Caribou, Colorado

Last updated

Caribou
Ghost town
CaribouCO-2005.jpg
Caribou in 2005
USA Colorado location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Caribou
Coordinates: 39°58′51″N105°34′43″W / 39.98083°N 105.57861°W / 39.98083; -105.57861 [1]
Elevation
[1]
9,971 ft (3,039 m)
GNIS feature ID 181099 [1]

Caribou is an extinct silver mining town located near Nederland in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. It was named after the Caribou silver mine nearby. The Caribou post office operated from January 31, 1871, until March 31, 1917. [2] The Caribou Ranch recording studio was located several miles away, on the road from Nederland up to Caribou.

Contents

History

1861 to 1969

Caribou, circa 1911 CaribouCO.jpg
Caribou, circa 1911

A prospector named Conger discovered placer gold downstream from Caribou in 1861. He eventually followed the gold up Coon Trail Creek, and discovered the first silver vein in what later became the Caribou district. [3]

Caribou was established about 1870 to house miners from the Caribou silver mine. [4] : 51  The town had one church, three saloons, a brewery, and its own newspaper, the Caribou Post. The Caribou mine was sold for $3 million in 1871 to Dutch investors, but the new owners found that the best ore had already been removed. The mine struggled until 1876, when controversial Colorado entrepreneurs Jerome B. Chaffee and David Moffat bought the mine, incorporated it, and sold shares in New York. [5] A fire burned down the town in 1879. By the 1920s, Caribou was home to fewer than 50 people. At its peak in 1875, Caribou's population was estimated to be about 3,000 people. [6]

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
1880 549—
1890 169−69.2%
1900 44−74.0%
1910 5115.9%

1970 to present

Caribou and its silver mines were completely deserted by the time 19-year-old geology student Tom Hendricks saw it in 1970, but Hendricks became convinced that the silver mines at Caribou could make a profit, and has made the mines his life work. [7] After he got his geology degree, he acquired the old Cross mine in 1973, and began shipping silver concentrate in 1977. He acquired the famous Caribou mine in 1980. He has struggled to keep the Cross and Caribou mines operating through low silver prices. [8] Hendricks, through Calais Resources, started exploring for gold instead of silver, but business conflicts resulting in lawsuits, specifically with former Colorado senator Tom Wiens have delayed attempts at gold mining. [9]

Geography

The Caribou townsite is located an elevation of 9,971 feet (3,039 m). [1]

William Henry Jackson took a picture of the town in 1877, and well-known Colorado photographer John Fielder took another photograph of the same view in 1998. Only two stone ruins, and one collapsed wooden cabin remain of the town.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pike's Peak gold rush</span> Nineteenth-century gold-prospecting frenzy in Colorado, US

The Pike's Peak gold rush was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eldora, Colorado</span> Census Designated Place in Colorado, United States

Eldora, previously known as "Eldorado" then "El-Dora", then Eldora or Camp Eldorado, and still called Happy Valley, is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Eldora CDP was 140 at the United States Census 2020. The Nederland post office serves the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gold Hill, Colorado</span> Census Designated Place in Colorado, United States

Gold Hill is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Gold Hill CDP was 218 at the United States Census 2020. The Boulder post office serves the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nederland, Colorado</span> Town in Colorado, United States

Nederland is a statutory town located near Barker Meadow Reservoir in the foothills of southwest Boulder County, Colorado, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census it had a population of 1,471.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ward, Colorado</span> Town in Colorado, United States

Ward is a home rule municipality in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 128 at the 2020 census. The town is a former mining settlement founded in 1860 in the wake of the discovery of gold at nearby Gold Hill. Once one of the richest towns in the state during the Colorado Gold Rush, it is located on a mountainside at the top of Left Hand Canyon, near the Peak to Peak Highway northwest of Boulder at an elevation of 9,450 feet (2,880 m) above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gilman, Colorado</span> Town in Colorado, United States

Gilman is an abandoned mining town in southeastern Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The Gilman post office operated from November 3, 1886, until April 22, 1986. The U.S. Post Office at Minturn now serves Gilman postal addresses.

