%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en “Little Rome” http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/little-rome <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">“Little Rome”</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-06-02T14:13:31-06:00" title="Friday, June 2, 2017 - 14:13" class="datetime">Fri, 06/02/2017 - 14:13</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/little-rome" data-a2a-title="“Little Rome”"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Flittle-rome&amp;title=%E2%80%9CLittle%20Rome%E2%80%9D"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>“Little Rome” was a residential area in Henson, a <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan</strong></a> mining camp a few miles west of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/lake-city-0"><strong>Lake City</strong></a> that peaked in the 1890s. Henson is notable for being the site of an 1899 strike carried out at the <strong>Ute Ulay</strong> and Hidden Treasure <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>mines</strong></a> by Italians affiliated with the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-federation-miners"><strong>Western Federation of Miners</strong></a>. The “Little Rome” site may have gotten its name because it was an Italian enclave, though recent archaeological investigations have not found any conclusive proof about the ethnicity of the residents.</p> <h2>Town of Henson</h2> <p>The Ute and Ulay claims along Henson Creek were the first registered mining claims in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hinsdale-county"><strong>Hinsdale County</strong></a>. The Ute Ulay mine began serious production later that decade and spurred the growth of nearby Lake City, which had a population of 1,000 by November 1876.</p> <p>In 1880 the town of Henson was established on the north side of Henson Creek near the mine, which lay about three and a half miles from Lake City by way of the Lake City and Uncompahgre toll road. Most of the people who lived in Henson worked at the Ute Ulay or Hidden Treasure mines. The town was never incorporated, but it did have its own post office in 1883–84 and again from 1893 to 1913.</p> <p>Mines around Lake City began to boom after 1889, when the <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> completed its Lake City extension. Henson flourished in the 1890s, with a population of up to 300. It boasted three saloons, a school, a barbershop, several grocery stores, and a branch of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), a labor union that counted many San Juan miners as members. The area’s population and economy continued to grow even after the demonetization of silver in 1893 because the local mines produced a variety of valuable minerals. The Ute Ulay mine alone produced about $12 million from 1891 to 1903.</p> <p>Henson was an ethnically diverse town, with English, Irish, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, German, Welsh, and Italian immigrants as well as native-born American residents. The Italians, many of whom had worked on the railroad and then stayed in the Lake City area after it was completed, were exploited as cheap labor and derided as “Dagos.” In Henson they kept to themselves, published their own newspaper, <em>La Verita</em>, and may have lived in a segregated community known as “Little Rome.” If the Italians did live apart from the rest of town, it is possible that they occupied the section of Henson on the south side of Henson Creek.</p> <h2>1899 Strike and Aftermath</h2> <p>On March 14, 1899, Italian workers at the Ute Ulay and Hidden Treasure mines went on strike, blocking the entrances to both mines. There had been tension at the mines for weeks before the strike, but the immediate cause was a decree by the Auric Mining Company, owner of both mines, that all single men employed at the mines would have to start living in company boardinghouses. For many workers this meant an increased cost of living as well as commuting distance.</p> <p>The Italians who went on strike were well armed. In the days before the strike, they had quietly bought many firearms. They had also broken into the Lake City Armory and stolen several dozen rifles. Faced with armed miners and an empty armory, the sheriff wired Governor <strong>Charles Thomas</strong> for help. Thomas quickly dispatched six companies of the state militia. The Italian consul, Joseph Cuneo, accompanied the militia to Lake City, where he hoped to help with negotiations.</p> <p>Tensions and fears were high on all sides by the time the troops arrived in Lake City. A local Italian businessman, Charles Maio, served as a go-between and was able to convince the strikers that they would not be executed if they peacefully surrendered. As a result, the strike ended on March 17 without any shots being fired. Thirty-three strikers were arrested. A few days later the troops withdrew and work resumed at the mines.</p> <p>Soon Auric Mining declared that it would not hire any more Italians. In addition, Hinsdale County officials ordered all strikers to leave the county—single men in five days, men with families in sixty days. Many Italians left the area, but others, including some of the arrested strikers, remained.</p> <p>In the early twentieth century Henson and the Ute Ulay mine began to decline. Henson lost its post office in the 1910s and became a ghost town. A dam built on Henson Creek in the 1920s flooded much of the Henson site and part of the “Little Rome” site. The Washington State–based mining company LKA Gold acquired the Ute Ulay site in the 1980s but never did any mining there.