Lost Oak Creek Mine, Leadville, Colorado area

KGCnewbieseeker

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Oct 29, 2005
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The California gold rush of 1849 served as a crucible for the miners and prospectors who took part in the argosy. The effects of the California gold rush rippled out from the tumbling, nugget-filled streams of the Sierra Nevadas to nearly every part of the American West. One of these effects was an increase in prospecting and mining savvy. The California gold mines in the 1850's were a hard school of knocks for the prospectors who thronged into the Sierras in search of the yellow metal. Most of the gold-seekers found very little gold and were forced to return home empty-handed. Many of the Argonauts learned from the experience and became extremely competent prospectors. As gold districts in other parts of the West opened up, experienced miners and prospectors from California were many times first on the spot.


The famous Comstock District in Nevada drew miners from California like flies. Discovery of the fabulous Comstock silver deposits in 1860 brought a horde of California prospectors into the area. The timing of the Comstock discovery turned out to be perfect as most of the gold camps in California were in decline by the late 1850's. In 1860, the very same year as the Comstock strike, miners from California made the first discoveries of gold in the Leadville, Colorado area. Initially dubbed "California Gulch", the rich gold placers drew miners and prospectors like a magnet. A mining camp known as Oro City sprang up near the diggings. But like most placer districts throughout the West, the gold-bearing gravels were exhausted by the third year of operation.


Of course, the Leadville camp would eventually be known as the "Silver King of Colorado", but this most famous of silver districts started out as a placer gold camp founded by California prospectors.


Prospectors from the Golden State have also figured prominently in another part of American mining history, that of lost gold and silver mines. A number of famous lost lodes are attributed to California prospectors. One of the most famous of these lies in Ouray County, Colorado, in the high country near Oak Creek. The Lost Oak Creek Mine is located somewhere along the eastern flanks of Whitehouse Mountain, overlooking the town of Ouray.


Sometime around 1863, two California prospectors decided to explore the steep eastern slope of Whitehouse Mountain by ascending Oak Creek to its head. They climbed up the creek until they reached a fairly flat area where a small spring emanated from the rocks. Here, they found fragments of gold-bearing float! They traced the float uphill to a small vein of quartz studded with pure gold. The prospectors from California stared in disbelief. It was the richest gold deposit they had ever seen!


The two prospectors worked the vein long enough to extract several sacks of rich ore. Unfortunately, the Ute Indians discovered the pair and chased them off the mountain. It was the last time either of them saw the vein. Prospectors have searched for the Lost Oak Creek Mine for nearly a century and a half but it remains hidden to this day.
 

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