REMEMBERING MOUNTAIN CITY

by Pam North

It's gone now, having been swallowed up into anonymity in the stark gulch between Black Hawk and Central City, but once Mountain City was the heart and soul of Gilpin County gold mining.  A monument at the side of present-day Gregory Street commemorates the site where John H. Gregory discovered gold in 1859.  Back then, the area was a piece of the Kansas Territory, and was part of the state of Kansas until 1861, when Congress authorized the Territory of Colorado.  The community of Mountain City sprang up adjacent to Gregory's lucky strike.

In present terms, the town lay approximately from the Bobtail Tunnel on the east to D Street on the west, including Bates Hill and Bobtail Hill, Gregory Gulch and Packard Gulch, and Cooper Street.  The new mining district established its first post office in 1860 in a small log building (it later became the harness room section of a barn).  The business section extended westerly along Lawrence Street, from its intersection with Leavitt Street, to Washington House, and a variety of establishments, such as Peter Liendenger's tea and coffee shop, John Hill's barber shop, John Nicholas' carpenter shop, and the Mountain City Fire House were integral to the area.  Another business square was located at the junction of Leavitt, Miner, Packard and Gregory streets and the Bobtail road, and in that locale were William Bennallack's grocery store, the Angove building (which at various times housed a butcher shop, a clothing store and another tea and coffee shop), the Tom Parsons Saloon, and a hotel.  Near the ruins of the Buell Mine and Mill was H.J. Kruse and Son, a large store owned by one of the local influential families; it connected with Lawrence Street by a long foot bridge that spanned the creek between Gregory and Lawrence streets.

Mountain City's importance came from its location; it lay at the point of the first gold discovery, and was enhanced because a number of additional valuable mines were found around the initial strike.  The richness of these other mines, such as the Briggs, Bobtail, Bates, Fish, Foot and Simmons, Mammoth, Peck and Thomas, Puzzle, O'Neil, Buell, and V.P.R. established Mountain City's prominence as a prosperous mining city in those early days.  While there were many other good mines in the surrounding regions, Mountain City's were the richest and the most productive.  These mines had proven that they were not fly-by-night operations, but were strong enterprises producing prodigious quantities of gold and providing employment to large numbers of workers.  The stability of these mines were a source of financial support for the area, attracting people, businesses and industry.  Remnants of these old mines are still visible as open cuts and slopes, and serve as a reminder of the busy mining operations that once were the mainstay of life.  When the men would emerge from the mines in large groups at the end of their shifts, it was reminiscent of a teeming ant colony.  Every gulch was once throbbing with activity, and homes were numerous.  In 1897 about 1200 people lived in  Mountain City, residing in an estimated number of at least 300 homes, of which only a small fraction remain.  Bits of the stacked rock foundations still testify to the existence of those that have disappeared.

Mountain City's populace was comprised for the most part of Cornish and miners, and the character of these hardy people set Mountain City apart.  The industrious Cornish miners had brought from the Cornwall, England tin mines the unique skills necessary to extract ores from this region's narrow fissure veins ranging from a few inches to eight feet in width, the average being four feet.  Their remarkable abilities enabled them to break more ground and produce more ore than others, and their abundant numbers in Mountain City were the driving force in the success of the mining industry there.

In 1874 Mountain City was incorporated into the City of Central, designated as its Fourth Ward; it was also the Fourth Precinct of Gilpin County.  With its absorption was lost its individual identity.

Next time you pass that stone marker that lies just downhill from the Red Dolly, stop and have a look, and reflect upon a vanished past.  It's where it all started.
 

Resource:  Yesterday Was Another Day, by Louis J. Carter