When prospectors first surveyed Colorado's ranging skyline, they had only the vaguest notion of the great mineral wealth stored in the mountains. Early prospectors thought only in terms of gold, little realizing that the mountains and plains contain approximately 250 useful mineral products, of which some 35 are now being extracted for market. So deep are the ore deposits locked in the State's granite warehouses that several mines have been sunk more than 3,000 feet without exhausting the veins. Every year Colorado adds $60,000,000 to the $3,000,000,000 of metals and other minerals already produced since the gold rush of 1859. Coal normally leads in value, although gold occasionally forges ahead. In 1938, however, molybdenum outstripped both; after this triumvirate ranks silver, with copper, vanadium, oil, and clay next in order.

Gold mining began in 1858 with small placer operations in what is now Denver. The following year George A. Jackson discovered a valuable deposit on Chicago Creek in the mountains thirty miles to the west, and four months later, on May 6, 1859, John H. Gregory of Georgia made his celebrated strike near by on the North Fork of Clear Creek. Here boomed the camps of Blackhawk and Central City, which led the State in gold production for more than a quarter of a century, being surpassed only when Cripple Creek achieved its phenomenal production in the 1890's.

Operations during the gold rush spread rapidly into South Park, which proved so rich in "pay dirt" that it was described as "one big placer." Tarryall, Fairplay, Buckskin Joe, and Montgomery were added to the roster of roaring camps. By April 1860 venturesome prospectors had pushed their way up the Arkansas River to California Gulch, which within two years produced an estimated $1,000,000 of "dust." Meanwhile, the search for yellow treasure took men northward to the Blue River and as far South as Rosita in the Wet Mountain Valley. Several prospectors even blazed trails across the Continental Divide to the headwaters of the Yampa and into the Gunnison River country and the remote ranges of the San Juans.

By 1874, with the richest placer deposits exhausted, gold mining had reached a low ebb, annually producing less than $2,000,000. Silver became the State's leading mineral, forging far to the front after 1878 when carbonate ores rich in lead and silver were discovered along California Gulch. Thus from an abandoned gold camp sprang Leadville, the most important silver camp in the State and one of the greatest in the world; almost overnight it became a rip-roaring town of 30,000, where great fortunes were made in a day and spent as quickly in a lurid scene of organized vice, shooting scrapes, and grand opera. But, above all, Leadville was the hub of a large industrial empire where practical men turned speculative hard-rock mining into a profitable business. The silver boom brought profound changes in the mining industry. Up to 1878 the production of all metal mines in the State had never exceeded $8,000,000 annually. Rising steadily, silver reached a peak production of $23,000,000 in 1892, when the silver mines yielded an additional $5,000,000 of lead and almost $1,000,000 of copper. Not until 1892, when operations at Cripple Creek were well under way, did the annual production of gold total $5,000,000.

The day of the individual small mine operator soon passed. During the initial boom, ore had to be "picture rock" to attract prospectors and investors; it had to be amenable to treatment by simple processes; if gold and silver could not be seen with the naked eye, there was little enthusiasm for the "diggings" from which it came. With the depletion of "grass root" deposits, mining operations necessitated vast capital investments. Mining companies were organized to finance the construction of deep shafts and miles of tunnels, drifts, cross-cuts, and elaborate underground railroads. Pumping, drainage, and ventilating systems were installed; large mills and smelters were constructed to process ores.

The improvement of milling and smelting was a long and costly process. The first smelter was constructed in 1868 at Blackhawk, but for some time ore was still shipped to larger smelting centers where coal was cheap. By the 1890's smelting in Colorado had greatly expanded and was centralized in Leadville, Colorado City, Denver, Pueblo, and Durango. The cruder phases of ore reduction were performed at the mines because of high transportation costs in remote mountain areas; millions of dollars were spent on various types of mills for this purpose, but technological development was so rapid that many mills became obsolete within a few months. Yet the wealth of the mines was such that money for new ventures constantly poured into the State.

