Gold Discovered in Ward
Ward, Colorado -- on top of the Boston Mine
In 1859 Gold was discovered near Gold Hill, twelve miles northest of Boulder. Prospectors followed Left Hand Creek up the canyon to find the source of the gold found in placers below Gold Hill. Cryus Deardorf staked a claim below Ward, then the famous Columbia vein was staked above what is now the Peak to Peak Highway, the Niwot mill was built, and a small settlement known as Columbia City sprang up. Ten years later, settlement moved to the lower and less windy site of present-day Ward.
Ward Mining District - Ward Camp
Ward, Colorado 1872 showing unfinished log buildings in center of town
An early carte de viste attributed to Central City photographer Albert S. McKinney shows completed frame buildings in the same area, probably taken between 1866 - 1874.
.Ward, Colorado, c. 1866-1874, Albert McKinney
Free gold - first gold rush
As early prospectors began to find their way from Gold Hill up Left Hand Canyon, the men followed the creek and panned for gold. Initially miners built sluices on small claims. Calvin Ward discovered gold at the Miser's Dream in 1860 and the mining camp that grew up took his name. Miners flocked to the area. Tunnels were dug and ore brought out. A saw mill was built for log cabins, mines, and boarding houses.
At first oxen or double teams of horses were used to serve the needs of the camp. It was called Ward Camp. The Ward Mining District was established in 1869, one year before the Colorado Territory was carved out of the Kansas and Nebraska Territories.
When the "free gold" played out, stamp mills were built to crush the lower grade ores.
C.H. Merrill paid fifty dollars for claim No. 10 on the Columbia vein. Two years later he sold it for fifteen dollars to W.A. Davison and Samuel R. Breath. They built a six stamp mill and took $50,000 from the mine they called the Ni-wot. They went back east and organized a company with capital of $500,000. They bought machinery for a mill, five hundred, oxen and wagons to carry the machinery across the plains. They built a mill at the Ni-wot which burned down shortly after it began operating, and so a second mill was built.
With the opening of the Ni-wot mine and the building of its mill to treat the surface gold ores, Ward began to boom. By 1865, six hundred people were living in or near Ward. (Wolle, 517). In 1867 people were living in “good class frame houses” and the town had five steam quartz mills and one small water-powered mill (Burlington Gazeteer).
Davidson and Breath sold the Niwot for $300,000 to a company which then sold it for $500,000. The Big Five acquired it much later. It is estimated to have yielded $1,250,000 in gold.
Weather at such a high altitude was always a problem. In December 1871, snow was so deep that mines and mills were shut down. Drifts were so high it was impossible to get out to get the wood necessary to run the furnaces or to get the ore to the mills. It was reported that people stayed close to camp and passed time playing cards or listening to the town band.
1870's - second boom - gold veins
As early as 1876 Ward was having its second mining boom and was the subject of many newspaper articles attesting to its riches ...
Old Mine Building Outside of Ward
"One of the deepest mines in the county is that of the Ward Mining Company on the Columbia Lode. . . sunk to a depth of 500 feet, the vein of which is eight feet, of which two and a half feet is solid mineral, smelting ore. Those who saw the Ni-wot (mine) when it first opened ten years ago will remember its eight foot vein ... and that its deposit yielded two hundred thousand in gold"(Boulder County News, May 26 1876).
In the early 1880's Colonel Wesley Brainard, a civil engineer and veteran of the Union Army (bridge building brigade) began staking claims in Left Hand Canyon below Ward eventually under the name of the Chicago Mining and Milling Company. James Crimmins, who emigrated from Ireland to South American and then to Chicago also came to Colorado with his wife and four children, staked a Homestead Claim at the top of Sawmill Hill Road and began growing hay and mining. Crimmins quickly build a log cabin located on the Boston Mill site in Ward for his wife and children to live in during the winter so the children could easily walk to the Ward School.
A school opened in 1886.
In 1888 the Utica Mine hit high grade ore and a mill was built to handle the ore. The Utica produced over a million dollars in gold. Forests were cut down to fuel the many early mills that were build in the area.
