Matchless Mine | |
 Matchless mine and Baby Doe Tabor cabin | |
| Location | E 7th Rd., Leadville, Colorado |
|---|---|
| MPS | Mining Industry in Colorado, MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 10001088 [1] |
| Added to NRHP | December 12, 2010 |
The Matchless Mine is a historic mine located in Lake County, Colorado. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, [1] and is part of the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum.
The Matchless Mine made Horace Tabor's fortune. It was purchased by Tabor in September 1879. [2] His wife, Baby Doe Tabor, died in the superintendent's cabin.
According to legend, Tabor’s dying instructions to his wife were: “Hold onto the Matchless mine, it will make millions.” After some years in Denver, Baby Doe moved into a cabin next to the mine. She lost the mine in 1927, when it was sold to satisfy a debt, but the new owners allowed Baby Doe to stay in the cabin.
In the winter of 1935, after a snowstorm, some neighbors noticed that no smoke was coming out of the chimney at the Matchless Mine cabin. Investigating, they found Baby Doe, her body frozen on the floor. [3] [4] [5]
Leadville is a statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 2,633 at the 2020 census. It is situated at an elevation of 10,158 feet (3,096 m). Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States and is surrounded by two of the tallest peaks in the state.
Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,436. The county seat and the only municipality in the county is Leadville. The highest natural point in Colorado and the entire Rocky Mountains is the summit of Mount Elbert in Lake County at 14,440 feet elevation.
Horace Austin Warner "Haw" Tabor, also known as The Bonanza King of Leadville and The Silver King, was an American prospector, businessman, and Republican politician. His success in Leadville, Colorado's silver mines made him one of the wealthiest men in Colorado. He purchased more mining enterprises throughout Colorado and the Southwestern United States, and he was a philanthropist. After the collapse in the silver market during the Panic of 1893, Tabor was financially devastated. He lost most of his holdings, and he labored in the mines. In his last year, he was the postmaster of Denver.
The Central City Opera House is located in the Central City/Black Hawk Historic District in Central City, Colorado, United States. It was constructed in 1878. It has offered operatic and theatrical productions that drew prominent actors and performers in the late 19th-century, and in the early 20th-century it was a motion picture theater.
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.
The Ballad of Baby Doe is an opera by the American composer Douglas Moore that uses an English-language libretto by John Latouche. It is Moore's most famous opera and one of the few American operas to be in the standard repertory. Especially famous are the title heroine's five arias: "Letter Aria," "Willow Song," "I Knew it Was Wrong", "Gold is a Fine Thing", and "Always Through the Changing." Horace Tabor's "Warm as the Autumn Light" is also frequently heard. Distinguished sopranos who have portrayed Baby Doe include Beverly Sills, Ruth Welting, Karan Armstrong, Faith Esham, and Elizabeth Futral.
The Lariat Loop National Scenic and Historic Byway is a National Scenic Byway and a Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Jefferson County, Colorado, USA. The byway is a 40-mile (64 km) loop in the Front Range foothills west of Denver through Golden, Lookout Mountain Park, Genesee Park, Evergreen, Morrison, Red Rocks Park, and Dinosaur Ridge. The Lariat Loop connects to the Mount Evans Scenic Byway at Bergen Park.
Oro City is a ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States
The Leadville Historic District is in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. The National Historic Landmark District includes 67 mines in the mining district east of the city up to the 12,000 foot level, and a defined portion of the village area. It was designated in 1961. Then, when the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) program was started in 1966, Leadville's National Historic District was included in its first day's listings, along with all other existing National Historic Landmarks. The NRHP district was later expanded, adding a number of structures along the Harrison Avenue corridor, and making them eligible for historic preservation grants and tax subsidies, too.
The Mineral Belt National Recreation Trail is an 11.6 mile all-season biking/walking trail that loops around Leadville, Colorado and through its historic mining district. The trail's setting is quintessentially Colorado Rocky Mountain landscape. Groves of aspen, conifer forests, wildflower meadows, and open vista sage parks are interspersed with once-booming mine sites. Ever-present views of the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges provide perspective and a sense of permanence to the area. Several signs along the way provide historical snippets about Leadville's colorful past. The trail is designed for bicycles, longboards, walkers, wheelchairs, strollers and in-line skaters. When the snow falls, snowcats groom the trail to provide access to Nordic skiers, snowshoers and winter-bikers.
The Leadville mining district, located in the Colorado Mineral Belt, was the most productive silver-mining district in the state of Colorado and hosts one of the largest lead-zinc-silver deposits in the world. Oro City, an early Colorado gold placer mining town located about a mile east of Leadville in California Gulch, was the location to one of the richest placer gold strikes in Colorado, with estimated gold production of 120,000–150,000 ozt, worth $2.5 to $3 million at the then-price of $20.67 per troy ounce.
Elizabeth McCourt Tabor, better known as Baby Doe, was the second wife of Colorado pioneer businessman Horace Tabor. Her rags-to-riches and back to rags again story made her a well-known figure in her own day, and inspired an opera and a Hollywood movie based on her life.
Buckskin Joe is an extinct gold mining town located in Park County, Colorado, United States. The town was founded in 1860 as Laurette in what was then the Kansas Territory. The Territory of Colorado was created on February 28, 1861, and the Laurette post office opened on November 14, 1861. Laurette was elected the Park County seat on January 7, 1862. The post office name was changed to Buckskin on December 21, 1865, although the town was popularly known as Buckskin Joe. The county seat was moved to Fair Play in 1867, and the Buckskin post office closed on January 24, 1873.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Grand County, Colorado.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Eagle County, Colorado.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lake County, Colorado.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Summit County, Colorado.
Augusta Pierce Tabor was the wife of a merchant and miner, Horace Tabor, the first white woman to live in the Idaho Springs mining camp, and a Denver philanthropist. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1991 for her contributions to social service and philanthropy.
Caroline Bancroft was a journalist. She is known for the books and booklets that she wrote about Colorado's history and its pioneers. In 1990, she was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame.
Esther Burnell Mills was an American pioneer and homesteader in Estes Park, Colorado. Esther Burnell and her sister became the National Park Service's first certified nature guides. She married Enos Mills, who led the establishment of the Rocky Mountain National Park. They ran the Longs Peak Inn, and after her husband's death, Mills continued to operate the inn. She edited and published three post-humous volumes and additional works by Enos Mills. With Hildegarde Hawthorne, she co-authored Enos Mills of the Rockies.
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