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remnant of the Central Colora-do Volcanic Field. The Guffey >>> Page 3
by Steven Wade Veatch & Andrew C. Hawkins Guffey is a small town situated in the southernmost portion of Park County Colorado. Fre-quently misspelled on road signs in the area, Guffey has a proud heritage as a 19th century mining town—that never really bloomed into the successful mining area the founders hoped. The town was founded as the Town of Freshwater on 12 April 1895 with a United States Post Office and later changed to Guffey. There is much history in this area, both geological and astronomical. The town of Guffey and The Freshwater Mining District sit in a bowl at the base of three old volcanoes that have been deeply
eroded. The Guffey volcanic center is part of the Thirty-nine Mile Volcanic area, the largest
The GPOC has some exciting events coming up in the last part of 2015. Here’s a summary — please come out and join us! 9 December General Meeting and Holiday Party
Christmas Party! Club will provide the meats. You bring a substantial side dish (serves 6-8) to share, a spoon/server, and make sure to label with your name!
The GPOC Board will pro-vide the power strips.
The US Marines Toys for Tots will also be in attend-ance to accept donations for their annual program. The gifts should remain un-wrapped for children 14 and under. Gifts for boys and girls are equally appreciated!
People have been asked to volunteer to set up, serve, tear down, and clean-up.
Guffey, CO: History of a 19th Century Mining Town
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
November
Events
2
GPOC Contact
Info
2
History of
Guffey, CO
3,
4
GPOC Claims
Committee
Update
4
The Roc Doc 5
Get Yer Gear! 6
The Lost Span-
ish Bullion Case
5
Upcoming GPOC Events in December
The Prospector’s Quill Winter Edition
“Nuggets of informa on for the prospector in all of us”
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 V O L U M E X L I , I S S U E X I I
N U G G E T S
The Colorado Gold
Rush was a boom in
the prospecting and
mining of gold in
present-day Colorado
that began in 1859
(when the land was
still in the Kansas
Territory) and lasted
throughout the early
1860s.
The first decade of
the boom was largely
concentrated along
the South Platte River
at the base of the
mountains, the can-
yon of Clear Creek in
the mountains west of
Golden, and the great
alpine basin of South
Park.
As prospectors flood-
ed the region in
search of quick riches,
the rapid population
growth led to the
creation of the Colo-
rado Territory in 1861
and to the U.S. state
of Colorado in 1876.
Please contact Lynn Murphy for more info on volunteer sign-up.
Annual awards and badges will be presented to mem-bers in appreciation for their volunteer time.
View of Guffey, Colorado in the late 1800’s. The town blos-
somed during the after-gold rush days of the late 1800’s.
Miners from the Cripple Creek Mining District settled here.
Two Year Trustee Lynn Murphy [email protected] Three year Trustee Dick Margeson [email protected]
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Memberships Elise Pearce [email protected] Raffle Wayne Wittkopp [email protected]
GPOC BOARD
President Ben "Big Ben" Higley Vice President George Enterman [email protected] Secretary Tricia Enterman [email protected] Treasurer Wayne Wittkopp [email protected] One Year Trustee Calvin Johnson [email protected]
Schedule of Events
3rd — Board Meeting, Gold Hill Police Station, 955 Moreno Avenue, Colo-rado Springs, CO, 7 pm (access from W. Moreno Ave.)
9th — Gen Membership meeting, Starting at 7pm, Elks Lodge, 3400 N. Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs, CO (Public Welcome)
12th — GPOC Claims Committee Meeting, 10 am to 1 pm at WMMI
24th — Christmas Eve
25th — Christmas
31st — New Year’s Eve
GPOC Board & Committee Members
V O L U M E X L I , I S S U E X I I
The Gold Prospectors of
Colorado (GPOC) was
founded around 1974 as a
non-profit organization for
recreational gold prospec-
tors in the Colorado area.
Our membership at any
given time has grown to over
600 members and continues
to grow across the Front
Range, the nation, and even
the world!
