Cabinet Card and Photographic Print Showing a Mining Company in Breckenridge, Colorado
circa 1880s. Cabinet Card and Photographic Print Showing a Mining Company in Breckenridge, Colorado, circa 1880s
A fantastic cabinet card and associated photographic print showing a (possibly nefarious) mining company in Breckenridge, Summit County, Colorado.
Card measures 3 ⅞” x 6 ⅞” and is captioned in ink: “Office - Summit Co. Min’g & Smel’g Co., Breckenridge”. Accompanied by a 5” x 7” photograph of the image. Diagonal scar running the length of the card, some edge wear and a bit of spotting. Verso is blank. Previous owner digitally restored the photo removing the diagonal damage and printed a new copy. Original cabinet card in Fair Condition. Print near fine.
24 workers (and two horses) stand posed, a few with shovels (one man with a broom), in front of the company office, with a majestic
backdrop of Colorado snow and landscape.
A fantastic original image of an early Colorado mining company.
Robert J. Spalding discovered gold near Breckenridge in 1859, spurring a gold rush throughout the region, and the first territorial legislature of Colorado established Summit County two years later. In 1865 miners discovered silver, which became profitable to mine once a smelting process was developed in the 1870s.
In 1870, Thomas Fuller, a wealthy businessman from Boston, came to Breckenridge, saw its potential, and began to purchase consolidated groups of claims in several areas around the town. He also started underground mining, to some success. In 1880, seriously ill, Fuller sold his entire operation and returned to Boston where he died in 1882. The new owners - the Summit County Mining and Smelting Company - immediately built a smelter in Breckenridge, including a sawmill, offices, bunkhouses, a shaft house and storerooms - all without having confirmed the existence of ore there. After an expensive infrastructure and exploration effort, the company went bankrupt, and in January 1883, assets of the company were sold for $673 in a sheriff’s sale on the steps of the county courthouse. Here’s where it gets interesting: Two of the three new buyers had been managers of the predecessor company, overseeing the effort, and had, in late 1882, over-staked their own company’s claims with their own. By June of 1883, six months after the purchase of a bankrupt company with no ore in sight, their newly owned mine was a surefire success. Reports from the time show a grand operation, with year-round production, a work force of over 30 men, large payrolls and plans for expansion. They kept it up until late 1885 when the mine changed to a seasonal basis and closed for the winter. Then one year later it appears as though one of the firm’s partners died, and the company went up for sale. The price of silver continued to decline, and new owners didn’t take over until 1898. Item #1520
Price: $250.00