</p> <h2>Recent Investigations</h2> <p>In 1999 Julia Coleman-Fike, a <strong>Bureau of Land Management</strong> archaeologist for the Gunnison Resource Area, conducted the first archaeological research at the part of Henson that lay on the south side of the creek. She inventoried the site and suggested that it was the location of the Italian enclave in Henson known as “Little Rome.” As a result of Coleman-Fike’s research and nomination, the “Little Rome” site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.</p> <p>In June 2000, anthropologist Donald L. Hardesty brought a group of anthropology graduate students from the University of Nevada–Reno to the site to conduct more extensive fieldwork. The work was funded by the Hinsdale County Historical Society, the <strong>State Historical Fund</strong>, the Bureau of Land Management, and Save America’s Treasures, a joint program of the National Park Service and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.</p> <p>The investigation determined conclusively that the “Little Rome” site on the south side of the creek was a residential community of working-class households. It was occupied between the 1880s and the 1910s, the same as the main settlement of Henson on the other side of the creek.</p> <p>The surviving evidence provided no clear proof that the site was an Italian enclave. The documentary record contains few references to a separate Italian neighborhood. It is possible that the settlement on the south side of the creek now called “Little Rome” consisted of families trying to distance themselves from the rowdiness of Henson, which was full of single miners.</p> <p>The Henson and “Little Rome” sites are on the Alpine Loop Scenic and Historic Byway. In 2013 LKA Gold transferred twelve acres around the Ute Ulay site to Hinsdale County, which plans to clean up the site, stabilize and restore the buildings for heritage tourism, and potentially open a mining museum. In 2015 Colorado Preservation named the Ute Ulay Mill and Town Site as one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places, a designation meant to spur fundraising and other preservation efforts.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/henson" hreflang="en">Henson</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ute-ulay-mine" hreflang="en">ute ulay mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hidden-treasure-mine" hreflang="en">Hidden Treasure Mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/western-federation-miners" hreflang="en">Western Federation of Miners</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/italian-immigrants" hreflang="en">Italian immigrants</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alpine-loop-scenic-byway" hreflang="en">Alpine Loop Scenic Byway</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Julia Coleman-Fike, “Little Rome,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (August 11, 1999).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Mary Ringhoff, <em>The Archaeological Study of “Little Rome”: Investigation of a Historic Mining Community in Hinsdale County, Colorado</em> (Master’s thesis, University of Nevada–Reno, 2002).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Catherine Tsai, “<a href="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/colo-county-sees-tourism-historic-silver-mine">Colo. County Sees Tourism in Historic Silver Mine</a>,” Associated Press, March 7, 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carolyn and Clarence Wright, <em>Tiny Hinsdale of the Silvery San Juan</em> (Denver: Big Mountain Press, 1964).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Colorado Preservation, “<a href="https://coloradopreservation.org/2015-list-colorados-most-endangered-places/ute-ulay-mill-and-town-site/">Ute Ulay Mill and Town Site</a>,” Colorado’s Most Endangered Places.</p> <p>LKA Gold, “<a href="https://lkagold.com/Ute_Ulay.html">Ute Ulay</a>.”</p> <p>Duane A. Smith, <em>Song of the Hammer and Drill: The Colorado San Juans, 1860–1914</em> (Golden: Colorado School of Mines Press, 1982).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Fri, 02 Jun 2017 20:13:31 +0000 yongli 2663 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Hinsdale County http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hinsdale-county <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Hinsdale County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2040--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2040.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/hinsdale-county"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Hinsdale%20County%20Media%201_0.jpg?itok=Spoi3Qk3" width="640" height="463" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/hinsdale-county" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Hinsdale County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Established in 1874 in the heart of the San Juan Mountains, Hinsdale County is one of Colorado's most prolific historic mining counties.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2016-11-14T13:05:33-07:00" title="Monday, November 14, 2016 - 13:05" class="datetime">Mon, 11/14/2016 - 13:05</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hinsdale-county" data-a2a-title="Hinsdale County"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fhinsdale-county&amp;title=Hinsdale%20County"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Established in 1874, Hinsdale County is a mountainous, sparsely populated county of 1,123 square miles in southwest Colorado. The county was named for <strong>George A. Hinsdale</strong>, a prominent politician and newspaperman in nineteenth-century Colorado. The county currently has a population of 786. <a href="/article/lake-city-0"><strong>Lake City</strong></a>, home to 408 residents, is the county seat and only incorporated area. Hinsdale County borders <a href="/article/gunnison-county"><strong>Gunnison County</strong></a> to the north, <strong><a href="/article/saguache-county">Saguache</a> </strong>and <a href="/article/mineral-county"><strong>Mineral</strong></a> Counties to the east, <a href="/article/archuleta-county"><strong>Archuleta County</strong></a> to the south, and <a href="/article/la-plata-county"><strong>La Plata</strong></a>, <a href="/article/san-juan-county"><strong>San Juan</strong></a>, and <a href="/article/ouray-county"><strong>Ouray</strong></a> Counties to the west.