Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 March 1892 — VICE, DEATH, SILVER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

VICE, DEATH, SILVER.

FEATURES OF COLORADO'S NEW MINING TOWN. ■Every-Day Sight* and Scene* In Creede, the Latest Mecca of the Prospector and Gambler—A Mushroom Town JBullt Over a Creek. Creede and Jlmtown. Creede is a typical Western town, without a government, writes a correspondent. The silver finds are certainly here, not to the extent that Colorado real estate men would have one believe, but at the same time >n paying quantities. There are far richer mines in the State, hut being older and hotter developed the credulous could not be induced to flock in numbers sufficient to line the pockets of the Denver and Pueblo real estate dealers, who must either abandon their business or build a city. They chose the latter, aud they have succeeded. There are two towns, Creede and Jimtown, the latter the outgrowth of the former, and much the larger of the two. Take two great hills and place them 100 feet apart, with a swift creek running between, wfth no attention paid to straight lines, and you have the site of the famous

Creede. Build in that space three rows of buildings, such as there are here, two against each high wall and one over the creek bed, and you have manufactured to order the city built by speculators, remembering that the buildings, as a rule, are mere shacks, 6ucb as any mining camp can show. The town is three-quarters of a mile long, running into Jimtown, where the gulch broadens somewhat, although not wide enough to be called a valley. Here 5,000 people, coming and going, are gathered, half of whom are engaged in business, while the other half are speculators, visitors, gamblers, and sure-tliing men. The nar-e row streets, some of them being not more than fifteen feet wide, are thronged with men, teams, and burros, leaving but small space for the idler who would sec. The sound of the carpenters’ hammer and saw resembles, at a little distance, the fusillade of small arms, and still the cry is for more lumber. Hotels are numerous, there being nearly one hundred. It does not, however, take much for a hotel, as a plain board shanty, sixteen feet square, with a blanket for a door, is dignified with the name “Palace Hotel.” Until a short time ago the hotels were similar to this one, although many of them were made larger. In all, the sleeping-room held from twenty to sixty cots, the use of which was granted the tenderfoot at $1 each a night, with blankets furnished, or without blankets only 50 cents. The Pullman Company has also hotel business, leaving on the side-track from three to ten sleepers, In which the anxious speculator could find a lied on pay-

ment of 81, providing he could catch the conductor in time to pay in his money and secure his ticket. The “restaurants” are even more numerous than the hotels, for we are all on the European plan here. A small sheet-iron stove, a board for a table, two dozen dishes, a male cook who. cowboy style, wears a broad-brim hat

and carries a pipe in his mouth, constitute a restaurant, the general ordeV, tbree times a day, being ham or bacon and eggs with plenty of frozen potatoes on the side, epoked in whatever style the victim may desire, provided confines his order to boiled or fried. ' What has made Creede famous? There has been a find of silver-bear-ing ore easily washed and in sufficient quantities to bring good returns. There are, at present, four producers, working, outside and in, but 300 men at $3 a day each, or $1 less than is paid in other mines. As soon as the necessary tramways and shutes are completed so that the ore can be loaded direct from the mines into the cars 100 of these will be laid off, as there will be no further use for the teams and burros, excepting such as may be necessary to haul lumber. The most sanguine prospector does not anticipate more than four times the present number of producing mines, so tbat when that number is reached there cannot be 1,000 miners employed. Without government, without regulations, and with but poor judgment the builders of Creede, in their haste to grow rich, are preparing the way for sickness and disaster that will before July next fill the papers with

dispatches almost equaling those following the Johnstown flood. From the upper end of Creede to the school section below Jimtawn the bed of Willow Creek has been encroached upon until it is a mere ditch not more than five feet wide in places. This creek is a rapid-flowing mountain stream fed from a dozen gulches, on the sides of which is now more than a foot of snow. Nearly all the course

of this stream in Creede is covered by buildings, and much of it is in the same condition in Jimtown. The principal hotel, Just opened, with a hundred rooms, is built in the bed of the creek, with the foundations resting on two feet of ice. To protect this building from the waters a breakwater of logs has been built, resting on the ice aud filled with rock, leaving a channel of not more than six feet. In Jimtown the business portion of the city is also built over the creek, which crosses the main street diagonally, there taking its own width. This place is a ford, no bridges having yet been erected, the' watci almost leaching to a wagoned. There are twenty places where a jam is likely to occur when the June rains set-in and when the snow melts. The probable results, appailingasthey may be, are recognized, but no one takes the initiative in guarding against this danger. A jam of four feet aDd its breakage would ssweep away every house in the two towns, except those perched up on the side of the mountain. This danger is not an imaginary one, as the sites of the two towns havs, each spring, with no obstructions, been covered with water enough to swim a horse, having a current sufficient to sweep a mile down great bowlders which are accepted as witnesses of the torrent’s force. Ordinary spring rains will unquestionably cause the loss of life as well as the destruction

of property. A cloud-burst, such as are so often seen In the mountains, would send down a roaring, seething wall of water that would sweep the two towns from the face of the earth, and hundreds of graves would be marked “unknown,” containing the bruised and battered forms of the victims of man’s greed and their own lust after wealth. The State author-

ities already recognize this danger, and are considering means to avoid it. The daily dispatches from this camp announce the hundreds daily arriving, but say nothing of the nearly equal number departing. There are two reasons why so many leave after remaining from two to six days. It takes but twenty-four hours usually to discover that, instead of being a second Leadville, Creede is destined to become a fair little mining camp of possibly 2,000 people. Second, a week’s stay means death to many who may have heart trouble, or are predisposed to that disease. Creede has an altitude of 9,000 feet, and is so situated in a narrow gulch that the sun reaches it but about two hours each day. Jimtown has the sun fully seven hours, but otherwise is the same as the town which gives name to the entire camp. Many who visit this camp and are disappointed will remain in Colorado, which is a good State. This accounts for the united effort of the Colorado papers to boom Creede, hoping to catch some of the returning wave.

VIEW OF CREEDE, COLORADO'S NEWEST MINING CAMP.

CREEDE AVENUE.

CREEDE'S CLIFF, JIMTOWN.

CREEDE’S COURT HOUSE.