COLORADO'S GREAT GOLD RUSH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINERAL SCIENCES

Most everyone, especially if they are a geologist, has at some point in their career had a touch of “gold fever”. Colorado’s history is filled with such people; the great Pike’s Peak Gold Rush of 1859 brought over 100,000 gold seekers to western Kansas Territory, soon to be Colorado Territory (1861). Many fortunes were won and lost in the mountains of Colorado, as Colorado became a leading gold producing state. In the process, not only were the foundations laid for the State of Colorado, but so were those of many aspects of the mineral sciences and mining industry.

A gold placer discovery in 1858 on Ralston Creek near present day Denver sparked the rush which lasted from mid-1858 to 1861. While this was one of the major gold rushes to ever occur in North America, there is no doubt that many Native Americans, Spanish Conquistadors – including Coronado himself, the occasional French fur trapper and hunter, and even Zebulon Pike (1807) searched or prospected for gold in the “Sierra Madres” long before the rush began.

The rush opened many mining districts, one of the first being Gold Hill in 1859, in the hills above the present city of Boulder. This district still produces today. This discovery was quickly followed by discoveries in the Colorado Mineral Belt near Central City, Black Hawk, and Idaho Springs. Many more were to follow. As the mines developed, so did the need for the geological and mineral sciences, and mining engineering. This brought numerous scientists and engineers to the region, to run the mines and mills and who discovered new ways of processing the often sulfide rich ores. Many located to the Denver area and left their mark: Hermann Beeger, Whitman Cross, Anton Eilers, Samuel Emmons, Brunton, Ainsworth, are only a few who went on to create new methods to geologically evaluate, mine, process, and smelt the ores of Colorado’s mountains; in the process making Colorado one of the principal gold producing states.

Today, many of Colorado’s former mining districts are now ski and holiday resorts. The mines are largely closed and only three major producing gold mines remain: the Cresson Mine at Cripple Creek, the Cash Mine at Gold Hill, and the Golden Wonder near Lake City. But, beneath the ski slopes there remains probably as much gold as was ever mined in Colorado, perhaps awaiting the next rush and a new generation taken with “gold fever”!