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Located in the heart of the <a href="/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a>, Hinsdale County was once the domain of the Nuche, or Ute people, until American prospectors found significant <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>gold and silver</strong></a> deposits during the 1870s. Lake City, in the northern section of the county, was established in 1874 as a supply town for nearby mining camps. The city was platted along Lake Fork, a tributary of the <a href="/article/gunnison-river"><strong>Gunnison River</strong></a>, and today State Highway 149—part of the <strong>Silver Thread Scenic Byway</strong>—connects Lake City with <a href="/article/creede"><strong>Creede</strong></a> in Mineral County and Gunnison in Gunnison County. The Rio Grande River flows eastward through the southern part of the county, dammed at the Rio Grande Reservoir.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hinsdale County boasts several <a href="/article/fourteeners"><strong>Fourteeners</strong></a> (mountains above 14,000 feet): <strong>Uncompahgre Peak</strong> (14,321 ft.), Handies Peak (14,058 ft.), Wetterhorn Peak (14,021 ft.), and Sunshine Peak (14,007 ft.). Other natural attractions include Lake San Cristobal south of Lake City and Cannibal Plateau, site of the infamous <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/alferd-packer"><strong>Alferd Packer</strong></a> incident. Most of Hinsdale County’s land is managed by the <a href="/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a> or the Bureau of Land Management as parts of the San Juan, Rio Grande, and Uncompahgre<strong> </strong>National Forests.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Native Americans</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Archaeological evidence from the Capitol City Moraine Site indicates that <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> people frequented the Hinsdale County area as early as 12,000 years ago. The area was too cold and rugged to support permanent settlement. Around 1300 the area became home to the <a href="/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a> people, nomadic Native Americans who hunted in the high country during the summer and camped in lower valleys and along river bottoms in the winter. The three Ute bands most common in the Hinsdale County area were the Weenuche, Capote, and Tabeguache Utes. Today, the Weenuche are federally recognized as part of the <a href="/article/ute-history-and-ute-mountain-ute-tribe"><strong>Ute Mountain Ute Tribe</strong></a>, and the Capote as part of the <strong>Southern Ute Tribe</strong>. Both tribes still reside in Colorado, but the Tabeguache now reside with other Utes on a Utah reservation as part of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/northern-ute-people-uintah-and-ouray-reservation"><strong>Northern Ute Tribe</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>For more than five centuries, the Weenuche, Capote, and Tabeguache Utes used the various high valleys and parks in the Hinsdale County area as summer hunting grounds before descending to their winter camps. Even as the North American frontiers of the Spanish, French, and eventually American empires encroached on what is now southwest Colorado, the sheer ruggedness of the San Juans kept the Hinsdale County area off of most published maps until the late nineteenth century.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After American miners made significant gold and silver discoveries near the site of present-day <a href="/article/silverton"><strong>Silverton</strong></a> in the early 1870s, the United States obtained the Hinsdale County area from the Utes via the <a href="/article/brunot-agreement"><strong>Brunot Agreement of 1873</strong></a>. Not all Utes supported the agreement, which ceded more than 3.5 million acres of their land. The Utes still held a large reservation on Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> until 1879, when the <a href="/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a> at the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Indian Agency</strong></a> in what is now <a href="/article/rio-blanco-county"><strong>Rio Blanco County</strong></a> prompted many white Coloradans to call for the Utes’ removal.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>A new agreement dissolved the Utes’ Western Slope reservation and confined Colorado’s Ute population to new reservations in Utah and southwest Colorado. Although many Utes continued to range off the reservations to hunt, by 1882 the Hinsdale County area and the rest of the San Juan Mountains lay open for permanent Anglo-American settlement.