Mining-Related Properties in the Colorado Register of Historic Properties, Updated through December 1, 2006

From introduction: "Mining was far and away the most significant industry in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Colorado and has remained important since that time. The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush brought unprecedented numbers of people in the region and that in turn led to powerful social, economic, and political changed that brought about eh creation of Colorado Territory in 1861, culminating in the admittance of Coloration to the Union in 1876. Mining in all its phases remained the great engine of the Colorado economy until the early twentieth century. The industry also contributed to significant technological advances and that, combined with the professional studies of all aspects of the industry, had powerful ramifications in the industry’s global expansion in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Though sometimes derided as a “mom and pop” industry and one of quaint ruins, mineral development in the Centennial State both reflected and contributed to the dramatic industrial and technological advances of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Moreover, the powerful advance of industrial metal mining, coupled with immense coal production, contributed immeasurably to state, national, and international development. Nobody knows who made the first discover of gold and silver in Colorado. The earliest record dates to the 1760s, probably 1765, when the Spanish explored Juan Maria de Rivera led a party in the San Juan Mountains searching for a non-desert route from Santa Fe to California. In the 1860s and 1870s, American miners may have found evidence of Spanish efforts, but that evidence was lost in new development. If the Spanish miners did indeed recover gold, silver, or other metals from ore, productions must have been small and inconsequential. It produced no rush or permanent settlement, but probably initiated or contributed to the rumors of gold in the Rocky Mountain region. Fur trappers in search of beaver began pushing into the Rocky Mountains toward the end of the eighteenth century, and their work in the cold remote waters led to gold discoveries. Perhaps the earliest evolved from the work of James Purcell, a trapper out of St. Louis. Around 1800, he found gold in what is today South Park, in central Colorado, but fled the Rockies to escape hostile Indians. The rumors and unconfirmed reports spread by trappers and traders about gold in the mountains formed part of the basis that eventually led to mining development decades later... The properties featured in this directory are listed in either the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties or the National Register of Historic Places. Some properties are individually listed and others are listed as part of larger historic districts." Funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant administered by the Colorado State Historic Preservation Office and the State, Tribal, and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Mining-Related Properties in the Colorado Register of Historic Properties, Updated through December 1, 2006

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