Idaho Springs, Colorado: Always on the Main Trail

c 2018 by Jan MacKell Collins

Portions of this article first appeared in the Colorado Gambler magazine in 2006.

Cars whizzing up and down Interstate 70 in Colorado today just might miss Idaho Springs. They don’t know what they’re missing, for Idaho Springs offers history, taverns and restaurants (don’t miss Beau Jo’s Pizza), cool old hotels, museums, natural hot vapor caves and much, much more. The town also serves as the perfect hub while visiting numerous historic sites, not to mention slots and other games of chance in nearby Central City and Black Hawk.

In its very early days, Idaho Springs went by many other names: Idaho, Idahoe, Idaho Bar, Idaho City, Jackson Bar, Payne’s Bar and Sacramento. The earliest name was Jackson’s Diggings, so-called for 32-year old George Jackson’s gold discoveries along Chicago Creek in 1858. Jackson’s diggings coincided with the discovery of a natural hot springs at Idaho Springs, an attraction very much alive and well today.

During its stint as Idaho, the original town was established in 1860 and quickly grew to include thousands of residents. It was said that Idaho is an Indian word for “A Gem of the Rockies”. Within a year there was at least one saloon and gambling house, and two hotels including the Bebee House with its substantial menu, run by F.W. Bebee. There also were about 40 homes in town. The first post office, established in 1862, was a wooden box kept in the living room of Mrs. R.B. Griswold.

In time, the budding camp became so popular that the name Idaho was considered for the new name of Colorado Territory in 1876. The ploy didn’t work, since by then new discoveries in Virginia Canyon (known locally as Oh My God Road) above town had overshadowed the findings at Idaho. A toll road was built through Virginia Canyon to Central City, and Idaho Springs realized additional commerce by becoming a supply town.

In addition, the natural hot springs in town drew people for their health. Like much of Colorado, invalids, tuberculosis patients and tourists in general sought out the healing mineral springs at Idaho Springs. In 1863 Dr. E.S. Cummings erected the first bath house there. Although the early resort was only in use about three years, it was the first of many such spas to come. The year 1868 saw an even bigger bath house as stage coach service was made available to Idaho Springs. The following year, William Hunter built a large log theater and called it Rock Island House. Idaho Springs’ first newspaper premiered in 1873.

The Colorado Central Railroad reached town in 1877. The post office name was changed to Idaho Springs in April of that year, and the town incorporated in 1878. Eventually, Idaho Springs became County Seat of Clear Creek County and was considered an important town in the central mining belt. A Mining Exchange was built in 1879. Castle Eyrie, one of the town’s most prominent homes at 1828 Illinois Street, was completed in 1881, as well as the elite Club Hotel.

Idaho Springs had spent nearly twenty years building up a substantial reputation in Colorado. By 1885, however, the town’s population was inexplicably shrinking. Only 2,000 people were recorded there in 1887. The Placer Inn, now known as the Tommyknocker Brewery & Pub, was built in 1898. The gorgeous Buffalo Bar, still a mainstay of Idaho Springs, opened in 1899. Through 1900, the population was staying steady at 1,900 souls.

Idaho Springs remained unique in that it served many purposes. Vapor Caves, still in operation today, continued to make the place a popular health resort. Nearby mines and a smelter kept the town up with Colorado’s economy. Given its location, Idaho Springs also continued to serve as a supply town and final stopover before prospectors headed further west to Colorado’s goldfields – as well as broke miners returning East.

Lots of towns depended on Idaho Springs. Nearby Masonville was founded in 1859 and named for pioneer Alonzo Mason. Another town, called Ofer or Ophir City, was established in 1860.  Spanish Bar, named for its Mexican miners, lasted for about a year beginning in 1860. The quartz camp of Freeland was established in 1880. That same year, Fall River with its mills and early silver discoveries popped up near the junction of Clear Creek. In 1884, Bonito with it Bullion Smelter appeared on maps. All of these places regarded Idaho Springs as the “big city” where supplies, comfortable hotels and restaurants could be found.

And there were more, such as the milling center that was first called Mill City and later Dumont. There were stage stops, such as Downeyville, and in time several railroad stops also materialized along the railroad running  by Idaho Springs. They included the original stage stop of Floyd’s Hill. Fork’s Creek became a key railroad station with branches to both Black Hawk and Idaho Springs. There were even nearby resort towns, including Silver Creek for Denver socialites (one time, a formal dance was actually held underground in the newly excavated O’Connell Tunnel).

