Central City Colorado - Boom and Bust Days

Central City, Colorado

By 1871 Central City had become the most important city in the territory and boasted 13 blacksmiths, 5 boarding houses, 10 butchers, 1 dentist, 4 drugstores, 12 grocery stores, 18 lawyers, 7 physicians, 11 shoemakers and 5 tailors.

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Pittsburg Mine, 1890, courtesy Denver Public Library

On April 25, 1860, the Rocky Mountain News reported, "The emigration is coming in at the rate of over one hundred men each day, and constantly increasing." Just a little over a month later, they reported that the emigrants were coming in at the rate of a thousand a day.

In June 1860, The Western Stage Company began running daily stagecoaches from Denver to Mountain City – the ride taking seven to eight hours. Only one year earlier, it had been a three or four day journey. During the summer, the population around Gregory's Diggings began to stabilize. The 1860, the United States Census, listed Central City at 598, Mountain City 840 and Nevada City 879. About 5,000 people were in the immediate area and 34,000 in the mining region.

By August 1860, the easy pickings were over and mining for gold became more difficult. As the depth of the mines increased, extracting gold from the ore became more complex. Due to the primitive technology, as little as 1/3 of the assayed amount of the ore was recovered. Other problems contributed to an economic slow-down in the area, including the Civil War and frequent Indian attacks on wagon trains crossing the Plains. The miners were becoming a rowdy bunch and in 1861, Central City recorded 217 fistfights, 97 revolver fights, 11 Bowie knife fights and 1 dogfight. Amazingly, no one was killed.

Central City became the county seat when Gilpin County was organized in 1861. The Territorial legislature granted a city charter to the City of Central in March 1864. This was 12 years before Colorado achieved statehood in 1876.

In 1865 Nathaniel P. Hill, a Professor at Brown University, began studying the problem of extracting gold from the sulfide ore. He developed a smelting process that rid the ore of most of its impurities, producing a concentrate of copper, gold or silver. The concentrate then had to be separated and refined.

In 1867, Hill began operating the Boston & Colorado Smelting Company in Black Hawk and mines began shipping ore to the smelter for processing. The concentrate of copper, gold and silver was then shipped to Swansea, Wales (over 7,000 miles away), where the metals were separated and refined.

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Gilpin County Courthouse in Central City, 1905, courtesy Denver Public Library

As a result of this smelting and concentrating process, the district was "booming" again by early 1868. This "boom" resulted in extensive construction in Central City during the summer of 1868. The Daily Miner's Register of June 16, 1868 noted that: "No less than eleven brick store houses will be put up on Main street this summer. Hurrah for Central City." Two of those brick storehouses, built in 1868, survived the fire of 1874 and are still standing. They are the north half of the "Roworth Block" on Main street and the "Seavey Block" on Spring street.

In 1870, the population of Central City, Black Hawk and Nevadaville was about 4,000 - the same as Denver. The 70’s provided many events of significance to the City of Central. The city had become the most important city in the territory and by 1871; the settlement boasted 13 blacksmiths, 5 boarding houses, 10 butchers, 1 dentist, 4 drugstores, 12 grocery stores, 18 lawyers, 7 physicians, 11 shoemakers and 5 tailors.

In 1871, a Republican Convention was held in Central City that almost turned into a disaster when the second floor of Washington Hall collapsed, depositing 200 men into the Recorder’s office on the first floor. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured.

In 1872, the Teller House Hotel was built and was said to be the finest hotel west of the Mississippi River.

In 1873 President Ulysses S. Grant came to see his friend Henry Teller (who became the first senator from Colorado and later, Secretary of the Interior under President Chester Arthur) and his new hotel. To impress the president, mine owners decided to lay 26 ingots of solid silver to make a path to the entrance to the Teller House so President Grant would not have to dirty his boots when he stepped from his carriage. However, legend has it that Grant became angry when he saw the silver bars and walked up the boardwalk instead. At that time, Congress was debating whether gold or silver should back the dollar, and Grant refused to show favoritism.

Continued Next Page

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Central City Teller House Postcard

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Teller House Today, Kathy Weiser, August, 2003

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