Settlement The Leadville area was first settled in 1859 when
placer gold was discovered by A. G. Kelley in
California Gulch, and by Abe Lee in April (25/26) 1860, during the
Pikes Peak Gold Rush.
Horace Tabor, who became known as the "Leadville Silver King", and his wife
Augusta were among the first prospectors to arrive in Oro City. Horace was appointed as the
postmaster of Oro City on November 30, 1868. The early miners had noted that mining for placer gold was hampered by heavy black sand in the
sluice boxes, and in 1874 it was discovered that the heavy sand that impeded gold recovery was the
lead mineral
cerussite, which has a high
silver content. Prospectors traced the cerussite to its source, present day Leadville, and by 1876 had discovered several silver-lead
lode deposits. As the gold has been tapped out of the gulch and attention was averted to nearby Leadville, a mile or two away, Oro City became a ghost town. The town was built on desolate flat land below the
tree line. The first miners lived in a rough tented camp near the silver deposits in California Gulch. Initially, the settlement was called "Slabtown", but when the residents petitioned for a post office, the name "Leadville" was chosen. By 1880, Tabor and Meyer's new town had gas lighting, water mains, of streets, 5 churches, 3 hospitals, 6 banks, and a school for 1,100 students. Many business buildings were constructed with bricks hauled in by wagons. In early 1878, Meyer, along with Leadville's pioneer smelter entrepreneur, Edwin Harrison, after whom the famed Harrison Avenue is named, and Tabor established a post office in Leadville, with George L. Henderson designated as postmaster on July 16, 1877. Swindles were not uncommon in the mining community. When the Little Pittsburg mine was exhausted of its rich ore body, its managers sold their shares while concealing the mine's actual condition from the other stockholders. "Chicken Bill" Lovell dumped a wheelbarrow load of silver-rich ore into a barren pit on his Chrysolite claim in order to sell it to Horace Tabor for a large price. Tabor had the last laugh when his miners dug a few feet farther and discovered a rich ore body. Some time later the manager of the Chrysolite mine fooled an outside mining engineer into overestimating the mine's ore reserves. The city's fortunes declined with the repeal of the
Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1893, although afterwards there was another small gold boom. Mining companies came to rely increasingly on income from the
lead and
zinc. The district is credited with producing over 2.9 million troy ounces of gold, 240 million troy ounces of
silver, 1 million short tons of lead, 785 thousand short tons of zinc (discovered in 1911 A bitter
strike by Leadville's hard rock miners in 1896–97 led to bloodshed, at least five deaths, and the burning of the Coronado Mine. In a letter to a London business contact, mine owner
Eben Smith wrote, "The strikers got the worst of it in the raid on the Coronado and Emmet [mines], there were 10 or 12 killed; we do not know how many, and a great number wounded; they take care of their wounded the same as the Indians but every now and then a fellow turns up that the rats have been eating or who has gone to decay that we know must have been shot ..." World War II caused an increase in the demand for
molybdenum, used to harden steel. It was mined at the nearby
Climax mine, which at one time produced 75 percent of the world's output. By 1980, the Climax Mine was the largest underground mine in the world. Taxes paid by the mine provided Leadville with good schools and libraries and provided employment for many residents. When the market dropped in 1981, Leadville's economy suffered and many people lost their jobs. With little industry other than the tourist trade, most of the former miners left, and the standard of living declined. Climax reopened in 2008 and started production in 2010. It currently is the most efficient mine producing molybdenum in Colorado and is estimated to have a production life of thirty years. The many years of mining left behind substantial contamination of the soil and water and the
Environmental Protection Agency designated some former mines
Superfund sites, such as
California Gulch. As of 2019, the EPA reports: "A vast majority of the cleanup at the site has been completed, so current risk of exposure is low. Pregnant women, nursing mothers and young children are still encouraged to have their blood-lead levels checked."
