DENVER & RIO GRANDE WESTERN ROUTE. 105 
fornia Gulch. This discovery was made late in the autumn, and the 
party was not prepared to spend the winter there, so they left but 
they returned the next year and established a mining camp Wich 
they christened Oro City (meaning Gold City) and which before 
the end of the year had a population of 5,000. Its fame spread, saps 
in 1861 it was the most populous town in Colorado Territory. In 
few years more than $5,000,000 had been washed from its aide 
sands, but like that of all white placer deposits the life of this one 
was ephemeral, for in a few years the town was nearly abandoned by 
the gold seekers, and for several years it played only a small part 
in the history oF the mining region, 
From 1874 to 1877 there was a revival of interest in the Leadville 
region, for silver-lead ores were found at several places in the vi- 
cinity of California Gulch, but no development was undertaken until 
1878. Before that year the camp consisted of only a cluster of log 
cabins, but in 1878 a “rush” to the new workings began and the 
camp at once sprang into prominence as the greatest silver camp in 
the world. The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad was completed to 
the gulch in 1880, and the camp soon had a population of 30,000. 
During the first decade of its existence the silver and lead produced 
is reported to have been worth more than $120,000,000. Silver min- 
ing was the chief industry until the slump in the price of silver in 
1893. For a time there was great stagnation, and then the miners 
turned their attention to the production of gold, silver, copper, lead, 
and zinc. In 1920 the value of the output of the mines of Lake 
County, which includes some mines outside the Leadville district, was 
$4,320,510. The total metallic output up to the end of 1920 is val- 
ued at a . little more than $419,000,000.** aS 
The following more detailed ac- | later over the same route with the 
count of the history of the Leadville | device significantly altered to the single 
B 
and mining industry of Leadville, | lutely up through the narrow rocky 
Colo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Mon. 12 
1886; The Downtown district of Lead- | streams. Some wandered across the 
ville, Colo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. | mountains during the same season into 
ys ; 
During the summer of 1859, at the | gravel on Tarryall Creek and in the 
time of the great Pikes Peak excite- | neighborhood of Fairplay. 
Wagons stretched across the plains, fol- | the prospectors found gold in the gravel 
lowing Arkansas River up to the base | at the site of the _ of Granite, 
summer, carrying the triumphant de- | Malta, where the most valuable dis-— 
vice “Pikes Peak or bust,” returned ! covery of the season was niade,’ News 
