XXvl1 INTRODUCTION. 
EXPLOITATION. 
In the exploitation of its mines and the reduction of its ores Aspen 
has shown itself to be unusually enterprising, and has led the way in many 
improvements in either branch of mining As early as 1882 smelting 
works were built at the northern edge of the town, which were run more 
or less continuously up to 1887. That they should be financially success- 
ful when obliged to depend on the ores from a single district was hardly 
to be expected, and when by the advent of the railroad they were brought 
into competition with centrally situated works at Denver and Pueblo, 
which drew their ore supplies from all parts of the mountains, they were 
naturally closed down. Extensive lixiviation works, designed by C. A. 
Stetefeldt, were erected in 1891 on the north bank of Castle Creek, and 
operated until the crash of 1893. They employed a modification of the 
Russell process. The financial success of these works is also said to have 
been doubtful. 
There have been many sampling works in the district, the first of 
which was opened in 1883. At present there are two, the Aspen Sampler 
and the Taylor and Brunton works, and through them passes fully 90 
per cent of the ores that are shipped from the district. These extremely 
useful institutions act as middlemen between the miners and the smelters. 
To the former they pay promptly the market value of their ore, carefully 
determined by reliable scientific methods, after deducting the necessary 
charges for sampling, freight, royalties, and smelting charges. To the 
latter they are enabled to furnish mixtures of ores containing the various 
metals in proportions desirable for smelting charges. 
Situated as it is at the junction of three rapid and considerable moun- 
tain streams, which furnish a readily available water power, Aspen has 
unusually good opportunities for the location of power plants for generating 
electric currents, which may be used not only for lighting purposes, but 
also to transmit power to the many mines situated on the steep and diffi- 
cultly accessible mountain slopes. It was among the first, if not the very 
first, of the mining districts to make use of electric hoists (July, 1888) and 
electric pumps in the mines. The entire plant of the new Free Silver shaft 
on Smuggler Mountain, designed for a depth of 1,000 feet and more, is run 
by electricity. There are at present two public companies for furnishing 