As mining became more highly industrialized, thousands of workers were needed to timber shafts, dig ore, and operate the smelters. Failing to make the lucky strike that would have made them financially independent, men who had blazed trails across the prairies in oxcarts and covered wagons were soon working for wages, frequently low. In the spring of 1880 the Miners' Co-operative Union, secretly chartered by the Knights of Labor, called a strike at Leadville for higher wages and an eight-hour day. The walkout began on the morning of May 26th, and by noon mining in "the Cloud City" had ceased. On June 10th, Governor Frederick R. Pitkin declared martial law, which, with the forced retreat of union leaders beyond the county line, led to a collapse of the strike.

Prospectors pushed across the Continental Divide and in the last quarter of the nineteenth century made rich silver strikes at Ouray, Silverton, Telluride, Rico, and Creede. The pioneers who developed these new regions were forced to surmount great obstacles. Transportation was so difficult that only the highest grades of ore could be worked; for many years the more remote districts were accessible only by plodding burro. Creede, founded in 1890 when N. C. Creede staked the Holy Moses Mine in the rich district soon known as "King Solomon's Mines," was for a brief period one of the most prosperous camps in the State.

The demonetization of silver and the panic of 1893 dealt a hard blow to the white metal camps. As silver had long been the main source of wealth in these areas, ore samples were tested only for their silver and lead content. In 1895, Thomas F. Walsh, owner of a pyrite smelter at Silverton, sampled the dumps of the Camp Bird Mine, which had been worked for low-grade lead and zinc sulphides carrying some silver, and discovered that they contained tellurium compounds rich in gold. The Camp Bird soon became the second richest gold property in the State, yielding $25,000,000 during the next twenty years. The gold fever spread to other white metal areas. In 1898 Leadville again became a gold camp, and for nine years poured forth immense treasure from deep-lying quartz veins overlooked for almost a half century.

Meanwhile, Bob Womack, a cowboy, had discovered rich gold-bearing quartz on a great cattle ranch at Cripple Creek. This celebrated mining district lay on a sedimentary plateau about six miles square in the crater of an extinct volcano, piled with immense masses of lava and granite containing dry quartz impregnated with pure gold. Cripple Creek, in its day one of the richest gold camps in the world, was known far and wide for the Portland, the Creeson, the Independence, the Mary McKinney, and other celebrated mines; the Portland, having yielded $62,000,000, is still a large producer. Between 1892 and 1900 annual production of gold in Colorado mounted from $5,000,000 to $28,000,000; in the latter year almost two-thirds came from the Cripple Creek district. This flood of gold assisted the State in weathering the storms of economic depression that followed 1893.

During that depression thousands of unemployed miners abandoned the silver for the gold camps. With men clamoring for work, Cripple Creek mine owners attempted to substitute a ten-hour for the eight-hour day. In February 1893 a strike was called by the newly organized Western Federation of Miners, then affiliated with the American Federation of Labor. On May 30th Governor Davis H. Waite, who had been elected on the Populist ticket in 1892, intervened and secured an agreement granting the demands of the miners. Strikes occurred at Leadville in 1896 and at Telluride in 1901. Unrest in the mining camps reached a climax in 1903 with a strike of mine, mill, and smelter hands throughout the State, largely on their demand for an eight-hour day.

The conflict began with a strike in the reduction mills at Colorado City in February 1903. The miners at Cripple Creek laid down their tools on August 10th, and the militia was dispatched to the Cripple Creek area. The strike spread to Telluride and into all parts of San Miguel and San Juan Counties. On December 4th Governor Peabody pronounced the Cripple Creek district in a "state of insurrection and rebellion," and proclaimed martial law. On June 6, 1904, less than two months after the troops had been withdrawn, a terrible explosion occurred at the Independence railroad station on the south slope of Bull Hill. The station was wrecked; thirteen men were killed, and six badly injured. Charges and counter-charges flew thick and fast, and after several armed clashes martial law was again proclaimed. Several hundred strikers, denounced as "objectionable citizens," were forcibly deported into Kansas and New Mexico. The strike collapsed, although it was not officially terminated until three years later. Defeated and blacklisted, the "Western Federation of Miners virtually abandoned the district, although its national headquarters remained in Denver, with William D. ("Big Bill") Haywood as secretary-treasurer. The Federation affiliated with the Industrial 'Workers of the World in 1905, reaffiliated with the A. F. of L. in 1911. Reorganized as the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers, it is today the only international union with headquarters in Colorado.