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Prospectors and County Formation</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>On August 27, 1871, the prospectors Harry Henson, Joel Mullen, Albert Meade, and Charles Godwin discovered the Ute Ulay vein five miles above the mouth of Henson Creek, a tributary of Lake Fork. Because they were trespassing in Ute territory, the prospectors could not safely develop the vein at that time, but they returned in 1874 and established the first mining claim in what would become Hinsdale County. The Ute Ulay Mine eventually became a rich source of gold, silver, lead, and copper, and was among the largest producers of silver and lead in the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Around the same time, <strong>Enos Hotchkiss</strong> was in the area working on one of <a href="/article/otto-mears"><strong>Otto </strong></a><a href="/article/otto-mears"><strong>Mears</strong></a>’s toll roads, and he located a promising gold vein north of Lake San Cristobal. Hotchkiss built the first structure at the present site of Lake City and soon set up the Hotchkiss Mine (later renamed the Golden Fleece).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>News of Henson’s and Hotchkiss’s discoveries brought hundreds more miners to the area, and the mining boom in the greater San Juan region prompted the organization of Hinsdale, La Plata, and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rio-grande-county"><strong>Rio Grande</strong></a> Counties in 1874. Hinsdale County was named in honor of George A. Hinsdale, a former lieutenant governor of Colorado and one of the founding editors of the <strong><em>Pueblo Chieftain</em></strong><em>,</em> who died that year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Though it is often romanticized, nineteenth-century prospecting in the San Juans was extremely dangerous, as illustrated by the story of Alferd Packer. In February 1874, Packer and five other prospectors became lost in what is now northern Hinsdale County and ran out of provisions. Several days later one of the men, Shannon Bell, became crazed with starvation and killed three of the party as they slept. Packer allegedly killed Bell in self-defense after Bell attacked him with a hatchet. Unable to leave on account of the deep <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/snow"><strong>snow</strong></a>, Packer survived for six weeks by eating the flesh of his dead companions. A sketch artist for <em>Harper’s </em>magazine stumbled across the bodies of Packer’s companions on August 20, 1874, five miles from present-day Lake City at a place now called Deadman’s Gulch. Packer was eventually found guilty of murdering his comrades and sentenced to seventeen years in prison.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Mining</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Lake City was incorporated on August 16, 1875. Henry Finley, a local businessman who had worked on the toll road the year before and worked with Hotchkiss to set up Hinsdale County’s first sawmill, served as the first president of the Lake City Town Company. <em>The Silver World</em>, the first newspaper on Colorado’s Western Slope, also began publishing in Lake City in 1875, and the town received a US post office. By 1878 Lake City had two smelters, making it the central supply and processing point for dozens of mines and mining camps in northern Hinsdale County. The county courthouse went up in 1877 and remains Colorado’s oldest continually operating courthouse. The <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> arrived in Lake City in 1889, allowing mines to more efficiently ship ore to market.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Gold and silver production spiked in Hinsdale County after the arrival of the railroad. For instance, the Ute Ulay Mine produced some $12 million in gold, silver, lead, and copper between 1891 and 1903. Silver production across the county reached 400,000 ounces by 1892 before falling off during the crash in silver prices the next year. By the turn of the century, when lead and zinc production peaked, there were nearly seventy mines operating in the Lake City District.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hinsdale County’s most productive mining operations tapered off by 1920, and the county did not experience a mining revival until the early 1950s, when modest amounts of zinc, lead, and copper were produced.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>While mining companies profited handsomely from their work, miners toiled for a pittance in horrible and dangerous conditions, working between twelve and fourteen hours per day. By the 1890s strikes were common across all of Colorado’s mining districts, and Lake City was no exception. In 1899 some 200 miners, mostly Italians, struck at the Ute Ulay and Hidden Treasure Mines. Armed with dynamite and rifles stolen from the Lake City armory, the strikers occupied the mine properties and forced the sheriff to call for help from the state capital. It took the arrival of more than 350 state militiamen to break the strike, and all of the participating miners were fired in March 1899. Thereafter, some local mines refused to hire Italians.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Though its mining glory days have long since passed, Hinsdale County residents have preserved the town’s mining history, and that history is now one of the area’s main tourist attractions. The Hinsdale County Historical Society was established in 1973, and in 1975 it opened the Hinsdale County Museum in Lake City’s historic Finley Block building. In 1978 the town’s historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places. With more than 200 nineteenth-century buildings—including homes, barns, and churches—the historic district is one of the most robust in Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Efforts are also under way to preserve a set of buildings associated with the Ute Ulay Mine, which was named one of Colorado’s Most Endangered Places in 2015. The Silver Thread Scenic Byway—which links the towns of Gunnison, Lake City, Creede, and South Fork—offers motorists access to some of the San Juans’ most remote historic mining areas as well as spectacular mountain scenery.