisabeth, Jessie Johnston, and Star Gold Quartz lodes in the Hope, Granite and Clear Creek Districts. The partners were John L. Dyer, Galatia Sprague, R. Mat Johnston, S.D. Breece, Henry Justice, William Snyder, John Burnett, Patrick Smith and Charles Hilton. Several of these men played key roles in the Lake County War 11 years later. This is just the beginning of what I have.

I'll be posting questions as I run into them. I'm really excited about this. My great-grandfather was a hardrock miner and my grandfather was a prospector, too.
You can read more about my family and my research at
http://ColoradoReflections.blogspot.com

Gayle

glad to see you made it over to this site.

Thanks, Russau! It's nice to be here.

One of my questions was already answered by CP and the winter dredging thread. I had thought May was a little early to be locating. Little did I know how diehard prospectors are! I didn't realize they'd be out breaking ice to find some color. May was probably late because of the deep snow in 1864.

Next question: What did miners wear in the 1860's? Did they wear tall boots? Laceups? Or did those come later? I looked through some pictures on the Denver Library website last night. It seemed to me that the earlier miners tended to have beards but the later 1870's - 1890's just had mustaches.

What about their hands? I imagine they would be red, chapped and cracking from being in the water so much of the time. I wonder what they did for that? Did they get frostbite?

Gayle

Hi Gayle and welcome to the forum.
You ask some great questions! Mining history is very interesting, and knowing what they went through back then to go mining was amazing. Nothing like it is today.
I have seen pictures of miners back then with rags wrapped around their hands to keep them warm, and scarfs over their heads tied at their chins instead of hats.

Here is a great link of some mining history and pictures.
I hope you enjoy the link as much as I do.
History of the American west 1860- 1920

Hi Mrs. CP! Thanks for the welcome. And thanks for the site with the pictures. I'd looked at it before, but saw some I didn't see the first time.

http://miningbureau.com also has some good Colorado mining pictures.

Gayle

Next question. I'm thinking this one is pretty stupid. But I have to make sure.

The Pioneer Lode Prospecting Company sank three shafts in mines in different districts. After getting the gold ore out by single-jacking and blasting with giant powder (Thanks, Bill!), the ore had to be crushed. Since the first stamp mill in the area wasn't built until 1867 and this was 1864, I'm guessing they used arrastres to crush the ore.

Now here is my stupid question. The ore still had to be washed, right? I'm assuming they took the crushed ore and put it into sluices to wash it.

Thanks for your help!

Gayle

Hello again Gayle,

Neat old pieces of "equipment"

The arrastres was used to crush the ore with a mule set up to tow a large stone pulled in a circle around the arrastres, and from what I understand they did in fact then wash it through the sluices.
It would take approximately 4 hours or so to crush a load.
I wonder if the mule got dizzy?

Tried to locate a pic on line but to no avail.
There is a great picture of one in book print that happens to be right near here.....The picture can be found in the book titled "Ghosts Of Park County" by Mr. Aldrich, pgs 22-23.
We will try to get a pic of the arrastres later this season when the weather is better so that there will be a good photo on the net!

Wow! What the ol' timers did to get er' done! WHEW!!!!

CP