Other wide spots on the trails to Idaho Springs included the tiny camp of Bard Creek; Conqueror with its large boarding house; Empire and North Empire where lawyers were actually forbidden to practice by law; the braggart town of Gilson Gulch located between Idaho Springs and Central City; Lamartine high in the hills above town; Red Elephant, and Virginia City. Most of these towns no longer exist today, with the exception of Empire and its 1862 Peck House, Colorado’s oldest continuously operating hotel.

In 1892 the 5-mile long Argo Tunnel, originally named the Newhouse, was built from Idaho Springs to Central City. The cost was $10 million. Idaho Springs soon became a catch-all for surrounding towns that were dying out. Beginning about 1900, school children were brought in from the nearby town of Alice, which had experienced moderate success when the Alice Mine sold for $250,000 in 1897, but was quickly becoming a ghost. Nearby towns, such as Ninety Four (founded in 1894) and Silver City met a similar fate.

By 1949, due to Interstate 70 cutting directly through town, author Muriel Sybil Wolle claimed the population had swelled to 12,000. In 1958, Interstate 70 was redirected, but the change was hardly detrimental to Idaho Springs. By the 1970’s Idaho Springs’ many historic watering holes had become legendary. Some of them have gone to the wayside, but the town now offers everything from family dining to night life. Although parts of it have been paved, Virginia Canyon Road still offers a breathtaking trip to Central City. Idaho Springs has always, and remains, a perfect stop over for travelers heading east or west.

A Quick Look at Colorado’s Central Mining Belt

c 2014 by Jan MacKell Collins

Gold! Silver! Lead! Quartz! Copper! Zinc! Colorado’s newly arriving prospectors could shout any one of these symbolic words of fortune in 1858 and mean nearly the same place.

The Colorado Gold Rush is actually attributed to three Native Americans who passed through the territory on their way to the California goldfields. After failing to find fortune on their own two Cherokee men, Lewis Ralston and John Beck, had joined a gold party coming through Colorado. Somewhere in the vicinity of today’s Interstate 70 the men, along with a Delaware Indian named Fall Leaf, collected some gold dust. For some reason, however, the men chose not to stay in the area and the exact site of their discovery remains a mystery.

Before long, white men made the discovery of gold official. Their names were William Green Russell and John H. Gregory, the latter of which created the rush to Central City and the surrounding region. As the first official gold rush in Colorado, the area now traversed by Interstate 70 just 20 miles west of Denver boomed into one gigantic mining region in just a short time. With the formation of Boulder, Clear Creek and Gilpin Counties in November of 1861, a bucket full of towns sprang up all along the I-70 corridor. Their economies were based on any number of minerals while serving as supply towns, rest and railroad stops. By 1886, would-be prospectors could expect to visit a number of promising cities. There was gold at Alice, American City, Arrow, Central City, Gilson Gulch, Mountain City, Nevadaville and Yankee Hill.

More gold, but silver also, could be found in and around places like Brownsville, Empire and Idaho Springs, which also offered such modern day amenities of the time as eating houses, hotels and supplies. Other silver meccas included Caribou, Fall River, Freeland, Silver Creek, Silver Dale and Silver Plume. Silver Plume also contained lead deposits, as did the sinful city of Cardinal with its many saloons and brothels. Other minerals, including zinc and copper, could be found at Cardinal as well as the town of Hessie. And there were even more towns to choose from, such as the trading center of Apex, Baltimore, the milltown of Blackhawk, Georgetown, Gilpin, Lawson, Nederland, Ninety Four, Nugget and Rollinsville.

Despite being located in such close proximity and within about a 40 mile radius, these early towns that shaped Colorado were rough and tumble, varying in economy, services, morals and values. Their residents were a hardy bunch who risked everything to make their dreams come true in the Rocky Mountains. The number of stories to drift out of “them thar hills” are equal to or greater than the amount of mineral produced. And the history they left behind is more fascinating than anything one could imagine.

Today, most of the towns along the mineral belt are ghosts, but their importance has not been overshadowed. The picturesque towns and cities of Idaho Springs, Georgetown and Silver Plume, with off-shoots to Central City, Blackhawk, Rollinsville and Nederland, survive today as a tribute to Colorado=s heritage, as well as the gold and minerals that made it all possible.

The Gregory Diggings in 1859, as portrayed in Crofutt’s Gripsack Guide to Colorado

From Gold and Tungsten to Rock and Roll: Nederland, Colorado

c 2014 by Jan MacKell Collins

Portions of this article originally appeared in the Colorado Gambler.