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Hinsdale County has an active historic preservation community, visitors come for much more than heritage tourism. Thousands of travelers head to the county each year to climb Fourteeners, camp under starlit skies, and fish at Lake San Cristobal or one of the county’s many trout-filled streams. Aware of the remote town’s appeal to city dwellers, Lake City’s official website even boasts that the area has no stoplights, very few stop signs, and no light pollution. Local conservation organizations, such as the Lake Fork Valley Conservancy and the Lake San Cristobal Project (part of the Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District), are focused on protecting and enhancing the county’s natural areas so visitors may continue to enjoy them into the future.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hinsdale-county" hreflang="en">hinsdale county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alferd-packer" hreflang="en">alferd packer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/alfred-packer" hreflang="en">alfred packer</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ute-ulay-mine" hreflang="en">ute ulay mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-juan-mountains" hreflang="en">San Juan Mountains</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/southwest-colorado" hreflang="en">southwest colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hinsdale-county-history" hreflang="en">hinsdale county history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lake-city" hreflang="en">Lake City</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/uncompahgre-peak" hreflang="en">uncompahgre peak</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Kye Abraham, Stan Whinnery, and Mark Rudolph, “<a href="https://lkagold.com/uploads/The_Ute-Ulay_presentation_San_Juan_Mining_Summit_FINALpdf.pdf">The Ute Ulay: The Mine That Made Lake City</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Carl E. Conner, “<a href="https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/files/OAHP/crforms_edumat/pdfs/631.pdf">Hinsdale County Metal Mining</a>,” US Department of the Interior, National Park Service Form 10-900b (Denver: History Colorado, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hinsdale County Museum, “<a href="https://www.lakecitymuseum.com/component/content/article/9-uncategorised/72-history-of-the-finley-block-and-henry-finley">History of the Finley Block and Henry Finley</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>John Duer Irving and Howland Bancroft, “<a href="http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/Meetings/Creede/LC%20Mines%20c1911%20Bul478%20BL13%20CROP.jpg">Geology and Ore Deposits near Lake City, Colorado</a>,” US Geological Survey Bulletin 478, (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1911).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://lakecity.com/">Lake City</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lake City, “<a href="https://www.lakecity.com/mountain-town-activities/historic-attractions">Area History &amp; Timeline</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lake City, “<a href="https://www.lakecity.com/mountain-town-activities/historic-attractions/18-things-to-do/history/national-historic-district/15-national-historic-district">National Historic District</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Lake City DIRT, “<a href="https://lakecitydirt.org/ute-ulay-project">Ute Ulay Project</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bonnie L. Pitblado, C.W. Merriman, and Caroline Gabe, “Assessing Integrity at the PaleoIndian-Historic Capitol City Moraine Site (5HN510), Hinsdale County, Colorado,” <em>Southwestern Lore </em>73, no. 3 (Fall 2007).</p>&#13; &#13; <p> Pueblo County Historical Society, “George A. Hinsdale (1826–1874),” Hinsdale County Historical Society, updated 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ed Raines, “<a href="http://www.mininghistoryassociation.org/LakeCity.htm">Mining History of Lake City</a>,” Mining History Association, 2011.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=SME18990318-01.2.8">Strike at Lake City Mines</a>,” <em>San Miguel Examiner</em>, March 18, 1899.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Whizbang Works, LLC, <em>Prospecting: A Guide to the Arts &amp; History of Lake City, Colorado</em> (Lake City, CO: Lake City/Hinsdale County Chamber of Commerce, 2006).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Wilderness.net, “<a href="https://wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS&amp;amp;amp;sec=wildView&amp;amp;amp;wname=Uncompahgre%20Wilderness">Uncompahgre Wilderness</a>.”</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p><a href="https://www.colorado.gov:443/hinsdalecounty">Hinsdale County</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.lakecitymuseum.com/">Hinsdale County Museum</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.lfvc.org/">Lake Fork Valley Conservancy</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Rocky Mountain PBS, <a href="https://video.rmpbs.org/video/2365922974/">"Courthouses,"</a> <em>Colorado Experience</em>, December 29, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Duane A. Smith, <em>San Juan Legacy: Life in the Mining Camps </em>(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://ugrwcd.org/">Upper Gunnison River Water Conservancy District</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 14 Nov 2016 20:05:33 +0000 yongli 2041 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org