The Camp Bird Mine, between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado, was a highly productive old gold mine in the San Juan Mountains. Thomas F. Walsh discovered gold here in 1896.
An immigrant from Ireland, Thomas Walsh came to the United States as a young man in 1869 and first settled in Massachusetts. In the early 1870s, Walsh headed west, settling in Colorado, where he was paid well for his carpentry skills. However, he was attracted to the opportunities that came with the gold rush, including trading goods and services at inflated prices, as opposed to gold mining itself. Gradually, he became increasingly interested in the gold industry and soon traded mining equipment to prospectors in exchange for their mining claims. He also studied mining technology at night.
I didn't read that the mine stopped producing gold. So, if mined today is there still gold there? If so, it seems people would be sneaking in.
ReplyDeleteIf there is, it's probably ore, not raw gold. Gold ore's value is usually measured in cents per ton, so it's not worth stealing, especially if you don't have the means to process it.
ReplyDeleteI've got a big chunk of gold ore in my room. It looks like a piece of brick.
Telluride got it name from capital criminals getting srepped to a log and sent down the mining trough from the top of the mountain. “To Hell You Ride”.
ReplyDeleteOr from the mineral tellurium which indicates gold, silver or copper deposits. That's what I'd always heard. Your explanation sounds better, though.
DeleteMy great grandfather Amos Caborn died in the Ouray hospital around 1917. He was a freighter who "busted a gut" (hernia) while delivering supplies to the mines around the Telluride area. The supplies would be left in a box car at a siding in Placerville CO. The same roads he drove a mule team on now have tourist rides in a jeeps to see the scenery. My grandfather, Dick Caborn, at the age of 13, became "the man of the house" and supported his mother and little brother. During the Depression he worked for Safeway. They reduced his salary to $25 per week. He told them he couldn't support is wife and child (my mother) on that. They told him to take it or leave it. He bought a bakery delivery service from a guy and built it up to a successful business. From there he was owned a small corner grocery store, to apartment owner, to car dealer (Kaiser-Frazer) to tire shop owner.
ReplyDeleteUncle Dave
Those are the kind of men that made America great. When I was researching mining camps in California's Mother Lode, I wasn't interested in bankers, mine owners and other prominent citizens. I wanted to learn about the seamstress, the miner, the blacksmith and the local merchants. Those are the people that made the town what it was.
DeleteI live about 130 miles ENE of Ouray 'as the crow flies'. To drive it is about 4 to 5 hrs thru some of the most RUGGED country ever . The back (direct) road (path) from Ouray on into Telluride is another 10 miles / 2-3 hrs. More of a goat path than a road. Definitely not for the squeamish tourista.
DeleteMan, I love country like that.
DeleteOf course, Bootmaker, McCall also had a humorous song about the Black Bear Road.
DeleteI remember when I was a boy and I got a C.W. McCall album in the late '70s, and enjoyed his song, "The Camp Bird Mine".
ReplyDelete--Tennessee Budd