Leadville Colorado - Cloud City, USA

COLORADO LEGENDS

Leadville - Cloud City USA

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"There has been but one Leadville. Never will there be an other."

This 1916 quote from Olden Times in Colorado aptly describes this grand and glorious city from the past which continues to awe visitors with its magical appeal.

Leadville, Colorado Street Scene, 1904

Leadville Street Scene in 1904, Photo courtesy

Ted Kierscey Collection

Mine along the Road of the Silver Kings, Leadville, Colorado Leadville, Colorado, often called "The Two Mile High City" and "Cloud City," is the highest incorporated city in the world at 10,430 feet. Located at the foot of two of Colorado's highest peaks - Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive, Leadville is one of America's last remaining authentic mining towns.

Self-described as quaint, and absolutely original, Leadville has been designated as a National Historic Landmark District. The small city is comprised of seventy square blocks of Victorian architecture and is adjoined by the twenty square mile Leadville mining district, where many old mines and cabins dot the landscape.

The settlement began in 1859, when gold was discovered in California Gulch. In 1860, Horace and Augusta Tabor arrived in the Gulch, where Horace tried his luck at placer mining, and Augusta became the camp provisioner, acting as cook, laundress, banker and postmistress. By 1861, over 5,000 prospectors were swarming the area and the settlement of Oro City was established. The Tabors followed in the miners wake for several years, moving from one mining camp to another, but finally returned to Oro City in 1868 and reopened their store.

However, the placer deposits quickly played out and even though the Printer Boy Mine successfully opened in 1868, the area was almost deserted by the 1870's. Most of the miners quickly left to follow gold discoveries in Buckskin Joe, Payne's Bar (which is now Idaho Springs) and other mining camps on the eastern slopes of the Continental Divide.

However, in 1875 a metallurgist named Alvinius Woods and his partner William Stevens discovered that the local sands which had made sluicing gold so difficult were composed of carbonate of lead with an extremely high silver content. They were able to keep their secret for and quietly began to buy up many of the abandoned gold claims in the area. Nevertheless, when Woods sold his interest in the partnership for $40,000, the word was out, leading to a second boom in the area.

Doc Holliday was one of the most deadly shootists

in the American West

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

Thousands of prospectors again flooded the gulch which, eventually led to the founding of Leadville. In January 1878, the city of Leadville was incorporated and by 1879, the population had reached 18,000. In the summer of 1878, Horace Tabor struck it rich after grubstaking two miners on a small claim. Quickly he became the alleged Silver King of Leadville.

In 1878, Doc Holliday made Leadville his headquarters, where he stayed most of the time until his death. The two-high-mile-high mining camp was good for his tuberculosis, he only left when he scented an opportunity on the plains below. Leaving once to go to the Midwest, he pulled a con on a banker, selling him gold bricks bearing the government seal, and therefore supposedly stolen property, for $20,000. When the banker reached Chicago with his fake gold bricks, he was arrested by two other Holliday confederates claiming to be United States marshals and released only after paying them a $15,000 bribe.

Holliday left Leadville again when Tombstone, Arizona, heated up and his services were required by the Earp brothers in their controversy with the Clanton family. He then returned to Leadville, his cough worse than ever and likewise, his temper.

In 1879, three other notables were accused of holding up stagecoaches in the area, their names being outlaws Jesse James and Bob and Charley Ford.

In 1879, Horace Tabor built the Tabor Opera House, which was a legend in its own time. Quickly replacing the smaller theatres and show houses, it became the social Mecca of the community. On its opening night on November 20, 1879, the premier had to compete with one with even greater appeal - a double lynching where two claim jumpers were taken from the county jail by the local vigilante organization and outfitted with hemp neckties. Their bodies were left hanging from the rafters projecting from the roof of the jail as a lesson to "thieves, bunco steerers, footpads and chronic bondsmen for the same" in the world of a note pinned to one of the victims. While its opening night was only about half full, it was quickly the most popular spot in town.

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