The Modoc Mill
The Modoc Mill outside of Ward has been named to the National Register of Historic Places and is described as follows:
MODOC MILL
Adjacent to Duck Lake, 4 miles north of Ward
National Register 12/27/1978, 5BL.359
"The circa 1890 Modoc Mill is a good example of industrial architecture associated with Boulder County's mining history. This concentration mill of wood and metal reaches four stories in height. The uppermost story of hewn logs received the ore. Here gravity bins held the ore until it was fed into a crusher and the stamping apparatus below. The 18 foot high stamping apparatus, manufactured by Griffen and Wedge of Zanesville, Ohio, consists of 30 stamps each weighing 950 pounds that are arranged in three banks of ten. Both the mill and nearby mine closed for the last time in 1920."
Columbia Vein
Ward was built on top of the Columbia Gold Vein. By the late 1890's population estimates ranged from 1000 to 5000 people. Ward had 35 operating mines and a newpaper, The Ward Miner and Gazette. Ward was incorporated as Columbia City in 1896.
Ward incorporates in 1898 - streets named for gold mines
The Town of Ward incorporated in 1898. By the 1900 over 50 mines operated in the Ward District. The major mines near Ward itself were the Adit, B & M, Baxter (Boston, Columbia, Madelaine, Niwot, Sullivan No. 5, Utica) Boston, Dew Drop, Modoc, Nelson, and the White Raven. Today many of Ward's streets bear those names.
Early Ward gossip
In 1891 the Ward town clown, Dennis Sullivan, held an elaborate funeral for a local cat. It was a beautiful funeral, complete with a satin-lined casket, band, and oration, but the cat's owner was furious. She vowed revenge, and a few years later she got it. When her husband was elected to the city council, he succeeded in passing a bill that forbade saloons to be operated on city street corners. Sullivan had the only street-corner saloon in town!
In 1900 townspeople became upset because the paper was not printed. The following week, the paper was printed with the explanation that its editor, Mr. Burgress had been relieved of his job. The paper reported that Burgress had left Ward last Friday in an intoxicated condition and had been seen in Denver in the company of a lewd woman. Reportedly, he also cashed checks on a non-existent account. It was said his downfall was women and drink.
At the Dew Drop Mine, June 1895
Roads and railroads to Ward
In 1864 the old trail between Niwot (Ward) and Blackhawk was improved. The Niwot - Blackhawk Wagon Trail later evolved into the Peak-to-Peak Highway. In 1871 ore traveled by wagon from the gold mines of Ward, through Brown's Crossing near what is now Nederland, to the mills at Black Hawk.
Later a one-way road was built from Boulder up Left Hand Canyon, going as far as Lickskillet Road, then straight up the canyon wall to Gold Hill. Men and supplies then traveled on foot, horseback, or wagon from Gold Hill to Ward.
Moving a boiler for the mines
Freighters and stage coaches carried men and supplies in wagons and coaches pulled by four and six teams of horses. Most of Ward's supplies came by wagon from Boulder through Sunset and Gold Hill.
In 1881 talk began of railroads running to the mining camps. The Greeley, Salt Lake, and Pacific Line began work on a narrow gauge train up Boulder Canyon, then north to Penn Gulch (Sunset). It was to continue on to Nederland, Caribou, then over the Divide to Salt Lake City.
The narrow gauge tracks were laid as far as Sunset. Ward supplies came by train to Sunset, then overland by wagon. In 1894 the great Boulder Canyon flood destroyed the tracks and railroad bridges, and the railroad stopped operating. Ward again had to rely on wagons from Boulder for transportation.
In 1894 a new road was begun from Boulder the rest of the way up Left Hand Canyon to Ward. This new road avoided the long route by horse and wagon from Boulder up Four Mile Canyon through Sunset and Gold Hill to Ward which included the steep Sawmill Hill.
Duncan Family at the Dew Drop Mine
New Narrow Gauge Railroad to Ward
Inside a stamp mill
1900 - third gold boom in Ward
In 1897 a new railroad was begun from Boulder to Ward that was to double the output of gold from Ward and make Boulder a milling center for gold ore. It was to have 150 freight cars, heavy duty freight engines, and specialy built tourist coaches. The train would bring coal critical for mine and mill operation from the Marshall coal fields to Ward and return to Boulder with ore to mill. Gold fever struck again!
The Pennsylvania Mining and Milling Company began work on a big mill to handle Ward gold ore in Sunset, the Ward Struggler Gold Mining Company was incorporated, and rumor had it that Horace Tabor of Leadville Silver Mining fame had interests in a Ward gold mine.
The Big 5
The Big Five Mining Company, a combination of the Dew Drop Mine and Mill, the Adit Mine and Mill, and the Niwot was formed in Ward with the expectation of great riches. A smelter was built at the base of Saw Mill Hill. Ward was considered the principle camp in the district with an inexhaustable supply of gold.
