#6 in the series dedicated to Gold Country and the people who wrestled the the Earth to extract a life and perhaps a fortune from it. Sometimes they won, often they lost.
Once known as the city of mills, Black Hawk sits at an elevation of 8056 ft(2455 meters) and was settled in 1859 with the discovery of lode gold by John H. Gregory. As was common with boom towns, a few made fabulous riches, some did well, and most went bust and tried their luck elsewhere or returned home with little to show for their search for riches.
After the easy surface deposits played out, Gregory gulch still had an advantage over many of the surrounding tributaries with its abundant water supply. It soon became a center for milling ores being mined throughout Gilpin County. Within a few years, the railroad arrived which expedited the movement of ores to the stamp mills. The economic boost came with a cost. Ore crushers running 24 hours a day and constant echo of steam train whistles as heavy engines moved about brought noise levels to an intolerable level. Noise pollution wasn’t the only issue to plague the canyon. Flooding and contamination soon took its toll. All of the trees in the area had been harvested to fuel the engines and mining works creating severe erosion problems for the canyon. Repeated flooding left dirt and mud filling basements and rose the canyon floor over 10 feet in places. Sulfur fumes and carbon dust hung in the air while human, animal, and mining waste disseminated into the water. By 1880 the population peaked at 1500 and marked the apex of the town. In time the need for the railroad was so diminished that the rails were pulled up. Business was declining as Black Hawk entered the 20th century. The need for the railroad serving the area had diminished to the point where it was too unprofitable to continue serving the area and the tracks where pulled up. By 1920 population had dropped to 250. In the 1930’s another gold rush spiked another brief surge of activity to the area with the price of gold going up to $35 per ounce and placers were reworked for a time. Eventually mining interests tapered off and beyond smaller endeavors, activity in the area nearly ceased.
These days it’s the casinos mining the pockets of the gamblers with the generation of 85% of Colorado’s gaming revenue and contributes $90.9 million annually in taxes to the state of Colorado for historical preservation, tourism, and higher education
Now for the mystery!
The posted coordinates are a hint to the name of the archived cache which was previously placed here and is Ground Zero for this caches’ physical location.