Throughout its early life, Nederland Colorado was closely associated with Caribou, a Dutch gold mining community that was platted near Boulder in 1870. In 1873, some Dutchmen purchased the Idaho Shaft at Caribou for $3 million and set their sites on a nearby settlement. Originally called Dayton, then Brownsville after settler N.W. Brown in 1869, then Middle Boulder with a post office in 1871, this smaller camp became Nederland after Dutch immigrants took over the local mills. One of them, Abel Breed, purchased the Caribou Mine.

Nederland is in fact Dutch for the Netherlands. The city fathers lost no time incorporating on February 10, 1874. The post office opened under the new name on March 2. Although gold was all the rage in Colorado, tungsten was also mined near both Nederland and Caribou. In its day, the mineral served as a useful material to harden other metals such as steel, and for filaments in electric lights.

It is no wonder the Dutch settlers preferred Nederland to Caribou. Located at nearly 10,000 feet, Caribou was cold, subject to 100 mile an hour winds and terrible snowstorms with 25 foot drifts. The camp also suffered at least one scarlet fever epidemic and a diptheria epidemic. Also, there was no railroad to Caribou. Despite such inconveniences and tragedies, however, there were roughly 60 businesses including the Potosi Mine Boarding House and the 1875 Sherman House. Twenty mines served a population of 3,000.

When Caribou burned in 1879, even more folks began migrating to Nederland. A new church was erected in 1881 at Caribou, but the population had shrunk to just 549 people. The town burned again in 1899, suffered an earthquake in 1903 and burned one last time in 1905. A final attempt by the Consolidated Caribou Silver Mining Company to blast the 3,500′ Idaho Tunnel in 1946 did nothing for the town.

Where Caribou failed, Nederland did not. In 1870 a mill was built to process ore from Caribou’s mines. In 1873, when it was announced that President Ulysses S. Grant was coming to visit nearby Central City, Abel Breed’s mill produced silver bricks that were later laid across the sidewalk where Grant would enter the Teller House in Central. Within four more years, the population of Nederland was 300. Despite its great aspirations, however, author Helen Hunt Jackson visited Nederland that same year and referred to it as “A dismal little mining town, with only a handful of small houses and smelting mills. Boulder Creek comes dashing through it, foaming white to the very edge of town.”

Nederland was obviously not Jackson’s cup of tea, but the town thrived throughout the 1870’s, 80’s and into the 1890’s. Boardinghouses included the Antlers, Cory, Hetzer, Sherman House and the Western, all of which rented beds in shifts when mining was at its height. Restaurants followed suit, allowing their customers only 20 minutes to consume their meals before ushering them out for the next set of hungry miners. During its boom time, Nederland produced 60 percent of the tungsten in the United States, and at one time realized one million dollars in the stuff annually.

Nederland proper served chiefly as a supply, smelting and shipping town for area mines. Those mines, in fact, experienced great success. The Primos Mill, located at the community of Lakewood some three miles away, was the largest tungsten-producing mill in the world. Around Nederland were several camps and towns, but Nederland appears to have only been rivaled by Tungsten Camp with its alleged population of 20,000.

Tungsten was also known as Steven’s Camp and Ferberite. Today, however, most of Tungsten lies underneath Barker Reservoir. A less popular town among Nederlands’ proper families was Cardinal City, a sin city founded expressly by saloon keepers and prostitutes from Caribou beginning in 1870. Cardinal City was originally located conveniently between Caribou and Nederland. For a time, the scarlet ladies and barkeeps of Cardinal City hoped to overtake both towns. A plan in 1872 to build a courthouse, possibly to keep the barkeeps and wanton women in check, never came to fruition.

In about 1878 Cardinal City picked up and moved to a site closer to Nederland because of the railroad, and re-christened itself New Cardinal. But by 1883 the new city had lost its appeal, and its 2000 or so citizens began migrating elsewhere. Some moved to the 1860 gold mining town of Eldora (known originally as Happy Valley and Eldorado). The hard drinking and hard gambling miners at Eldora were nobody to fool with; the first day the Bailey Chlorniation Mill failed to make payroll, miners shot the manager and burned down the mill.

Other towns close to Nederland included Bluebird and the 1892 silver town of Hessie, which was named after its first postmistress. In 1914, Hessie also briefly made the papers following a mysterious murder. Grand Island, Lost Lake, Mary City, Phoenixville, Sulphide Flats and Ward were other camps. Most of these camps were fading by 1916. With the beginning of World War I and the call for more tungsten, however, Nederland experienced a surge while towns around it were dying off. The exception was the old town of Tungsten up the road. Within no time, real estate prices at both towns soared.

