PRELIMINARY  REPORT  ON  ORE  DEPOSITS   IN  THE  GEORGE- 
TOWN, COLO.,  MINING  DISTRICT. 
By  J.  E.  Spurr  and  G.  II.  Garrey, 
LOCATION. 
The  Georgetown  mining  district  includes  the  mining  territory  in 
jthe  vicinity  of  Georgetown,  the  county  seat  of  Clear  Creek  County, 
[Colo.  Georgetown,  with  a  population  of  1,418,°  is  about  50  miles  due 
west  of  Denver,  on  a  branch  of  the  Colorado  and  Southern  Railroad. 
The  district  named  embraces  all  mines  in  the  neighborhood  of  Silver 
Plume  and  Empire,  as  well  as  of  Georgetown.  Silver  Plume  is 
approximately  2  miles  west-southwest  of  Georgetown,  while  Empire 
is  about  4  miles  north  and  slightly  east  of  the  same  place. 
DISCOVERY  AND  DEVELOPMENT. 
The  first  discovery  of  "  pay  gold  "  in  Clear  Creek  County,  and 
probably  in  Colorado,  is  said  to  have  been  made  in  placer  deposits  at 
he  junction  of  Chicago  and  Clear  Creeks,  near  Idaho  Springs,  in  the 
vinter  of  1858-59.     "The  Empire  gold  lodes  and  placers  produced 
argely  in  1862-1864.     The  first  silver  discovery  was  made  late  in 
j864  on  McClellan  Mountain,"  h  which  is  located  several  miles  to  the 
outhwest  of  Georgetown.     From  this  time  on  prospecting  became 
ery  lively.     It  was  not  until  the  completion  of  the  railroad  in  1*77, 
owever,  that  active  development  of  the  mining   resources  of  the 
istrict  began.     The  subsequent  development  was  very  rapid  np  to 
p93,  when  the  financial  panic  and  the  fall  in  the  price  of  silver 
imporarily  put  an  almost  complete  stop  to  mining.     The  mines  in 
le  eastern  end  of  Clear  Creek  County,  where  gold  ores  were  then 
nmd    in    greater    predominance,    recovered    first    from    the    panic. 
old-bearing   lodes,    however,    were   afterwards    found    throughout 
3arlv  the  entire  mineral  belt  of  the  county.    By  the  gradual  develop- 
ent  of  these  lodes  the  limit  of  the  known  "  gold  belt  "  migrated 
stward  until  at  present  Georgetown  must  be  considered  a  gold  as 
a  Census   Report,    1900.  h  Fossett,    "  Colorado,"    1880. 
99 