Lode Smelter at Saw Mill Hill
Utica Mine
H.A.W. Tabor tried to make a comeback in Ward after he lost his Leadville fortune. He borrowed $15,000 from W.S. Stratton of Cripple Creek and started working the Eclipse Mine. He and Baby Doe couldn't make the mine pay, and they moved to Denver in January of 1898 when he was appointed postmaster.
The
The earliest stamp mills were designed to crush oxidized ore. When that high grade ore ran out, new methods were required to extract gold from lower grade ores. Ward is credited with constructing the first successful chlorination mill and with designing the first bumping table (Wolle, 518). When Ward got its railroad, the Colorado and Northwestern, the mines shipped one-hundred tons of ore daily.
Switzerland Trail ushers in new era in Ward
Parting of the Ways showing Eldora and Ward trains
The Denver and Rio Grande (later called the Colorado and Northwestern or C & N) built narrow gauge tracks from Boulder up Four Mile Canyon to Sunset, then on to Gold Hill and Ward, supplying the various mining camps in between. The train stopped at Puzzler, Camp Francis, and Brainerd outside of Ward. The train traveled 4,000' in elevation and 26 miles in distance and finally reached Ward in June1998. Because of its majestic scenery, the train was soon called The Switzerland Trail of America and it attracted tourists from Boulder, Denver, and throughout the globe.
In June 1998 Colorado Governor Adam and 350 prominent citizens from Denver and Boulder rode the train to Ward and joined townspeople in a celebration that included a band, speeches and a banquet. That day was a momentous occasion for Ward, Boulder County and the State of Colorado.
The Longmont Ledger described the exciting route of the train, focusing on its attraction for "excursionists.
Winter -- reality sets in
The following January, huge snowdrifts blown by raging winds from the Continental Divide clogged the tracks just outside of Ward. The train snowplow and engines could not break through. Snow drifted to 30 feet in what old timers called the worst winter in memory. Supplies had to be brought in by sled. No ore moved out. Finally in April the train broke through.
Engine bucking snow outside of Ward
Summer tourism thrives in Ward
The following summer train excursions continued, bringing more travelers and chartered trips to Ward to see magnificent scenery of the Switzerland Trail of America. Hotels and cabins at the outlying lakes blossomed. Travelers were picked up at the Ward depot and taken by wagon or buggy to Brainard, Red Rocks, and Stapp's Lake.
The excursion trains came and local hotels thrived. Tourists to Estes Park rode the train from Boulder to Ward, then transferred to a wagon or buggy, and later to the new fangled "Stanley Steamers" to complete the trip to Estes Park.
McClancy Hotel
In 1887 the McClancy family who operated a boardinghouse near the Smuggler Mine in Jamestown, moved to Ward and opened the McClancy Hotel.
Ward Catholic Church opened in 1897
Ward is a boom town by end of century
Before the turn of the century, Ward was a "boom town" with the C & N Hotel, The Clancey Hotel, the Hotel Millard, boarding houses, restaurants, a bakery, a jeweler, a milinary, a newspaper, liveries, undertaker and several saloons. Two churches, the Ward Congregational Church and St. Anne's Catholic Church were built. Dances, balls, and speaking events were held at the McClelland Opera House, also known as the "rink".
Ward, J.B. Sturtevant
Street scene of Ward prior to the fire of 1900. Stone building at the right was built by Danny Sullivan who operated a saloon on the first floor and rented offices on the upper floor. The Utica Hotel is the white frame building on the right. Note the town water pump in the left foreground.
Fourth of July early Ward
Ward had a team for miner's drilling contests and a baseball team. Boulder newspapers kept track of Ward's events and reported mining business, Ward social events, crimes, and deaths.
Illness and death in early Ward
Dr. Jacob Campbell began his practice in Ward in 1887. Two years later he married and brought his bride from Longmont to Ward, a full day trip by wagon. He contracted with many of the mining companies to provide medical care for injured miners, cared for those injured in sawmill accidents and delivered the babies born in the area. Occasionally he performed emergency surgeries (appendectomies), however, he sent serious cases by wagon to the hospital in Boulder.