Eben Smith was a successful mine owner, smelting company executive, railroad executive and bank owner in Colorado in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Granite, Colorado</span> Unincorporated community in Colorado, United States

Granite is an unincorporated community with a U.S. Post Office in Chaffee County, Colorado, United States. The zip code of Granite is 81228. According to the 2010 census, the population is 116.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio City, Colorado</span> Unincorporated community in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States

Ohio City is an unincorporated community and a U.S. Post Office in Gunnison County, Colorado, United States. The Ohio City Post Office has the ZIP Code 81237.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eureka, Colorado</span> Ghost town in San Juan County, Colorado, United States.

Eureka is an extinct mining town in San Juan County, Colorado, United States, along the Animas River, between Silverton and Animas Forks. The town derives its name from the Greek interjection Eureka! The Eureka post office operated from August 9, 1875, until April 30, 1942.

Gold mining in Colorado, a state of the United States, has been an industry since 1858. It also played a key role in the establishment of the state of Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uranium mining in Colorado</span>

Uranium mining in Colorado, United States, goes back to 1872, when pitchblende ore was taken from gold mines near Central City, Colorado. The Colorado uranium industry has seen booms and busts, but continues to this day. Not counting byproduct uranium from phosphate, Colorado is considered to have the third largest uranium reserves of any US state, behind Wyoming and New Mexico.

Silver mining in Colorado has taken place since the 1860s. In the past, Colorado called itself the Silver State.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oro City, Colorado</span> Ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States

Oro City is a ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Castle Dome Landing, Arizona</span> Ghost town in Yuma County, Arizona

Castle Dome Landing, Arizona is a ghost town in the Castle Dome Mountains of Yuma County in the U.S. state of Arizona. It was first settled as a transport depot and mining camp around 1863 in what was then the Arizona Territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Switzerland Trail</span> Historic narrow gauge railroad line in Colorado

The Switzerland Trail is the site of a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railroad line that was operated at different times by the Greeley, Salt Lake and Pacific Railway, the Colorado and Northwestern Railroad, and the Denver, Boulder, and Western Railroad around the turn of the 20th century in the Colorado front range mining area near Nederland, Gold Hill, and Ward. The west end of the trail is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the "Denver, Boulder and Western Railway Historic District".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John F. Campion</span>

John Francis Campion was a wealthy Canadian-American who made his fortune in mining and sugar production. He was also an executive and investor in banking, railroad, insurance, and other businesses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crisman, Colorado</span> Census Designated Place in Colorado, United States

Crisman is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place (CDP) located in and governed by Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The CDP is a part of the Boulder, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population of the Crisman CDP was 179 at the United States Census 2020. The Boulder post office serves the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibliography of Colorado</span> Bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado

This is a bibliography of the U.S. State of Colorado.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Caribou, Colorado
  2. ↑ Bauer, William H.; Ozment, James L.; Willard, John H. (1990). Colorado Post Offices 1859–1989. Golden, Colorado: Colorado Railroad Historical Foundation. ISBN   0-918654-42-4.
  3. ↑ Ben H. Parker Jr., "Gold Placers of Colorado, v. 1", Quarterly of the Colorado School of Mines; v. 69, n. 3, p. 60.
  4. ↑ Voynick, S.M., 1992, Colorado Gold, Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company, ISBN   0878424555
  5. ↑ Duane A. Smith (1974) Silver Saga, Boulder, Colo.: Pruett, pp. 25-81.
  6. ↑ John W. Buchanan (1958) The Story of Ghost Town Caribou, Boulder, Colo.: The Boulder Publishing Inc, p. 22.
  7. ↑ Karen Auge, "Caribou's Hendricks has a heart of gold", Denver Post; 14 March 1999 p. B1.
  8. ↑ "Hard work makes things go at a small Colorado mine", Engineering & Mining Journal, February 1982, pp. 74-76.
  9. ↑ Steve Raabe "Colorado gold mines in play after dispute between prospector, investor", Denver Post; April 27, 2016 (updated from January 31, 2014)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.