Summary
All those who delight in modern Aspen as a ski resort and cultural center, as well as those who enjoy reading about all the old Wild West, will be charmed by this book. In its heyday as a mining town, Aspen rivaled the camps of the California Gold Rush, Virginia City in Nevada's Comstock Lode, and Leadville in Colorado, and from 1887 to 1893 it was the riches silver-mining center in America. Aspen's story begins in 1879 with seven prospectors camped in tents by the intersection of the Roaring Fork River and Castle Creek at the foot of Aspen and Smuggler Mountains. The first great spurt of growth came in 1883, when Jerome B. Wheeler, a partner in Macy's Department Store, bought several claims and built roads and a smelter. The arrival of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1887 transformed Aspen into a major metropolis by the standards of the day, with some 12,000 inhabitants and services that included six newspapers, two banks, an opera house, electric lights and telephones, a street car system, a waterworks, and schools and churches. The city became home to colorful personalities like B. Clark Wheeler, grandiose promoter and editor of the Aspen Times , and Davis H. Waite, his father-in-law and a local reformer who was elected governor of Colorado in 1892. Rohrbough brings to life the dynamic entrepreneurs such as David M. Hyman and Henry B. Gillespie who made the town and profited from it, the vicious court fights that resulted from mining disputes, and most effectively of all, the atmosphere of a booming mining community. In July 1893 the price of silver dropped sharply and within a week, all the mines in Aspen closed. By 1930, Aspen was virtually a ghost town, with a population of 705. But then a new generation of entrepreneurs discovered another natural resource in this former mining camp. It was snow.
Author Biography
Malcolm J. Rohrbough is Professor of History at the University of Iowa.
Table of Contents
I The Camp: Aspen, 1879--1883 |
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Into the Valley of the Roaring Fork |
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3 | (13) |
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``We could Make Our Fortunes'': The First Arrivals Establish a Mining Camp |
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16 | (14) |
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30 | (12) |
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The Mining Camp of Aspen Grows and Divides |
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42 | (13) |
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A Mining Camp without Mining: Aspen, 1879--1883 |
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55 | (12) |
II. The Town: Aspen, 1883--1887 |
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The Eastern Capitalist Reshapes and Camp on the Roaring Fork |
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67 | (13) |
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The Eastern Capitalist without Capital |
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80 | (12) |
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92 | (16) |
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``A Second Leadville'': Aspen, 1883--1887 |
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108 | (14) |
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``The Frontier Atmosphere Has Long Since Departed'' |
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122 | (21) |
III The City: Aspen, 1887--1893 |
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``This Hour of Triumph and Joy'': The Railroad Comes to Aspen |
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143 | (15) |
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``The Finest Mining City in the World'': Aspen, 1887--1893 |
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158 | (17) |
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The Mollie Gibson: ``The Richest and Most Wonderful Silver Mine Ever Discovered'' |
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175 | (17) |
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``It Is Useless to Say That Here All Have an Equal Chance'': Working and Living in Aspen, 1887--1893 |
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192 | (16) |
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``A Great Crisis Is at Hand'': Aspen and the Collapse of Silver in 1893 |
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208 | (17) |
IV The Town and the Camp: Aspen, 1893--1930 |
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``The Old Site Is Here as Beautiful as Then'' |
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225 | (10) |
Notes |
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235 | (14) |
A Note on Sources |
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249 | (4) |
Index |
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253 | |