One winter several miners were injured by the explosion of dynamite they were thawing. Early day dynamite tended to freeze, and so it had to be thawed before it could be used. The slightest jar to the dynamite set off an explosion and miners often lost hands, arms or legs, or were simply blown to bits (interview with Mrs. Campbell by Forest Crossen reported in Mining Camp Doctor).
There were also reports of eyes lost, cyanide poisoning, deaths from falls into mining shafts, as well as the deaths of many children, age one day, one week, and one year. On-going flu, ditptheria, and scarlet fever epidemics affected the mining towns. Emma Fairhurst, Hazel Schmoll's aunt, lost three babies.
The Columbia (Ward) # 14 Lodge of the Accepted and Free Masons organized early in Ward in 1867. After declaring the need of a cemetary, and the Lodge purchased land in Boulder, where graves could be dug in the winter. Burials began in 1870 in what is now the old pioneer Columbia City Cemetary located west of Ninth Street between Pleasant and College Avenue in Boulder. Many Ward pioneers are buried in the Columbia Cemetary.
Ward Congregational Church
The Fire of 1900
On January 23, 1900, two years after the train arrived, Ward suffered a devastating fire that destroyed most of the buildings in the center of town. On January 24, 1900 The Ward Miner reported:
“When the sun rose Thursday morning the burned district looked like a miniature sea dotted with miniature icebergs, the water poured upon the debris having frozen and formed into beautiful encrustations…
Not a store, hotel, saloon, restaurant nor a business house of any sort escaped the flames… If the life of the town depended wholly upon the profits that are taken over counter and bar, its destruction would be complete and the little basin in which its business houses once stood might be abandoned for the home of the chipmunk and coyote…”
Special trains were sent from Boulder with food for Ward people. Two days later, a special train excursion from Boulder came so gawkers could view the damage. Locals were able to save the school (now the Town Hall and Library) and the churches, but most of the businesses were gone. It was said that many people lived temporarily in the "mine holes". Some of the town was rebuilt, but Ward never fully recovered.
Ward Library, school, and merchants after the fire
In September 1900, a circulating library was established with thirty-two subscribers obtained by Mr. A.W. Vandeman. Books were placed in the store of E.W. Ewing, who was selected librarian. A library was also established at Camp Francis and plans were made to visit Salina, Gold Hill, Sunset, and Jamestown to establish "library clubs."
On September 14, 1900, The Ward Miner reported that Miss M.E. Wheatley, the popular primary teacher in the Ward school, had arrived and occupied her place in the school room, and that she is "stopping" with Mr. and Mr. Lew Thomas. The older grades were taught by Professor H.O. Robbins, one of the few teachers in the Boulder area who was a college graduate. The Ward School had 64 students divided into nine grades, and several students were expected to graduate that year.
That week, a series of well-attended lectures was given at the church by a Mrs. L.W. Owens who also organized an Anti-Cigarette League of 35 boys and girls.
The druggists, Huber & Markle reported carrying all the first class remedies and toilet articles on the market and were "open day and night to everybody". Thompson's New Store advertised it was temporarily located on Niwot Street near the foot of the Depot stairway, and offered groceries, hardware, mining supplies and "gents" furnishings at right prices.
Also on September 14, 1900, a fire was reported in the rear part of the Berryman residence up on "Capital Hill" near the depot. A bucket brigade was formed and the train crew brought the engine No. 1 and tender opposite the burning house and passed water to the bucket line. The fire was completely extinguished.
In 1901 William Mead, Mining Engineer in Ward, advertised services for surface and underground surveys with maps, and the Ward Drug Store, Chas G. Gregg, Prop., offered medicines, toilet articles, stationery, cigars, paints, oil, glass, and wallpaper in The Ward Miner.
After dinner at the (new) McClancy Hotel, J.B. Sturdevant
The following summer, 1901, two daily excursions trains ran between Boulder and Ward. The McClancy Hotel was rebuilt. The B&M Mine steadily produced ore and the Big 5 had a strike at the old Niwot mine.
Mine carts and drums
Avalanche
The next winter Ward was snowed in again and the train could not get through. The railroad sent a snowplow and two engines to break through the snowdrifts. In April an avalanche created by repeated attempts to "ram through" the snow swept two engines, the No. 30 and No. 31, almost 400' over the side of the cliff, killing four crew members.
Locals still call the steep grade below the old train bed at Left Hand Canyon and California Gulch, the "Turn of Events". Motorists and bicyclists frequently experience the dramatic change of weather that occurs when rounding the turn.
