The Silver Boom & Ranching in Colorado

Changing Colorado Again

Silver Boom

  • The 1870’s ushered in the silver era in Colorado
  • Discoveries were made from ______
  • Leadville comes into its own
  • Started in Boulder County at ______
  • 1869

Ore City

  • The initial findings were at ______, in the ______near the ______headwaters northeast of what was to become Leadville.
  • At first, this original discovery didn't seem like it was going to amount to much,
  • late April of ______, ______was found in abundance.
  • By July, ______people inhabited the spanking new town of ______.
  • Over a period of seven years, miners had ______.

Ore City

  • Oro City had a second lease on life when ______.
  • Newly-founded ______ended up with most of the recently arrived prospectors and those that follow along with them.
  • Come 1890, a mere ______. Today, all that remains of Oro City are abandoned ______.

Leadville and other Silver Towns

  • Leadville soon becomes the second-largest city In Colorado
  • Known as the Cloud City
  • Sits 2 miles above sea level
  • Silver in the San Juan's
  • ______
  • ______

The Silver King

  • Horace Tabor
  • Moved with his ______
  • Offers to Grubstake two prospectors
  • ______
  • Prospectors hit ______!
  • The ______mine was one of the first big ______
  • Horace bought more mines and made lots of money
  • People began to call him ______

Charles Boettcher

  • Moved to America from Germany
  • First store was in ______
  • 2nd store was in ______
  • He worked in the ______
  • “ ______”

Boom to Bust

  • The boom was largely the consequence of ______of silver by the ______.
  • The boom ______, resulting in an intense increase in both the ______, especially in the mountain valleys

Boom to Bust

  • In 1878, ______, the United States Congress passed the ______authorizing the free coinage of silver
  • The ______to the point where many additional mines were profitable
  • The ______a decade that gave the state many of the ______

BOOM

  • The boom also drove many ______
  • such lines as the Denver, ______, which built an early ______line to Leadville
  • Extension of the railroad network up the ______to the previously failed ______
  • Made the extraction of silver ore there economically feasible, and saved the town from near extinction.
  • The government purchases of silver were nearly ______
  • ______, further extending the boom into the early 1890s.

Bust!

  • The repeal of the ______
  • Led to ______
  • After 1893, many mining camps became ghost towns
  • Collapse in state-wide economic activity was amended
  • by the emergence of ______, previously mocked as not feasible, as a large component of the state economy.

Colorado Ranching

  • Spanish people moving north brought the first livestock
  • ______
  • Many settled in the ______along the ______
  • Starving animals that made the journey west were turned out and allowed to graze on the wild prairie grasses
  • They soon gained back their weight and grew ______

Cattle Kings

  • John W. Iliff
  • Originally ran a ______
  • Allowed people to pay with ______
  • Turned the animals out to______
  • Decided to sell the store and get into ______
  • Sold beef to ______
  • Eventually ran a ranch with ______that was along the ______and was ______!!!
  • John W. Prowers
  • Raised cattle on what use to be ______
  • His cattle herds competed with Iliff
  • Had a ranch that was ______acres of land
  • Used ______and find the best one that fit the ______

Sheep!

  • ______
  • Ranchers ______
  • Companies would buy the ______
  • Ranchers used ______
  • Introduced ______

Range Wars

  • Cattle Ranchers didn’t like Sheep Ranchers
  • Sheep ranchers didn’t like Cattle Ranchers
  • ______
  • No one wanted to ______!
  • Problems between the groups got worse______
  • Ran sheep off cliffs
  • ______
  • No more open range
  • ______