Of course the price of tungsten also went up. Upwards of 17 mills were working between Tungsten and Nederland. In 1917, nearly $6 million in tungsten was mined. Eventually, imports of the stuff from South America and Japan killed off the boom. Quickly. By 1920 Nederland was hanging on as a mere resort town with a handful of pioneer families living there full time. When author Muriell Sybil Wolle stayed the night there, she recalled that at the time, the boys from Nederland were playing a heated baseball game against a team from nearby Blackhawk.

Although Nederland has held its own as a resort and summer escape since the 1930’s, its reputation also received a boost with the repurpose of the old Caribou Ranch in the 1970’s. Homesteaded on the road between Nederland and Caribou in the 1860’s by Caribou Mine owner Sam Conger, no less than four films were shot at the ranch before music producer James William Guercio purchased it in 1972. All told, Guercio bought a 4,000+ acre parcel and set up a private, unique recording studio for major recording artists. Joe Walsh and Bill Szymczyk were the first musicians to finish an album (Barnstorm) there. The second project to be recorded at the ranch included Rick Derringer’s hit single, Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo.

In 1974, Elton John further immortalized the place with his album, fittingly called Caribou. Dozens of other performers recorded there as well, including America, Badfinger, the Beach Boys, Chicago, Phil Collins, Dan Fogelberg, Waylon Jennings, Billy Joel, Kris Kristofferson, John Lennon, Stevie Nicks, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tom Petty and Frank Zappa. Legendary musicians might still be recording there today, but in March of 1985 the control room at the studio suffered a fire with an amazing $3 million dollar loss. The roof was replaced, but the original recording studio was never rebuilt.

Guercio began selling off parts of the Caribou Ranch in 1996. About half of it is owned today by the City of Boulder and Boulder County. An additional 1,489 acres were placed under a conservation easement. The remaining parcel is still owned by Guercio’s Caribou Companies, an exclusive gated community containing 20 unique mountain home sites encompassing over 700 acres. As for the old studio, there have been hints for several years now of a reprise of the ranch’s famous recording past. Guercio’s remaining 1600 acres, which continue to serve as a working ranch, are currently listed for sale with Mountain Marketing Associates of Breckenridge-for the modest price of $45,000,000. The right seller could indeed make Nederland and its surrounding communities experience a whole new boom of a different kind.

Central City Represents Colorado’s Earliest Mining Days

c 2014 by Jan MacKell Collins

When John H. Gregory made the first gold discovery in the central mining belt on May 6, 1859, little did he know that Central City and other towns like it would soon be dotting the landscape. In fact, Central City and its surrounding “Richest Square Mile on Earth” grew to rival Denver, as well as any other city in Colorado’s mountains. In actuality, Central City sprang from the loins of nearby Mountain City, founded due to John Gregory’s discovery of gold in 1859. Rocky Mountain News publisher William Byers suggested the name of the new camp be tailored to its location in the center of the other gold camps. In October of 1869 the new town managed to have its post office moved from Mountain City; hence Central City was born. In time, Central City grew to be the county seat of Gilpin County and bigger than Denver, at least for a little while.

The mines around Central City produced half a billion dollars in minerals, mostly gold. Yarns of gold discoveries are still plentiful today, including the time Pat Casey struck it rich while digging a grave on Quartz Hill. Central City’s colorful citizens built their homes wherever they could find flat ground, whether it be in the bottom of the canyon or perched high on a mountainside. So closely situated were many homes that the joke around Central City was that “a fella can’t spit tobaccy juice out his front door without putting out the fire in his neighbor’s chimney.”

No doubt Central City was a wild mining town, but it was also a cultural center with much entertainment. The first theater was erected in 1861, with plenty of competition. The grand Teller House was built in 1872. A number celebrities passed through, including Horace Greeley, Mark Twain, midget General Tom Thumb, P.T. Barnum, and George Pullman, who liked the idea of miners folding their bunks into the walls in their tiny cabins to make extra space and incorporated the idea into his train cars. Ulysses S. Grant visited Central City both before and during his presidency, when he was treated to a walk over a silver-bricked sidewalk in front of the Teller House. In addition, U.S. senators Henry Teller, Jerome Chaffee and W.A. Clark came from Gregory Gulch, as did Colorado Senator Henry R. Wolcott.