Notable historical figures As the population boomed, by 1878, Leadville had the reputation as one of the most lawless towns in the
West. The first city marshal was run out of town a few days after he was appointed, and his replacement was shot dead within a month by one of his deputies. Fearing the town would be lost to the lawless element, Mayor Horace Tabor sent for
Mart Duggan, who was living in Denver, as a replacement. Duggan was well known at the time as a fearless
gunfighter. Using strong-arm and lawless tactics, during his two stints as marshal, Duggan brought order to Leadville by 1880 when he stepped down. He was shot and killed in 1888 by an unknown assailant, most likely an enemy he had made when he was a Leadville marshal. Historian Robert Dearment writes, "Mart Duggan was a quick-shooting, hard-drinking, brawling tough Irish man, but he was exactly the kind of man a tough, hard-drinking, quick-shooting camp like Leadville needed in its earliest days. His name is all but forgotten today, but the name "
Matt Dillon" is recognized around the world. Such are the vagaries of life." Alice Ivers, better known as
Poker Alice, was a card player and dealer of the Old West who learned her trade in Leadville. Born in
Devonshire, her family moved to America when she was a small girl. They first settled in
Virginia, where she attended an elite girls' boarding school. When she was a teenager, her family moved to Leadville when the silver boom drew hundreds of new residents to the area. At the age of twenty she married a mining engineer who, like many of the men at that time, frequented the numerous gambling halls in Leadville. Alice went along, at first just observing, but eventually she began to sit in on the games as well. After a few years of marriage her husband was killed in a mining accident and she turned to cards to support herself. Alice was attractive, dressed in the latest fashions, and was in great demand as a dealer. Eventually Alice left Leadville to travel the gambling circuit, as was common of the male gamblers of that time. She continued to dress in the latest fashions but took to smoking cigars. Well known throughout the West, gambling halls welcomed her because she was good for business. Alice said that she won more than $250,000 by gambling during her lifetime. In the spring of 1880,
Texas Jack Omohundro and his wife
Giuseppina Morlacchi arrived in Leadville. Morlacchi, a famous Italian prima ballerina who had introduced the
Can-can dance to the United States, performed several plays at the Grand Central Theatre, including Around the World in 80 Days and
The Black Crook. Texas Jack, who had starred in The Scouts of the Prairie with
Buffalo Bill Cody and
Ned Buntline, and later in The Scouts of the Plains with Buffalo Bill and
Wild Bill Hickok, played shows at the Chestnut Street Theatre. Texas Jack had served in the
Confederate Army at age 16 and subsequently joined the Tabor Light Guard, a local militia unit. Jack died of
pneumonia on June 28, 1880. His funeral was held at the Tabor Opera House, and he was buried in Evergreen Cemetery. On September 8, 1908, Texas Jack's best friend and former costar Buffalo Bill Cody visited Leadville with his
Wild West Show and dedicated the permanent memorial that marks Texas Jack's grave today. The Texas Jack Association erected highway historical markers on roads in and out of Leadville. In the summer of 1879, American author and illustrator
Mary Hallock Foote arrived in Leadville. In 1882, shortly after the gun fight at the
O.K. Corral,
Doc Holliday arrived in Leadville, Gunfighter and professional gambler
Luke Short also spent time in Leadville.
Margaret "Molly" Brown, who became known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", moved to Leadville in 1885, when she was 18 years old. Mayor David H. Dougan invited Wilde to tour the
Matchless Mine and name its new lode "The Oscar". Wilde later recounted a visit to a local saloon, "where I saw the only rational method of art criticism I have ever come across. Over the piano was printed a notice – 'Please do not shoot the pianist. He is doing his best.'" Several other notable figures visited the Tabor Opera House, including boxer
Jack Dempsey. The Leadville Race Series has become a popular endurance race series, attracting hundreds of athletes to Leadville each year. Leadville is often used as a base for
altitude training and hosts a number of other events for
runners and
mountain bicyclists. ==Geography==