Encyclopedia Dubuque
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DUBUQUE AND BRECKENRIDGE MINING COMPANY
Being written
DUBUQUE AND BRECKENRIDGE MINING COMPANY. In 1859 Summit County as part of the Pikes Peak gold rush. Iowa Gulch, located on the northern edge of Breckenridge, was like many other sites of gold mining. Mines began as small-scale, manual, one-man operations to larger-scale, equipment-intense operations with corporate funding of the large-scale operations. In succeeding decades, nearly all of the techniques used in placer mining, — pan, rocker, long tom, sluice box, giant, booming, shafting, and bank blasting — occurred on Iowa Hill.
Miners organized mining districts tto handle claims and settle disputes. Iowa Gulch, part of the Quartz Mountain mining district, held many claims, each extending 100 to 200 feet up and down the gulch and running from bank to bank.
The sheer cliffs of Iowa Gulch were created by an early mining technique called booming. Head gates released water held in reservoirs and ponds at the top of Iowa Hill. As the water rushed down the hillside over bluffs of loose sediments and soils tons of rock, soil and vegetation were carried into sluice boxes lined with wooden riffles that captured the gold. The use of "rockers" and "long toms" produced yields of $3 per day per man; booming recovered an average of $25 per day per man.
By the mid- to late 1870s, when miners realized that booming could not break apart gold-bearing gravels bound tightly with clay as on Iowa Hill, they began using high-pressure nozzles called monitors or giants, a technique developed in California in the 1850s. The monitors, which could move side to side, up and down, and swivel 360 degrees, operated like huge, high-pressure fire hoses, bringing tremendous water pressure to bear on the hillsides, washing down the gold-bearing material. Men bolted the nozzle to a large wooden foundation for safety and stability. A box of rocks counterbalanced the weight of the nozzle. A run-away, uncontrolled giant could easily kill a man instantly.
In 1905, the Banner Placer Mining Company, which then owned 500 acres on Iowa Hill, made vast changes to Iowa Gulch. Workers completed a 15-acre reservoir system to store water for the giants. Automatic gates spilled water from the reservoir every few minutes, 24 hours a day. Over 2,000 feet of 22-inch steel-riveted pipe arrived from the Gold Pan Shops to carry the water to 4-foot-wide sluices.
As late as 1915, the Summit County Journal reported that several men worked the Banner placer with satisfactory results. The last of the entries that tell the history of Iowa Hill spoke of great optimism about platinum, another mineral that promised enticing profits. In 1918, workers found grains of platinum in the sluice boxes. A new, but unsuccessful, search for wealth began.
Formed in 1882, the company owned land two miles from Breckenridge, Colorado. The vein of ore (unidentified in the article) was eighteen inches thick and assayed at $90 per ton. Most of the stock in the mine was owned by residents of Dubuque. (1)
The Colorado Mine Directory of 1879-1910 indicated activity for a Dubuque mine and the Dubuque Mining Company.
Individual Mine Mining Company County Year S.S. Benne Dubuque Clear Creek 1879
John C. Easley Clear Creek 1879
W. W. Kirby Dubuque Mining & Tunnel Company Clear Creek 1910
W. G. Wakefield Dubuque Clear Creek 1879
J. A. Wright Dubuque Mining & Tunnel Company Clear Creek 1910
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Source:
1. Mather, Sandie, "History: Mining in Iowa Gulch," Online: https://www.summitdaily.com/explore-summit/history-mining-in-iowa-gulch-in-breckenridge/
1. "Dubuque Latest Enterprise," The Daily Herald, July 22, 1882, p. 4
2. Colorado Mine Directory, Online:https://history.denverlibrary.org/sites/history/files/CO1879-1910mineDirect.pdf