The kids may not realize this yet, but there is a purpose to our cross-country adventures.
Actually, I have several reasons for this journey, and not just my personal desire to explore the world. As we roll through America, we’re gathering (and hopefully gaining a better understanding of) the stories of our nation.
One of those stories is the irresistible lure that beckoned many settlers out West – Gold Fever.
Pike’s Peak or Bust – Colorado’s Gold Rush 59ers
In 1859, more than 100,000 people heeded the call of “Pike’s Peak or Bust” during the Colorado Gold Rush. Many fortunes were made, and new towns were born, some of which prospered due to new railroads.
Colorado Springs became known as “the city of millionaires” as it was the leading mining exchange center of the world at the turn of the century. Much of its prosperity came from gold mines in Cripple Creek, aka the “World’s Greatest Gold Camp.”
Today, you can drive along Colorado’s National Scenic Byway, The Gold Belt Tour, to see many areas of historical interest. With advance reservations, you can tour the modern operations of Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company to see large scale surface mining.
Instead, we visited an older gold mine, not currently in production, but with an uncommon tale.
An Unusual Gold Mining Story
In 1891, it was still unusual to find a woman who owned considerable property in the United States. It wasn’t until the 1848 Married Women’s Property Act that women could legally own property, and it took many years for this law to be expanded into common use.
When Mary Catherine “Mollie Kathleen” Gortner followed her son to Cripple Creek and accidently discovered gold “in them thar hills,” it took cunning and courage to strike a claim in her own name. (See The Story of Mollie.)
Compare this to another story shared on the tour about a man who, after many years of fruitless search, struck gold. That night, he went into town to celebrate; where, after a night of revelry, he discovered that he had signed away his claim to a million dollar gold mine in exchange for a bottle of whiskey, only to die despondent and destitute.
Going For The Gold
The day after scaling the heights of Pikes Peak, we descended 1,000 feet into the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine, located in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
Warning – If you choose to do this, be aware that you will be tightly packed into a elevator cage with new friends for the 1,000 foot descent along the vertical shaft. Heed the sign, by order of the Bureau of Mines Regulation 93-3: “Farting on the miners’ cage is strictly forbidden.”
The tour itself greatly benefits from being guided by a professional miner, on a visit back home while his mine is under its annual floods.
He showed us what to look for when searching for gold ore, and demonstrated the various tools used then, and now, to drill it out. We even learned how to set dynamite in a pattern to expedite the drilling process.
Arguably the best part of the tour was the conclusion when we were each given a piece of gold ore. Now, if we could only figure out how to extract the gold!
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