Meantime, coal veins had been opened both in the northern and southern parts of the State ; the first operations were undertaken in 1864. From decade to decade coal became an increasingly important element in Colorado's economy until at length it achieved first rank among mineral products, a position it has normally maintained for many years. In 1913 more than 12,000 men were employed in and around the coal mines, but improved methods in mining have since increased production and reduced the number of workers approximately 25 per cent. Up to 1938 output had totaled 395,718,000 tons, valued at $819,154,000. Colorado coal ranges in quality from black lignite and sub-bituminous varieties to true anthracite. Vast coal deposits underlie the eastern base of the mountains in a wide strip from New Mexico to Wyoming, and are found in Routt County and elsewhere on the Western Slope. The coal beds, it has been estimated, contain reserves of 417,000,000,000 short tons, or sufficient to supply the entire country for seven centuries.

Labor troubles accompanied the development of the industry. In 1900 forty-one "wildcat" strikes occurred in the coal fields. In 1903, with the hard-rock miners on strike in almost all camps, coal miners in the State laid down their tools, demanding an eight-hour day and better working conditions. The miners in the northern fields soon won their demands, but the issue remained unsettled in the southern fields where large operators refused to negotiate with the United Mine Workers Union. established in the State in 1899.

In the summer of 1913 the union sent organizers into the southern fields and on September 23rd called a strike. The miners sought recognition of the union and a written contract providing an eight-hour day, strict enforcement of the State mining laws, a check weighman elected by themselves, and the right to board and buy goods where they pleased; almost all miners' communities were on company property. On the day of the strike 8,000 to 10,000 miners packed their belongings on carts and wagons and, with their women and children, moved down the canyons through snow, sleet, and drenching rain to the tent colonies established by the union. Clashes between the strikers and mine guards were frequent, and scarcely a week passed without fatalities. The militia was ordered into the strike districts, and on April 20, 1914, an armed clash occurred between a militia company and strikers in a tent colony at Ludlow, near Trinidad. The tents caught fire, and two women and eleven children were suffocated or burned to death in a pit dug under one of the tents for protection. Altogether, the engagement cost twenty-one lives, including that of a militiaman. Enraged strikers took possession of the coal fields from Walsenburg to Trinidad; two counties were virtually under their control. On June 1st Federal troops marched in and fighting ceased. The Ludlow "massacre," widely and heatedly discussed, brought John D. Rockefeller Jr. to Colorado to institute in his companies an employee representation plan designed to afford miners easy access to company officials for redress of grievances. The plan was praised and copied by others, but in 1938 was outlawed as a "company union" under the Wagner Act by the National Labor Relations Board.

The post-war era again brought unsettled conditions to the coal fields. Miners received two wage cuts in 1925; two years later a strike of all coal miners in the State was called for a six-hour day, a five-day week, and a basic day wage of $7.75. In the southern fields the strike met with varied success, but in the northern fields all mines but one were closed. In an armed clash at the open mine November 21, 1927, six men were killed and about 60 people injured, including many women and children. Martial law was immediately declared. The strike continued until February 1928, by which time almost all companies had granted an increase of 50¢ a day in basic wage rates as recommended by the Colorado Industrial Commission. The mine at which the fatal clash occurred soon passed into the control of Miss Josephine Roche, later Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Cabinet, who recognized the United Mine Workers and signed a written contract for a basic wage of $7.00 a day. The company, one of the largest in the State, inaugurated measures to promote social welfare and facilitate collective bargaining; farm lands were developed for the use of employees during summer months, and an effort was made to stabilize employment and improve working conditions. With more stable relations obtaining between workers and employers, mine owners are directing attention to the serious technical and economic problems facing the coal industry as a whole.

Iron was among the first minerals discovered in the State, being plentiful in several parts of the mountain region, particularly in the southern and southwestern sections. Because of the high cost of working these deposits, however, ore for the steel mills at Pueblo is shipped at present from Sunrise, Wyoming.

