A tiny little flow of water trickles through the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. In 1859, John H. Gregory followed this trickle called Clear Creek, upstream looking for “positive” color. Pulling a low tree branch out of his way, Gregory discovered a pocket of pay dirt. His skillful panning produced enough gold to create a frenzy across America.
“Pike’s Peak or Bust” became the nation’s slogan of 1859. Although Pike’s Peak was a good 70 miles from Gregory’s discovery, it was the landmark of the Colorado Territory. Approximate destination being established, the gold rush was on. The mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk sprang up to serve the mining frenzy.
Black Hawk, 1899, soon became more than a mining town. Photo courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History Collection
The Clear Creek Mining District was so rich with ore, it became known as the “Richest Square Mile on Earth.” It was the talk of the entire mining west; visitors flocked to see the enormous gold operations first hand. And OH! The prestige of those visitors. Some hit pay dirt, others went on to further their fortunes from Gilpin County beginnings.
Horace Greeley, famous writer for The New York Tribune, arrived in Central City in 1859. Stiff and sore from the day and a half ride from Denver, he stepped gingerly from the stagecoach, meeting his admirers. The audience gathered near a tree stump to hear Greeley speak. He remarked of the riches the area held, and gave his support to the city’s politicos for railroad expansion. “Go West Young Man, Go West,” became Greeley’s cry to America. By the dawn of 1860, the entire mountain valley was amass in mines, population and business opportunity.
No one knew that a bet on felting fur would result in a hat that would gross $4 million a year. In 1860, John B. Stetson traveled west to find a cure for his tuberculosis. Camping one night on his way to Central City, he remarked to his friends that fur could be processed without tanning. The bet was made. Stetson caught a rabbit, used an age-old process of felting, converting the fur into felt. Winning the bet, Stetson fashioned the new felt into a wide brimmed, large crowned hat and wore it into Central City. People laughed at the awkward hat, but Stetson persisted. The brim protected against rain and sun. Soon a horseman of Central City took interest and bought the hat. With that first sale, Stetson went back to his native Philadelphia, opened a factory and produced the Stetson hat, now a trademark of the American West.
An early pair of Levi jeans manufactured by Levi Strauss. Photo courtesy of Autry Museum, Los Angeles.
Another early visitor to Gilpin County was Levi Strauss, who with his meager mining earnings, later developed and manufactured a durable pair of working pants he called, Levis.
George M. Pullman was another man with Gilpin County beginnings. Involved in banking of a sort, he and James F. Lyon formed a partnership under the name Lyon and Pullman. By 1860, the firm was making a tidy profit in buying gold dust through banking. Pullman also operated one of the first gold dust concentrators in the gulch. (The chimney of this building still stands on the east side of Dory Hill Road, near the intersection of the Peak to Peak Highway.) Pullman was also involved with the mining development of the Gregory Lode. While Pullman did quite well in Gilpin County, he returned East after the Civil War, finally settling in Chicago, to make millions with his invention of the famous Pullman luxury railroad car.
Civil War Gen. William T. Sherman toured Gilpin County in 1876. Given the customary grand tour of mining operations such as the Bob Tail Mine and Boston and Colorado Smelter, his visit was highlighted with blasting powder in honor of heroism.
The Stetson hat began in Gilpin County. Photo courtesy of Buffalo Bill Museum.
Undoubtedly the most prestigious visitor would be President Ulysses S. Grant. He returned for a second visit to Central City in 1873. The city went all out to honor the president of the United States. Gold was so common in the district, the city treated Grant with a walkway of solid silver brick ingots. Grant stepped off the stage onto the silver bricks, and greeted the crowd. He followed the brick walkway across the street to the Teller House, where he would board. Someone yelled, “That’s $13,000 you just walked on!” At that moment a child perched on a sawhorse barricade, fell in front of the president. Grant scooped him up, told the crowd the silver walkway was very pretty, and delivered the child to his mother.
Those who called Gilpin County home also became famous. There was Florence Sabin, born in her parents’ mining shack in Central City, on the “Casey” in 1871. After earning her medical degrees, she became the first woman professor at John Hopkins University. From Colorado, she led the fight for improved health laws that spread across the nation. Listed as one of the 12 greatest women of the world, and earning fifteen honorary degrees for her life’s work, she was honored with a bronze statue placed in the nation’s capitol.
Elizabeth McCourt Doe Tabor, better known as Baby Doe, is certainly one of Gilpin County’s most famous one-time residents. The Tabor love triangle and rags to riches to rags story is Colorado legend. Baby Doe arrived in Black Hawk with her bridegroom, William Harvey Doe Jr., in 1877. Harvey planned to run the Fourth of July Mine, owned by his father. However, Harvey spent more time in the saloons than at the mine. It was Baby Doe who assumed the mining responsibilities. Donning overalls and boots, she shoveled dirt and sank shafts. It was the miners of Black Hawk who first called her “Baby” Doe. The Doe’s first real home in Gilpin County was in the apartments above the dry goods store of the Rohling Inn Block on Gregory Street. Baby Doe later divorced Harvey and moved to Leadville, where her life became legend, marrying H.A.W. Tabor, and ending with her tragic death in 1935.
Aunt Clara Brown, as she was known by all of Colorado, was a beloved citizen of Gilpin County. As a freed slave in 1859, she paid her own way West for a new beginning. Finally settling in the young mining town of Central City, she immediately set up a laundry service. A thrifty woman, she purchased land, buildings, and grub staked miners. With no church in town, she opened her home to worshipers, and was instrumental in the early development of the historic Methodist Church, which still stands today. In 1881, she was inducted into the Society of Colorado Pioneers, an exclusive group. Clara Brown was the first woman so honored.
Gilpin County: first in Colorado to discover large gold deposits 160 years ago, first to defy the odds, and first to reveal human tenacity.