DECEMBER 2015 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 GPOC Board Meeting
4 5
6 7
8 9 GPOC Holiday Party
10 11 12 Claims Commit-tee Mtg.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 Christmas Eve
25 Christmas
26
27 28 29 30 31 New Year’s Eve
P A G E 2
Claims Committee Richard Cook [email protected] Championship Committee Gary Beaderstradt [email protected] The Quill
Editor Dr. Andrew C. Hawkins [email protected] Associate Editor Steven Wade Veatch [email protected]
Guffey, Colorado, cont’d P A G E 3
>>> Page 1 volcanic center is the largest vol-canic center within the Thirty-nine Mile Volcanic area. It is hard to believe that one is standing in the middle of an extinct volcano while in Guffey—but examination of the area from the air or on a topo-graphical map clearly shows one or more large craters. In fact, molten ejection from the Guffey volcano provided the sturdy and erosion-resistant rock called Castle Rock rhyolite that today, is responsible for the iconic “castle rock” in the town of the same name in Douglas County, CO — a mere 100+ miles from the volcanic center! Think of the force of that explosion! The volcanoes erupted about 34 million years ago and spewed out three large mud flows over millions of years before the Guffey volcano blew it’s top. The mud flows dammed the river below Evergreen Station (Teller County Road #1) and created Lake Florissant. The mudflows, which could have trav-elled up to 50 MPH, and the ash falls from the volcanoes, petrified the old redwood trees in the area and created the delicate insect and other fossils around Lake Floris-sant. There have been people in the Guffey area for a long time. The earliest recorded evidence and
artifacts found date back to 5000 BC. Spear and arrow points found are indicative of the period from 5000 BC to 1500 AD. Also from that period are culturally modified trees. The Indians harvested the sweet-smelling bark of the pine trees on their way to summer camping grounds in the Hartsel area. In modernity, the area was explored in 1844 by John C. Fremont and a few pioneers and settlers started arriving in the late 1870s. The Guffey gold rush era of 1895 - 1902 was short-lived. Prospectors came to the area in hopes of find-ing gold because of the area's simi-lar geology to that found in Cripple Creek . Not much gold was ever found, but many other minerals as well as copper, lead, mica and feld-spar were located and mined. The town was first called Freshwa-ter then Idaville and finally settled on Guffey. Freshwater was confus-ing, as a town with an identical name had already been established with a US Post Office in California. The town name changed to Idaville in honor of Ida McCIavey Wagner, who held mining claims on Gold Hill to the north of the town. As an aside, it seems Idaville was a bit too refined for a mining camp and Freshwater did not promote the saloon business!
By the time Guffey was incorpo-rated in 1895 and platted in 1896, it was a fairly large mining, ranching and lumbering town. There were 500 residents, 40 businesses, a post office, three newspapers and the Freshwater Mining District was established. Cattle rustlers and outlaws were active in the nearby Black Mountain and Thirty-nine Mile Mountain areas. Guffey itself was famous for its dances at the Town Hall and rodeos held in the area south of the school. The Freshwater Mining District was in the general Guffey area and not a big producer. Other mining areas were the Gold Hill mines north of town, the Moonlight Gulch District west of town, and the Micanite pegmatite District southeast of town. The first recorded burial in the Guffey cemetery was Buford Swope 4/1896 – 8/1897. The tomb-stone reads “Like the dove to the ark, Thou hast flown to thy rest, from the world sea of strife, to the home of the blest”. The last rec-orded burial is that of Andrew W. Jack, 1881 - 1941. The Guffey Cemetery, now located on private property, and has since been writ-ten into the history books. South of Guffey are two mineral springs – Iron Spring and Yellow Soda Spring. Yellow Soda Spring used to have an eight-foot geyser of water ejected from the top until some cowboys blocked the flow with rocks. The soda spring has formed a large mound 20 feet high and over 50 feet in diameter with water bubbling out of the top. It is said that in the 1920s and 1930s, residents used to make lemonade from the water and even today, deer drink from it. The water from the top of the Yellow Soda Spring was analyzed and found to have a temperature of 63 degrees Fahrenheit, a pH of 7.1 >>> Page 4
“The town
was first
called
Freshwater
then Idaville
and finally
settled on Guffey.”
The Guffey Meteorite. Found in 1907 by two cowboys on patrol,
the Guffey Meteorite is now on display at the American Museum
of Natural History in New York, New York. Weighing in at 682
pounds (309 kg), it is the largest on record found to date in the
state of Colorado.
>>> Page 3 (rainwater = 7 pH – the additional 0.1 makes the water more alkaline), and a salinity of 4000 PPM. Radiation readings in the area were highest over the pool of
T H E P R O S P E C T O R ’ S Q U I L L
P A G E 4
Guffey, Colorado, cont’d
The Quill wants your feedback! Send us your story ideas, photos, artwork, summary of your prospecting trips, stories, and stuff you want to see published in the Quill. Got a great campsite that you want to share
with your fellow GPOC prospectors? Know a nugget of Club history? Found your first nugget? Email us!
bubbling water at the top of the mound and thought to be radon gas. In November, 1907, two cowboys run-ning cattle in the hills around Guffey
found what they thought was a large silver nugget. What they found turned out to be a 682 pound iron meteor-ite. The Guffey Meteor-ite is classified as an ungrouped iron, meaning it does not fit well into any defined category. It represents a rare type of meteorite with high nickel content and would be worth several hundred thousand dollars today.
A view of a Guffey street in the late 1800’s. Some build-
ings survive into the 21st century, but the town is a little
less bustling than it was over 100 years ago.
