The history of mining in Nederland – The Mountain-Ear

The Nederland area is arguably one of the richest mining camps in Colorado. Two of the three local mining districts became world-class deposits. In their time, the Caribou Silver mine and Nederland Tungsten district were the largest producing mining districts of their kind in the world. The Eldora Gold-Telluride mining district was more of a bust than a boom.

For many years, the Utes lived peacefully in the mountains and foothills of northern Colorado. During the summer they hunted elk in the high country and crossed the Continental Divide over the well-traveled “Ute Trail” west of Nederland to Middle Park. The Ute Trail began near Sunshine Canyon, traversed south of Sugarloaf Mountain, up Gordon Gulch to Sulphide Flats (east of Eldora), then up the eastern ridge of Spencer Mountain, north of the Eldora ski area, up Bryan Mountain and over Rollins Pass near the Needles Eye tunnel to Middle Park. Ute arrowheads were reportedly found along the trail well into the 1960s.

What would become the town of Nederland was undoubtedly visited by some of the first prospectors to venture into the headwaters of the rivers and creeks of what was known as the “Snowy Range” during the winter of 1859. In 1859, the first prospectors named western Boulder County the Grand Island mining district and the first gold mining claims were filed in 1861. These early prospectors were on the lookout for gold, not silver, or tungsten.

Placer gold was discovered during the spring of 1859 at what was called the “Jefferson Diggings” in the gravels along Middle Boulder Creek near present day Nederland. Not much is known about the Jefferson Diggings except three men were killed by a forest fire there in 1860.

Only mule or pony packs could travel up Boulder Canyon, so supplies for Ward and the other mining camps in the region had to come from Central City and Black Hawk. A small group of cabins appeared in a meadow along the wagon road between Central City and Ward, adjacent to Middle Boulder Creek. The group of cabins became known as Dayton. The glaciated valley offered level pasture land with abundant water and rich soil where vegetables could be grown and livestock raised to feed the hungry miners and supply local prospectors in the quickly growing mining camps.

Sometime in 1864, Samuel Conger (who many years later discovered the Nederland Tungsten District) was hunting for deer near Arapahoe Peak when he wandered across some interesting looking rocks (legend has it he was shown the rocks by the ghost of a beautiful Arapaho Native American Princess). He did not recognize that the rocks were rich silver ore until the summer of 1869, when he, William Martin, and George Lytle, returned to the site and discovered the Great Caribou Silver Lode.

During the winter of 1869-70 they survived the wind and snowdrifts at an elevation of 10,505 feet above sea level to protect their discovery of two unbelievably rich silver veins (the Caribou and Poor Man veins) that would become the Great Caribou Silver Lode.

In 1870, Nathan W. Brown filed a 40-acre agricultural homestead and built a two-story boarding house in Dayton that he called “Brown’s Mountain House.” He was given the nickname of “Bolly Brown” probably because he was bald and rather round in stature. Old Bolly must have been a likable character because Dayton soon became known as Brownsville, Browns Ranch or Browns Station.

During the fall of 1870, three wagons, each carrying two tons of silver ore, would make the trip from Caribou to Black Hawk every day to be milled. The wagon road to Black Hawk passed through Brownsville

It was not until 1871, when the Boulder Canyon Wagon Road was built as a one-way toll road with 33 bridges, that Brownsville was connected to Boulder. In 1871 a post office was established and Brownsville was renamed Middle Boulder after the creek that ran through town. Middle Boulder had a population of 200.

In the fall of 1870, Abel D. Breed a wealthy capitalist from Cincinnati, purchased the western half of the Caribou lode for $50,000. Breed and D. B. Cutter decided to locate their state-of-the-art reduction mill (with 15 stamps and 5 floors) close to the abundant timber and water in Middle Boulder (later Nederland), away from the weather at Caribou. This decision was contrary to the practices of the time where the mill was typically built adjacent to the mine. Their choice allowed the Caribou Mill in Nederland to become the largest and most successful silver mill in the Colorado Territory by 1872. In 1872, the Caribou Consolidated Mill in Nederland could mill 20 tons of Caribou ore every 24 hours. Five teams of wagons would haul 20 tons of ore per day down to Middle Boulder from Caribou at “great expense” due to the snow drifts. Depending on snow levels, ore wagons were fixed with removable sled runners.