Colorado has been a consistent producer of lead since 1869, attaining a production peak of $7,228,000 in 1900; Colorado ranked sixth among the States in lead production in 1938, with an output valued at $869,860, of which San Juan County produced more than 42 per cent. Zinc mining, initiated in 1885, continues in nine counties, with a production in 1938 of $437,000, about 94 per cent of which came from San Juan County. Copper, first discovered in the State in 1868, is usually found in combination with other metals from which it must be separated by smelting or other costly processes. Copper production in 1938 totaled $2,777,000, a record for the State; of this, Eagle County mines yielded 85 per cent. Lead, zinc, copper, and other metals, even gold, are usually found in combination with silver, and a good price for silver frequently represents the margin necessary for profitable production. This explains why the silver question has always been of vital interest to Colorado and other western States.

In Colorado are also found many rare minerals essential in the manufacture of radio wire, chemicals, and temperature-resisting steel alloys used in the fabrication of aircraft and automobiles. In the production of molybdenum Colorado ranks first among the States, producing 78 per cent of the world's supply. Virtually all of this comes from the Climax Mine in Lake County (see Tour lb), which had an output of 28,242,085 pounds in 1938 with an approximate value of $20000,000 in the Pittsburgh market. Ferberite and wolframite ore from the Nederland district in Boulder County (see Tour 6) yield most of Colorado's tungsten, a virtually infusible metal, extremely valuable in the manufacture of high-speed machine tools and dies, electric lamp filaments, and radio tubes.

A shipment of Colorado uranium, or pitchblende, from Gilpin County, and of yellow carnotite, a uranium-vanadium compound from Paradox Valley (see Tour 19), was used by M. and Mme. Curie of Paris in their famous experiments that led to the extraction of radium. For some ten years Colorado dominated the world market for radioactive ores, but since 1923 the production of new mines in the Belgian Congo has cut the price of radium from more than $100,000 to $70,000 a gram, approximately the cost of production of radium from the carnotite ores of the State. Radium, sodium uranate, uranium, nitrate, uranium acetate, and various vanadium compounds are still mined on a small scale along the Dolores River. Vanadium had a record production of 1,382,000 pounds in 1938, or 86 per cent of all such ore mined in the United States. Fluorspar, a calcium fluorine compound extensively used in the manufacture of steel and in the ceramic and chemical industries, is another important metallic ore mined in the State. Colorado ranks fourth among the States in the extraction of this compound, the bulk of which comes from deposits near Salida and Wagon Wheel Gap.

Oil has been found in small quantities in the Arkansas Valley near Florence, in north-central Colorado, and in the plateau region of the northwest; considerable development work is being done elsewhere, particularly in the eastern part of the State. More than 2,000 producing wells have been drilled since oil was first discovered north of Canon City in 1862. Although its production is relatively small, ranking seventeenth among the States, the flow of its wells is high, averaging 21.9 barrels a well a day in 1935, more than twice the national average of 8.1. Some natural gas is derived from these wells, but the larger part of that used in Denver, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and other communities is piped from the North Texas oil fields.

Other important minerals of the State are cement, feldspar, mica, gypsum, barite, and lime. Quarrying has increased in importance as granite, marble, limestone, sandstone, lava, and other Colorado building stones have become better known to architects. Good granite is found in widely scattered parts of the State, notably at Gunnison, Silver Plume, Cotopaxi, and in South Platte Canyon. Marble is quarried in the vicinity of Salida, Marble, and in Wet Mountain Valley. Travertine, olivine, and dolomite have been shipped from Colorado quarries to many States. Near Livermore are the only developed beds of alabaster in North America.

With other industries, Colorado mining has suffered periods of depression since the World War. Discoveries of rich ores in other parts of the world depressed the price of all metals; mine after mine was forced to close or curtail production. Only those properties with the highest grade of ores remained in operation. Production was greatly stimulated in 1934 when the Federal Government, with the abandonment of the gold standard, raised the price of that metal to $35.00 a fine ounce. Mining operations were further stimulated when the price of silver was set at 77.3 cents an ounce in 1937 under the Federal Government's silver purchasing program. Mine operators have also been aided in recent years by the world-wide demand for metals essential to the manufacture of armaments; a marked revival has occurred in the extraction both of basic metals and rarer minerals used as industrial alloys. From a record low of $25,800,000 in 1932 the total value of mineral production advanced beyond $60,000,000 in 1938. In that year more than 20,000 persons were engaged in the extraction of minerals. Great and colorful as Colorado's mining history has been, experts agree that the State's mineral resources have merely been scratched.