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LEADVILLE

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 322 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEADVILLE , a See also:

city and the See also:county seat of See also:Lake county, See also:Colorado, U.S.A., one of the highest (mean See also:elevation c. 10,150 ft.) and most celebrated See also:mining " camps " of the See also:world. Pop. (1900) 12,455, of whom 3802 were See also:foreign-See also:born; (1910 See also:census) 7508. It is served by the See also:Denver & Rio Grande, the Colorado & See also:Southern and the Colorado Midland See also:railways. It lies amid towering mountains on a See also:terrace of the western flank of the See also:Mosquito Range at the See also:head of the valley of the See also:Arkansas See also:river, where the river cuts the valley between the Mosquito and the Sawatch (Saguache) ranges. Among the peaks in the immediate environs are Mt. Massive (14,424 ft., the highest in the See also:state) and Elbert See also:Peak (14,421 ft.). There is a See also:United States See also:fish hatchery at the See also:foot of Mt. Massive. In the See also:spring of 1860 placer See also:gold was discovered in See also:California Gulch, and by See also:July 186o Oro City had probably 10,000 inhabitants. In five years the See also:total yield was more than $5,000,000; then it diminished, and Oro City shrank to a few See also:hundred inhabitants.

This See also:

settlement was within the See also:present limits of Leadville. In 1876 the output of the mines was about $20,000. During sixteen years " heavy sands " and See also:great boulders that obstructed the placer See also:fields had been moved thoughtlessly to one See also:side. These boulders were from enormous See also:lead carbonate deposits extremely See also:rich in See also:silver. The See also:discovery of these deposits was made on the hills at the edge of Leadville. The first See also:building was erected in See also:June 1877; in See also:December there were several hundred miners, in See also:January the See also:town was organized and named; at the end of 1879 there were, it is said, 35,000 inhabitants. Leadville was already a chartered city, with the usual organization and all public facilities. In 188o it was reached by the Denver & Rio Grande railway. In See also:early years Leadville was one of the most turbulent, picturesque and in all ways extraordinary, of the mining camps of the See also:West. The value of the output from 1879 to 1889 totalled $147,834,186, including one-fifth of the silver See also:production and a third of the lead See also:consumption of the See also:country. The decline in the See also:price of silver, culminating with the closing of the See also:India mints II and the See also:repeal of the See also:Sherman See also:Law in 1893, threatened Leadville's future. But the source of the gold of the old placers was found in 1892.

From that See also:

year to 1899 the gold product See also:rose from $262,692 to $2,183,332. From 1879 to 1900 the See also:camp yielded $250,000,000 (as compared with $48,000,000 of gold and silver in five years from the Comstock, See also:Nevada, lode; and $6o,00.,000 and 225,000 tons of lead, in fourteen years, from the See also:Eureka, Nevada, mines). Before 1898 the production of See also:zinc was unimportant, but in 1906 it was more valuable than that of silver and gold combined. This increased output is a result of the See also:establishment of concentrating See also:mills, in which the zinc content is raised from 18 or 20% in the raw ores to 25 or 45% in the concentrates. In 1904, per ton of Lake county ore, zinc was valued at $6.93, silver at $4.16, lead at $3.85, gold at $1.77 and See also:copper at $.66. The copper See also:mined at Leadville amounted to about one-third the total mined in the state in 1906. See also:Iron and See also:manganese have been produced here, and in 1906 Leadville was the only See also:place in the United States known to have produced See also:bismuth. There were two famous labour strikes in the " diggings " in 1879 and 1896. The latter attracted See also:national See also:attention; it lasted from the 19th of June 1896 to the 9th of See also:March 1897, when the miners, being practically starved out, declared the strike off. There had been a See also:riot on the 21st of See also:September 1896 and See also:militia guarded the mines for months afterwards. In January 1897 the mines on Carbonate See also:Hill were flooded after the removal of their pumps. This strike closed many mines, which were not opened for several years.

Leadville See also:

stocks are never on the See also:exchange, and " flotation " and " promotion " have been almost unknown. The ores of the Leadville See also:District occur in a See also:blue See also:limestone formation overlaid by See also:porphyry, and are in the See also:form of heavy sulphides, containing copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc; oxides containing iron, manganese and small amounts of silver and lead; and siliceous ores, containing much silver and a little lead and gold. The best grade of ores usually consists of a mixture of sulphides, with some native gold. Nowhere have more wonderful advances in mining been apparent—in the See also:size and See also:character of furnaces and pumps; the development of See also:local smelter supplies; the fall in the cost of See also:coal, of See also:explosives and other mine supplies; the development of railways and diminution of See also:freight expenses; and the See also:general improvement of economic and scientific methods—than at Leadville since 1880. The increase of output more than doubled from 1890 to 1900, and many ores once far too See also:low in grade for working now yield sure profits. The Leadville smelters in 1900 had a capacity of 35,000 tons monthly; about as much more local ore being treated at Denver, See also:Pueblo and other places. See S. F. See also:Emmons, See also:Geology and Mining See also:Industry of Leadville, Colorado, monograph United States See also:Geological Survey, val. 12 (1886), and with J. D. See also:Irving, The Downtown District of Leadville, Colorado, Bulletin 320, United States Geological Survey (1907), particularly for the discussion of the origin of the ores of the region.

End of Article: LEADVILLE

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