GOLD!
MADNESS, MURDER, AND MAYHEM IN THE COLORADO ROCKIES
IAN NELIGH
Text © 2017 by Ian Paul Neligh
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Neligh, Ian Paul, author.
Title: Gold! : madness, murder, and mayhem in the Colorado Rockies / Ian Paul Neligh.
Description: Portland, Oregon : WestWinds Press, an imprint of Graphic Arts Books, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017012535 (print) | LCCN 2017033907 (ebook) | ISBN 9781513260655 (paperback) | ISBN 9781513260679 (hardbound) | ISBN 9781513260662 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Colorado—Gold discoveries—History. | Gold miners—Rocky Mountains—Biography. | Gold mines and mining—Rocky Mountains—History.
Classification: LCC F776.6 (ebook) | LCC F776.6 .N45 2017 (print) | DDC 978.8/02—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017012535
Designed by Vicki Knapton
Cover Image Credits: skull: iStock.com/ianmcdonnell; background: wet2017/Shutterstock.com
Published by WestWinds Press®
An imprint of
Contents
CHAPTER 1: Wolverines and Sunken Treasure
CHAPTER 2: A Fortune Lost and Found
CHAPTER 7: The New Prospectors
CHAPTER 8: A Gold Tooth and a Pair of Pistols
CHAPTER 9: Gunslingers, Killers, and Ghosts
CHAPTER 10: The Tale of Two Cities
CHAPTER 13: Those Who Came Before
CHAPTER 14: What the Next Blast Brings
For Billie, of course.
Introduction
Gold! Clear as day and twice as bright, the glittering piece of metal winked up at me from the tide pool of black sand. Hardly daring to breathe, I adjusted my pan again and coaxed another little wave to further reveal the treasure. The dirt drew back, and my heart began beating faster. Mouth dry, I could hardly believe it. I’d found an actual piece of Colorado gold.
It was the same gold that tempted the Spanish to venture into dangerous new lands hundreds of years ago. It was the same gold that inspired legend, provoked madmen, dreamers, and treasure hunters. It was the same gold, even when found in the smallest quantities, that set fire to a gold rush that swept across the United States in 1859 and drew to the Rockies a staggering 100,000 people. Towns formed, laws were cast, and a state was born—all because of the same gold that I now gazed down at.
As a newspaper reporter, I’d spent years working in and around the towns and cities established in the desperate scramble for gold. I’d worked in the brick buildings, walked the narrow streets, and seen the amber-colored stains running from forgotten mines like the aftermath of bullet holes from a gunfight.
I’d looked at a bygone era’s hulking relics, left to lean