Mines in Trouble
By 1902 the high cost of moving and smelting low grade gold ore, and the difficulty of mining in the winter affected the Ward mines. In 1904 the Big Five Company went into receivership. Summers, however, were still busy with trainloads of tourists riding the train.
Summer wildflower excursionists
Another Train Accident
By 1906 most of the big mines had shut down. Winters were very hard. Once again, while trying to buck through snow just outside of Ward on Grassy Top, the engine got off the track and fell 400' feet down the hill, killing the engineer.
Competition from Automobiles
Snowy Range (Indian Peaks) from Ward-Estes Road
In 1912 a new highway between Ward and Estes Park was begun for early automobiles, the Stanley Steamers. Train service continued sporadically in the winter; summer train tourism thrived.
University of Chicago class excursion, 1919
In 1914 the White Raven Mining Company in Ward petitioned the Colorado Railroad Commission to force the railroad to keep operating to Ward during the winter. The Commission ruled that owing to the great snowfall, it would be impossible to keep the line open. Summer excursions continued and travelers rode the train to Ward on wildflower excursions, to vacation at local cabins and lodges, or to transfer to automobiles to Estes Parkand the new Stanley Hotel.
The Ward Improvement Association was formed to stock fish in Brainard and other lakes in the area. People from Boulder built summer cabins and rode the train up.
In September of 1917, famed modern artist Georgia O'Keeffe who was just being discovered, rode the train to Ward and stayed in a cabin at Stapp's Lakes. She spent considerable time "tramping" about the Ward area and painted watercolors of the divide at Long Lake, a watercolor entitled "Green and Pink Mountain" and an oil of the Ward Church bell.
Emma Fairhurst built her famous fireplace at the Columbia Hotel. It was built using ore specimens that she collected from the various mines in Ward. Her hotel and fireplace were the subject of an article in The Hotel Monthy, June 1919.
Emma Fairhurst in her Columbia Hotel
Train Service to Ward Ends
In 1917 train service was reduced to weekly. A road for automobiles had been built up Boulder Canyon to the mines in Eldora, Nederland, and Caribou.
The Ward mines had not lived up to expectations, little ore was being shipped out on the train, and it was cheaper to transport supplies by truck than by train. After a 1919 July flood washed out track and damaged bridges, the railroad stopped operating entirely.
Rails from Boulder to Ward and on the line to Eldora were ripped up, and by 1920 the railroad was gone, its tracks sold to Japan and Wyoming.
R.D. Ward, Station Master stayed in Ward
R.D. Ward was the station master in Ward. Often in winter when the train did not get through, Mr. Ward's son Phil and his brothers would make the four-hour one-way trip to Sunset to pick up the mail and return the same day. The Ward family also cut wood to sell to townspeople. When the train stopped running, the former railroad agent, bought the Ward Depot, moved it to the opposite side of the road, and opened a general store. He also operated a stage line to and from Sunset for 10 years. Later, his son Phil Ward worked for the county and eventually became superintendant of roads.
The Ward Train Depot in the 1950's
Ward, Colorado - almost a ghost town
With the train gone and most mines and mills closed, Ward almost became a ghost town. Throughout the 1920's the people of Ward and Boulder fought to keep the Indian Peaks from becoming part of Rocky Mountain National Park. Stapps Lake Lodge and Lodge of the Pines outside of Ward continued to benefit from tourism to Estes Park.
Construction of the Peak-to-Peak Highway at the end of the depression in the late 1930's brought people back to Ward, but during the 40's and 50's, Ward was primarily a summer town.
Ward revitalized in '60's and '70's
The character of Ward changed significantly after the 1960's when young adults like Dave and Eddie Warren, who had spent summers in Ward as children, moved back permanently, and when Ward was resettled by hippies who brought with them an alternative culture.
A new mayor and town council was elected, the town charter was rewritten as a home-rule, direct democracy, and the town voted to remove the electric street lights that lighted the town so "you can see the stars at night".
Just as the arrival of the white men prospecting for gold changed the lives and culture of the Native Americans in the Boulder Valley who hunted in the summers in the Ward area, the young people of the sixities again revitalized and changed Ward.
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Unless otherwise indicated all black and white photographs courtesy of Denver Public Library, Western History Collection, (Ward, Colorado; Mines; Switzerland Trail) and/or Carnegie Branch Library for Local History, Boulder Historical Society Collection(PublicDomain-old-50 and /or PD-pre-1923/PD-USGov)
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