The Colorado Central Railroad, which had reached Black Hawk in 1872, took several more years to reach Central City. Travel writer Isabella Bird, who visited Clear Creek Canyon in 1873, marveled at the narrow gauge tracks of the Colorado Central Railroad perched precariously along the canyon walls and called the railroad “a curiosity of engineering.”

In May 1874 a fire in the city’s Chinatown nearly wiped out Central City, causing $500,000 worth of damage. Most of the businesses burned, but the Teller House and five other commercial buildings survived. In the fire’s wake, the Belvedere Theater was built and Central City decided an Opera House was in order too. The Central City Opera House opened next to the Teller House in 1878. Performers there in the early days included Edwin Booth, Lotta Crabtee, Christine Nilsson, Madam Janauschek, Emma Abbott and California’s famous Helena Modjeska.

By 1887, Central’s population had climbed to 2,625. The figure may have included Mountain City, which was annexed to Central in 1880. During its heyday, Central City was said to have more than 5,000 people. By 1895 Central City boasted 20 saloons, including two breweries. In 1897, Ignatz Meyer took a building that had formerly housed restaurants, a funeral parlor, the post office and a newspaper and converted it into a saloon. The building later served as a grocery store before being purchased by Emmy Wilson in 1947 and called the Glory Hole. Emmy is best remembered for hanging through the a hole in the ceiling, thus allowing her patrons to gaze up her skirt. The Glory Hole still exists today.

Another landmark is the Gold Coin Saloon, also constructed in 1897. In more recent decades, the Gold Coin became known for bartender “Smiling Jack” Brown who would buy you a drink if you could make him smile (this author failed to do so during a visit in about 1989). In the 1970’s the campy film, “The Dutchess and the Dirtwater Fox” starring Goldie Hawn and George Segal, was filmed there.

Towns near Central City included American City, which in 1911 was the scene of at least one movie filmed by the Selig-Polyscope Picture Company of Chicago and starring leading lady Myrtle Stedman and actor Tom Mix. American City was part of the Pine Creek Mining District, whose headquarters were at the town of Apex a few miles away. Apex also had two hotels, the Palace Dance Hall, a newspaper, a school and no less than two churches. The Pine Creek District also supported mining camps like Elk Park, Twelve Mile, Kingston, South Kingston, Nugget, and its own Pine Creek.

Other towns around Central City included Black Hawk, Bortonsberg, Clifford, Eureka and Dogtown, Gregory Gulch with seven small mining camps, Mammoth City and Missouri Flats, which was absorbed by Central. There were also Springfield, Wide Awake and Yankee Bar. More important cities of the time included Russell Gulch, where William Green Russell made his second strike during the beginning of Colorado’s gold boom in 1859. Most of the gold at Russell Gulch was mined within just a few years, but mining activity continued for over two decades.

Another town was Nevadaville, one of Colorado’s oldest mining towns. Founded in 1859, the population soon numbered at over 1,000. A fire in 1861 did little to deter the town from growing; there were 6,000 people there in 1864. For a time Nevadaville was renamed Bald Mountain, but stubborn miners refused to acknowledge the post office’s change. Miners in particular enjoyed calling Nevadaville home. The town’s peak population was 1200 in the late 1890’s while Central City stayed steady with 3,114 souls in 1900.

As prohibition loomed on the horizon, Central City struggled to stay alive. Bootlegging became popular, especially around Russell Gulch. The last Colorado Central Train came through in 1931. Around that time, author Muriel Sybil Wolle recalled being the only guest of Senator Teller during her stay at the Teller House with its exquisite “Face on the Barroom Floor”. Later that year, former Governor John Evans’ daughter Anne purchased the Teller, restored it to its former glory, and operated it as part of the Central City Opera Association. The Opera House, which had closed some years before, reopened in 1932. Players have included have included Lillian Gish, Buffalo Bill Cody, Walter Huston, Henry Ward Beecher, Julia Harris, Mae West, Shirley Booth, Ruth Gordon, Helen Hayes, and George Gobel.

Even with the Opera House’s success, the city fell on such hard times that many homes in suburban Central City were demolished in order to avoid paying taxes on them. In 1970 the
population hit an all time low at 226. That figure had doubled by 2000, ten years after gambling was legalized in Central City and Blackhawk. The resident population still enjoys casino action, but also has a local grocery and other favorite hangouts.

Today, Mountain City also survives as a suburb of Central City. In its heyday, Mountain City was the subject of a riotous play at Central City’s Opera House, titled “Did You Ever Send Your Wife to Mountain City?” Today, the old town has found new life as a refuge for historic buildings that have been threatened with demolition in and around Blackhawk, Central City and other parts of the district.