The Caribou, Poorman, No-Name, and Seven Thirty veins produced approximately $6,000,000 in silver. The Caribou Mill in Nederland produced the 30 bricks of silver that paved the front of the Teller House in Central City for the visit of Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. Due to the international publicity generated by the bricks of silver from Caribou, “The Mining Company Nederland,” from Holland, purchased the Caribou mine and mill for $3,000,000 in 1873.

After the sale of the mine, but before the property was turned over, Breed stripped the mine of much of the richest ore. The company from Holland produced a fair amount of silver in 1874, but conflict, mismanagement, and debt caused the mine to close in 1875. The Dutch owners of the Caribou mine had always referred to Middle Boulder as Nederland, which means “lowerlands” in Dutch, so when Middle Boulder was incorporated in 1875 it was renamed Nederland as a tribute to the Dutch mining company.

By 1889, only seven families lived in Nederland. Unfortunately, three of Nathan Brown’s four children died of diphtheria in a single week and his wife of 20 years, Catherine, filed for a divorce soon afterwards. After trouble with bill collectors, and repeated brushes with the law for disturbing the peace, Nathan W. Brown eventually lost his property and moved to Boulder vowing never to return. Nathan Brown died in Boulder, and was buried with his wife Virginia and 3-year-old son Roy in the Nederland Cemetery in 1889. In 1895, Nederland’s original cemetery’s 29 residents were removed to a new location northwest of town to make room for the expansion of St. Rita’s church.

In 1891, John Kemp founded Happy Valley Camp (later Eldora), and in 1892 many gold-silver telluride veins were discovered in the nearby hills south and west of town. In 1892, Nederland’s population was 100, and Happy Valley camp had two log cabins and a population of 10.

In February 1897, Happy Valley Camp was renamed Eldorado, and the post office was established. After the postmistress found out that mail was being routed to Eldorado, California, the town’s name was shortened to Eldora. The new town boasted five saloons, a bank, newspaper, and a red-light district across the stream from town that was referred to as “Monte Carlo.” It is said that five or six houses were started every day during the summer of 1897. Nederland’s population was 200 and Eldora’s population was 1300.

Things started to disintegrate in 1899, when the Enterprise mill could not successfully treat the gold-telluride ore. When the mill manager Neil Bailey missed a payday, the employees set his house on fire and fatally shot him in the arm. No amount of promotion could cover up the fact that the mines near Eldora had not produced significant amounts of gold, silver, or copper.

Many of the Eldora mines burned in 1901, but the main part of town was spared. Only one saloon was left in Eldora by 1904. By the time the railroad finally reached Eldora in 1905 many of the mines were closed. In 1900, Nederland’s population was 200, and Caribou’s population was 44.

Gold and silver prospecting began in the Nederland area around 1859, but the heavy black mineral (called barren silver, heavy iron, and black iron by the miners) was not recognized as tungsten ore, or ferberite (FeWO3), until 1900 by H.H. Wanamaker and Samual Conger. Nederland became, by far, the leading producer of Tungsten in the United States from 1900-1918. The Nederland Tungsten District produced $23,000,0000 worth of tungsten from 1900-1945.

Tungsten was needed for the high-speed steel cutting tools used to manufacture weapons during World War I. From 1909-10, the Primos Mining and Milling Co., was the largest tungsten mining company in the world and ran the world’s largest tungsten mill in Lakewood (a company town northwest of Nederland), They owned the Conger Mine, the world’s deepest tungsten mine at 991 feet deep. In 1912, an overhead electric tramway was completed from the Conger mine to the mill in Lakewood.

In 1914, Nederland’s population was over 3,000, including several hundred people living in Lakewood, Ferberite, Stevens Camp (later Tungsten) and many scattered tent settlements surrounding Nederland proper. During the winter of 1915 much of Nederland’s downtown was rebuilt after a series of fires, and many of the buildings that were erected during this period still stand today.

---

References

Bastin, E.S., and Hill, J.M., 1917, Economic geology of Gilpin County and adjacent parts of Clear Creek and Boulder Counties, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 94, 379 p.

Fossett, F., 1876, Colorado, Its Gold and Silver Mines, Farms and Stock Ranges and Health and Pleasure Resorts: 1st ed., Crawford, N.Y.

Hollister, O.J., 1867, The Mines of Colorado, Samuel Bowles and Co., Springfield Mass., 45 p.

Lovering, T.S., and Goddard, E.N., 1950, Geology and ore deposits of Front Range, Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 223, 319 p. Caribou Post, 1871.