GPOC Claims Committee Update from November General Meeting
The meteorite was eventually pur-chased by the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in 1909 for $1500 (about $30,000 in 2008 dollars). An article in the Fairplay Flume January 22, 1908, states that the meteorite was on display for several days in front of Tanner's Grocery (presumably in Fair-play). It was then shipped to New York for $60. The Guffey Meteorite remains on display in the Meteorite Hall of the AMNH. The Guffey Meteorite is the largest meteorite of the 79 that have been found and documented in the state of Colorado . Today Guffey is a quiet, unincorporated mountain town with a post office and population of about 98 people. A cat named Monster was elected mayor of Guffey in 1998. The people living here today still reflect the pioneering spirit of independence as their predecessors. Sources:
by Andrew C. Hawkins Richard Cook, Chair of the GPOC Claims Committee reported that the Claims Com-mittee met with the Colorado Division of Reclamation, Mining and Safety in Denver, CO on October 19. Richard and others met with Mr. Walden and Mr. Cunningham from the CDRMS to discuss the required state paperwork for the GPOC claims. The CDRMS had previously required the GPOC to complete compulsory paper-work for mining plans and reclamation of Club claims. The GPOC was successfully granted an extension until the 16th of Feb-
ruary to update paperwork with the CDRMS. Richard and the Claims Commit-
tee will work on this paperwork in the November, December, and January Claims Committee meetings. If you would like to help and understand this process, join the Claims Committee meetings!
Richard also reported that the committee is currently looking at five new claims and will not reveal the whereabouts. If you are interested, you should attend the next Claims Committee meeting. It will be held on December 12, 2015 at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry at 10 am. Richard and President Ben Higley asked the Membership to refer to the Club claim in Park County as “Private Reserve” so as to not brand this claim with its location and protect the club claim from pro-specting done by the general public.
V O L U M E X L I , I S S U E X I I
Happy Holidays Thank you all for your friendship, patronage and friendly smiles throughout the year.
We wish you blessed holidays with family and friends.
The Rock Doc
at Prospectors Village
719.539.2019 between Buena Vista and Salida
Gold Prospectors of Colorado PO Box 1593
Colorado Springs, Colorado 80901
Phone: 719-651-7930
E-mail: [email protected]
Prospecting Colorado since 1974.
Visit us on the web! http://www.gpoc.com
by Andrew C. Hawkins In the early 1900’s, a father-son duo reported locating a lost Spanish gold mine near Silver City, New Mexico. Silver City is located in the south-western corner of that state. George and Lee DuBois were taken to the site by a Native-American guide. The family team quickly moved to Denver to seek funding for what they believed would be a very lucrative mining operation. They also advertised in newspapers up-and-down the East Coast of the United States for potential investors. In Denver, they found Dr. R.C. Hunt, who with a $10,000 investment, secured the position of President of the newly formed Spanish Bullion Mining Company. Stock in the company sold quickly, and inexpensively, but mainly on the East Coast.
T H E P R O S P E C T O R ’ S Q U I L L
P A G E 5
Then, a Federal Investigator named Charles Riddiford took notice of the newspaper ads in Boston. Reading the ads, Mr. Riddiford thought the opportunity too good to be true. Upon securing the approval of his boss, he travelled to Silver City, NM to see the mine for himself. What he found was a limestone cave and several mining engineers that confirmed his worst fears—an area of worthless rock. Riddiford quickly travelled to Denver to confront the DuBois duo, who admitted that the mine and company were a fraud. A trial in the US District Court followed in 1907 with a guilty verdict reached by Judge Lewis the day after Christmas in 1907. With the national notoriety of this trial, and sentiment of great frustration from investors, many states forthwith estab-lished more stringent laws pre-venting future get-rich-quick schemes.
Denver: father-son DuBois duo claimed quick riches and
great success from a mine they located near the southwest
corner of New Mexico. They promised investors many
millions of dollars in gold—a tempting proposition. These
bars are from a Spanish galleon lost in a storm in 1622.
Treasure Tales: The Lost Spanish Bullion Case Strengthened Security Laws in the US
Fine jewelry on sale this month Beautiful stones in silver
for the special ones on your list
Gold Prospectors of Colorado PO Box 1593 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80901
The Prospector’s Quill D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 V O L U M E X L I , I S S U E X I I
by Andrew C. Hawkins Classifying is a necessary and tedious or enjoyable part of prospecting, depending on how you look at it. Some enjoy the rhythmic shaking of a 5-gallon bucket topped with one or more mesh screen classifiers while in the stream, the ar-royo, or the desert wash. Others re-cruit their high-energy kids or grandkids to provide the manual shaking (hey—it works!) when they tire of the monotony. Regardless of the bucket that you fall into (pun intended), there is a new gadg-et to consider: The Royal Manufacturing Royal Gold Super Shaker. The Royal
Get Yer Gear! Field Testing Prospecting Gear.
This sturdy (but heavy) device allows you to
classify material through the included 1/2”
Garrett screen with a foot pedal action.
Gold Super Shaker has a sturdy con-struction, brass bushings, and easy one-foot operation. While it’s heavy, weigh-ing in at 27 pounds, it can sure take a beating. The heavy-gauge woven fabric funnel directs your pay dirt down into your favorite 5-gallon bucket below. The tailings can be dumped easily with the hinged lid and the included 1/2” Gar-rett classifier. The classifier is secured with heavy-duty clamps and won’t fall out. While it may not be faster than your traditional screens, it does engage your foot/leg in some classifying action—and frees up your hands to pour in some water for washing tailings. Check it out. $169 from http://www.royalmfgind.com/
