A Quick History of Leadville

A Quick History of Leadville is a short, brisk tour of the boomtown of Colorado's boomtowns, from the 1860s to the present. The description lists what you will meet along the way: the arrival of the first prospectors, the booming mining era, the near mythical saga of the Tabors, the silver crash, and the Crystal Carnival with its magnificent ice palace.

The list keeps going. Miners' strikes brought anarchy, the railroads rose and fell, and Camp Hale and its famous 10th Mountain Division left their mark on the high country. The Climax Mine rose and then collapsed, and the Environmental Protection Agency's cleanup efforts bring the story into the modern age. The description ends with 'and more, much more,' which tells you how crowded this town's past is.

At 104 pages in a 2004 edition from Western Reflections, it is meant to be read in an afternoon. Open Library lists it under history. It is a good choice if you have just driven up to Leadville, or you want a framework before reading something longer.

This is a book for visitors and newcomers to Leadville who want the whole sweep before they walk Harrison Avenue. Skiers curious about the 10th Mountain Division, hikers who have seen old mine buildings on the hillsides, and Colorado history readers new to the silver era will all find a way in. It also helps families and school groups who need a short, readable account instead of an academic study. If you want deep detail on a single mine or strike, a longer specialist book will go further, but this one gives you the map.

Christian J. Buys wrote this short history and four other books in our catalogue on Colorado's mining towns, including a photographic book on Leadville itself and a companion history of Telluride. We have no verified biography of him beyond his books. His author page lists everything of his that we carry, with the other books side by side.

More about Christian J. Buys →

The Colorado Encyclopedia gives the Leadville story its real dates. Abe Lee found gold in California Gulch on April 25, 1860, and about 10,000 people lined the gulch by the end of that summer. The real boom came later. William Stevens and Alvinus Wood worked out in 1874 that a heavy black mud was lead carbonate full of silver, and they announced it in 1876. Leadville was incorporated in 1878 and held about 30,000 people by the end of 1879.

Horace Tabor made his fortune by grubstaking prospectors. The miners struck in May 1880, and Governor Frederick Pitkin declared martial law. Silver's price fell after the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, and the town built a giant ice palace in the winter of 1895. The Climax Mine opened in 1918 at Fremont Pass, Camp Hale trained the Tenth Mountain Division during World War II, and Leadville's mining district was declared a Superfund site in 1983.

Source: Colorado Encyclopedia, Leadville