Article Contributed on: 5/6/2009 2:25:59 PM
Today is the 150th anniversary of one of the most pivotal moments in Colorado history, when
John Hamilton Gregory discovered gold in today's Gilpin County, in the area of the future Black Hawk and Central City. This find on May 6, 1859, along with the Jackson find around today's Idaho Springs on January 7, 1859, triggered the great Gold Rush to this area. For years since the 1830s various folks had found gold around here, but none was followed up on until the late 1850s, but prospectors then became discouraged because what they found was limited in the sandbars of area creeks and rivers. Finding the mother lode from which these deposits washed down was key, and once Gregory found it, the rush was on.
Gregory was a citizen of the future Jefferson County. When he arrived here he was 38-year-old man of Scottish descent from Cherokee County, Georgia, a big gold mining region there, where he learned gold mining from his father
Griffin. Gregory was a successful gold miner and by 1850 owned a 1,000 acre plantation on the Etowah River, and had married
Christina Payne from the plantation next door. Over the next years they had 5 children, and sold their plantation in 1856. However, Georgia gold was running out; Gregory traveled to the Rockies to begin prospecting there. While wintering at Fort Laramie, while on his way to mine in Canada, Gregory got word that fellow Georgians led by
William Greeneberry Russell, following up on the 1850 discovery in today's Jeffco by another Georgian
Lewis Ralston upon the creek named after him, had found gold of their own. Gregory immediately went south, and arrived at our first town, Arapahoe City, in January 1859.
Like Jackson, Gregory also sought the source of area gold deposits in the mountains, and where particularly the gold of Clear Creek, then called Vasquez, deposited at Arapahoe Bar was coming from. Where Jackson ventured on the southern branch of the river in the mountains, Gregory ventured on the north branch, and then up a gulch where he found a lead that could hold promise. However, a heavy snowstorm of the harsh winter that year forced Gregory back down to Arapahoe City, just about out of provisions and nearly destitute. In fact he was reportedly suffering from eating untreated venison because he had run out of salt, and getting provisions from others who had come here with limited supplies of their own was a tall order.
On April 30, 1859, while he was working among other miners getting gold from Arapahoe Bar, a prospecting party from Indiana led by
David King Wall passed through town. Wall himself, although knowledgeable in gold mining, was too enchanted by the fertile land of the river valley to consider tarrying at Arapahoe City, but men of his party gave his name to Gregory, and when they camped in the valley west of the Table Mountains Gregory soon arrived and told Wall his story. Wall listened when Gregory told them "Boys, if you-all want to put up grub and transportation against my experience as a miner, we'll go up the creek and we'll get gold." However, both Wall's men and Gregory were hesitant, as Wall later told:
When he came and told me his experiences, I told him that he could not expect to find rich deposits at the base of the mountains, and that he would have to seek into the higher altitudes and deep gulches, where he would get good colors of gold. I then appealed to him to go back, and take the So. Bend boys with him. But he was skeptical and resisted all arguments, until I told him I would furnish grub out of my own wagon - as none of the rest of the party was willing to contribute anything, grub being more valuable than gold at that time, for he had been living on Venison for some 10 days and was entirely out of salt. After a long argument and the strongest appeals I could make, assuring him that I would give him from my scanty supplies the best I had, he yielded. Others would not sell a pound from their wagons, for there was nothing, up to that time to induce them to stay, and they expected to need what they had to get home on.
Gregory was skeptical because Wall's party could potentially claim his discovery as their own; he had known of such tales back home. Wall's men were hesitant because their provisions could be their only ticket back home across the plains with iffy hunting prospects if gold seeking was unsuccessful. As Wall later put it, "Few people can realize what a sacrifice it meant to me to give up such a great amount of provisions nearly 1,000 miles from home, with no chance of replenishing in case the venture failed. At that time we knew nothing of lode mining, and it is probable that we would have looked for gold in vain for many years". It was the first gamble of many more that would be bet in the Gilpin County locale of Colorado.
At the beginning of May Gregory and Wall's men set out, starting by going over the mountain on the north side of the entrance to Golden Gate Canyon, across ridge tops and into the hills. The ground of the gulch was still covered with snow and ice when they got there on May 6, 1859, but panning dirt from there Gregory found $4 worth of gold and knew he had found a great strike. When the
Rocky Mountain News editor arrived to report on the discovery May 19th, Gregory showed him $1,000 worth of gold from 3 days work. There were only 17 men in the gulch, but the next day there were at least 150. By early June there were 5,000. Reporters from the
Cincinnati Daily Commercial, the
Boston Journal and editor
Horace Greeley from teh
New York Tribune showed up on June 8th, interviewed Gregory and reported on the mines. Publicity spread eastward and the gold rush was on.
What did David Wall win with his gamble? His men each got considerable money from their claims, but Wall got nothing from his. He'd stayed behind to plant crops in the promising soil, and once he harvested he went up and mined his claim, but said "My claim must have been on a blank spot, for I was never able to get much out of it. I finally threw it up and went back to Golden". However, Wall doesn't appear to have held a grudge; he in any event was kept occupied by getting his own riches from the ground in the form of $1,500 for his highly sought after vegetables, comparable to any of his companions' gold claims.
Gregory sold his original two claims for $21,000, and then worked prospecting for other parties for around $400 per day (for perspective, Golden's Astor House hotel was built 8 year later for $2,000). He was constantly besieged by prospecting requests, but being a friendly good-natured gentleman (although also known to be at times talkative, load and profane) he carried matters well. Gregory acquired and sold subsequent mining property, though was not one to be taken advantage of, having exact payment plans with reverter clauses if he was not satisfactorily paid. After spending some time during the winter back home Gregory returned in 1860 with a sizeable party loaded with supplies to continue working in the mountains, making $200 a day with his quartz mill and later selling it for six times its cost. He returned home for the next winter, reappeared and continued mining in 1861, but by 1862 with public opinion turned against southerners around here at the advent of the Civil War, Gregory returned home for good. However, Gregory had an abiding confidence in this region, believing gold would still be mined here today and long beyond.
Gregory's find spurred the Gilpin County gold mining districts, considered the richest of Colorado for some time. The vicinity of the strike gave rise to one of our first towns, Mountain City, and soon thereafter to Central City, Black Hawk, and Nevadaville. Wall settled and became the first citizen of the new city of Golden, which for years smelted gold coming from Gilpin County, and our two regions became economic and political allies. As with Jackson, an original Golden street was named Gregory Street, renamed 5th Street in 1904, but Gregory's name was restored with the nearby Gregory Circle 50 years later. Today Coloradans continue well in the place Gregory's discovery helped create 150 years ago.
For more information on the life and doings of John H. Gregory, a great comprehensive website on him where much of this information was gained is at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cescott/jhgregory.html .