The 1860's in Chaffee County Colorado
| 1860 | In 1860, Cache Creek above Granite became the first
settlement of note in the upper Ark Valley, starting with a population of about 300 and exploding to 3,000 the next year. The placer included a three-mile stretch of river, plus two-miles up Cache Creek. The Post Office here functioned until 1872. California Gulch, where it was said "the bottom of the pan looked like all of California," became the richest placer in Colorado and the site of Oro City near present-day Leadville. Horace Tabor and wife Augusta were among the first in the area along with Otto Mears and Charles Nachtrieb. |
| 1861 | Prompted by the gold rush, Colorado Territory was established in 1861.
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| 1862 | When Civil War broke out in the East, Colorado declared for the Union.
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| 1863 | By 1863, the Ute Indians had relinquished their
ancestral lands along the front range and had agreed to move west of the Continental Divide as the pressure of settlement continued. Horace Tabor, who later would win and lose a fortune in silver, moved his grocery store to Buckskin Joe near Alma in South Park where gold yields were bigger than at Oro City. Francois "Frank" Mayol, a Frenchman, also moved out of Oro City, coming down the valley to homestead a site 8 miles north of present-day Buena Vista in the area now known as Riverside. Meanwhile Nat Rich and others were panning for gold in the Little Arkansas near present-day Poncha Springs. Father John L. Dyer, who had preached and prospected in California Gulch now was assigned South Park as his parish, which included all of Lake County. The Methodist circuit rider became known as "The Snow-Shoe itinerant." |
| 1864 | The first farms and ranches in the upper Arkansas Valley appeared along Cottonwood Creek with water rights to 1864 belonging to Andrew Bard, Frank Loan, J. E. Gonell, William Bale and John McPherson. Benjamin Schwanders homesteaded on the east bank of the Arkansas River at Trout Creek.The clash of cultures between pioneers and Indians flared up in 1864 with regrettable consequences at the Sand Creek Massacre of Cheyenne Indians near Bent's Old Fort. |
| 1865 | In 1865, Ute Indians battled plains Indians in South Park
and returned victorious with scalps, which frightened the settlers in Brown's
Creek area. |
| Mid 1860's |
Otto Mears became self-employed in Conejos
County, CO, in the San Luis Valley Within one year he had a store, saw mill,
grist mill and wheat farm. To get his products to the booming Leadville
market, he built a toll road north over Poncha Pass to Lake Discouraged miners vacate mining camps and begin to establish farms and ranches on the upper Arkansas. |
| 1867 | In 1867, free quartz gold was discovered on the east side
of the river at present-day Granite. A stamp mill was erected and the seat of Lake County was moved from Dayton above Twin Lakes to Granite. The same year Otto Mears built a toll road over Poncha Pass to bring grain from the San Luis Valley to market in the mining towns. |
| 1868 | By 1868, the Ute Indians had been
persuaded to move to the western slope leaving behind attractive areas for settlement. As transportation increased over Poncha Pass, John McPherson moved from the Cottonwoood Creek area to today's Poncha Springs and opened the first Post Office called South Arkansas. (South Arkansas retained the name until 1877 when it was changed to Poncho Springs, then changed again to Poncha Springs in the 1920s.) With an increase in mining activity again at California Gulch, Horace and Augusta Tabor returned from Alma and set up shop. At the same time, Joseph Hutchinson became a manager of operations at Cache Creek and married John McPherson's daughter Annabel.Settlement continued. |
| George Harrington, an Englishman,
homesteaded a ranch and ran a store at Centerville. (The original house still stands to the west of Hwy 285.) The Adobe Park area north of present-day Salida was settled by Thomas Cameron, who dug a long irrigation ditch from the Arkansas River. The Camerons were related to the Boons of South Park and grazed cattle over the Arkansas Hills and around Cameron Mountain, which was named for him. Charles Nachtrieb built a water-powered gristmill at the mouth of Chalk Creek. Soon he was grinding wheat that was shipped from Saguache by Otto Mears. Next year Nachtrieb added a sawmill. |
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| 1867- 1868 |
The end of panning and sluicing for gold by traditional methods in the Upper Arkansas Watershed |
| Old Newspaper Articles from Chaffee County | |||||
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