Rush To The Rockies! The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush

Rush To The Rockies! is the latest in the Regional History Book Series by the Pikes Peak Library District.  In 2009, I presented my paper, "The Cash Creek Miners and the Lake County War," at the Regional History Symposium sponsored by PPLD and the paper is included in the book. Last week, I was honored to be a part of the booksigning at the book release event at the Penrose Library.

Elizabeth and Wilburn Christison

It is exciting to see my great-great-grandfather's story and that of the Cash Creek miners in print. These men were Colorado pioneers whose lives tell the story of Colorado's earliest days.

The connections I find in research fascinate me. I knew Wilburn was involved in the Lake County War, which ended with the murder of Judge Elias Dyer (the son of itinerant Methodist preacher, Father Dyer) in his own courtroom. However, I didn't know he had more than a passing acquaintance with Father Dyer until I found the incorporation papers for the Pioneer Lode Prospecting Company. That is when I learned Wilburn and Father Dyer had been partners in a mining company at Cash Creek. And, as I looked at the names, I realized several of the other partners were also involved in the Lake County War.

Booksigning at the Penrose Library October 24, 2013

Rush to the Rockies! is filled with stories of the gold rush and early Colorado history making it a great addition to any Colorado history buff's bookshelf.

Thank you to Tim Blevins, Special Collections Manager of PPLD and to his incredible staff for publishing a top-notch book.

 I'd also like to thank my friends, Terry and Terry Courtright, who created the map at the beginning of my chapter.

 
Rush To The Rockies: The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush is for sale for $24.95 at the Penrose Library and through Clausen Books (it isn't on the website yet, but may be ordered by phone). It is also available as an e-book for $5.99 at Smashwords.

The Death of Judge Christison

Death of Judge Christison
He Succombs to Pneumonia on Monday Night
Sketch of a Notable Life
(Fairplay Flume February 9, 1882)

Judge Wilburn Christison passed from life into the unknown, about midnight on Monday, the 7th, and in his death the community mourns a pioneer in Colorado, a fearless advocate of justice and one who has, during a large portion of his life, been a faithful servant of the people. Whatever were his faults, his virtues so predominated that we have only good to write of him at this hour.

The Judge’s life was an eventful one, though he was but fifty-five at this time. It has been the pleasure of the writer to sit for hours at the time and listen to him discoursing on the many stirring events that marked the early history of the State, the transition period, when these western wilds were passing from a perfect wilderness to a state of semi-civilization. Those were the “times that tried men’s souls”, and brought out the mettle of the frontiersmen. The Judge was never boastful of the part he performed in working out these changes, but he always was interesting, and often eloquent in his description of scenes of danger and trial with which he had evidently been most intimate.

He was born in Jackson Co., Missouri, April 14, 1827 and Jackson Co. was then on the far frontier. Doubtless, his early education imbued him with a love of adventure, which could only be satisfied by following the Star of the Empire westward, or rather keeping the lead in the march, for we find that in 1856 he moved to Kansas. The history of that state, from that time till 1861, is too well known to need much mention. It was chaos struggling to find order and law warring against border ruffianism. By '60 the peace loving element had gained the ascendancy and Colorado was then causing a furore, on account of the gold discoveries. With a family of young children, the Judge and his faithful helpmate again joined the march, and 1861 found them located on Cash (also Cache) Creek, near the Arkansas, a then wild region, frequented more by Indians than any other people. The Judge practiced law, when there was opportunity, at Granite, the county seat of Lake County, mined, and opened a trading post with the Indians. His manner inspired confidence among the simple inhabitants of neighboring fastnesses, and he soon reckoned among his fast friends, old Colorow, Saguache, and other noted chiefs and braves. He served as County Judge of Lake County for one term and was re-elected, but resigned shortly after, having decided to remove to Fairplay in 1873. The same fall he was elected County Judge of Park County and served the people faithfully in that office for two terms. His mind was singularly bright and his judgment clear, during these years and he established a wide reputation for judicial acumen.

It was during these years that the Judge was connected with the exciting contest between two elements struggling for the supremacy in Lake County. He defended Elijah Gibbs, and secured his acquittal on a charge of murder, though Gibbs was know to have shot at least three men. Briefly summarized the facts were as follows: One night George Harrington, a storekeeper on Gas Creek, found that his house was on fire, and going out to quench it he was shot by some hid in the brush. There had been trouble between the two, and the neighbors were not slow to accuse Gibbs of the murder. A party started to lynch him, but he got wind of their coming and barricading his cabin, stood a siege in which he killed three of the vigilantes and wounded a fourth. The next day he gave himself up and was tried and, Judge Christison appearing for him, was acquitted. He left at once for Texas. Out of this affair grew a terribly bitter feud. The vigilantes were constantly warring upon all who had been Gibbs’ friends. Some terrible depredations were committed, and Judge Elias Dyer, who was then acting as District Judge, was shot dead in his chair in the court room at Granite, on account of an attempt of the court to punish this lawlessness. Incidently, it may be mentioned that all the leaders of this lawless element have since come to an evil end, as if an avenger were following them. William Nolan became crazy, Anderson Gerry drowned himself in a fit of desperation, James Moore was killed in a row at Trinidad, James Deeming went crazy and the frightful death of Charles Nichtrieb last fall is still fresh in the minds of our reader. All of these names will be familiar to those who know Judge Christison in pioneer days, and will serve to recall a thousand and one instance in which the deceased was an able and eloquent advocate of the right.

Judge Christison leaves a wife and eight children to mourn his untimely death. He leaves also a large circle of friends who will sympathize sincerely and deeply with them. The funeral service was performed at the house yesterday afternoon by Rev. H.J. Huston, in the presence of a large number of citizens. The members of Doric Lodge, A.F. & A.M. were present in a body to do the last service for a departed brother.

My Cache Creek Gold Panning Experience

Gayle Gresham and Shirley Weilnau

After my first visit to Cache Creek in 2006, I began to dream about panning for gold in the same creek as my great-great-grandfather did in 1861. My dream came true this week after I discovered Shirley Weilnau's website, Hooked On Gold, while searching for Cache Creek info online. Shirley had her Twitter updates on her blog and, of course, I had to follow her. We began chatting and I told her of my desire to pan for gold at Cache Creek. Her reply, "Well, we'll be there tomorrow. Come on up!" Tomorrow didn't work for me, but Friday, September 11 did!

Shirley and her husband, Larry, welcomed John and I to the Cache Creek recreational mining area. They took us on a hike to show us some interesting sites, then it was time to get down to the nitty gritty. See my post "Gayle's Panning For Gold Video" to see how I learned to wash out the gravel. My wonderful husband took the pictures and video.

Once I'd washed the sand, gravel and rocks out of my pan, Shirley taught me how to separate the gold from the black sand. I tapped the top of the pan to "walk" the gold up to the top. I swirled the water in the pan a little to fan out the black sand. Then I began to swish water up and down to draw the black sand away from the gold. In the following picture (click it to enlarge it) you can see the black sand near the top of the pan. Just above it are three tiny particles of gold. Do you see them? My very first gold!

My first gold!

I washed about 6 pans of gold. There was gold in every pan but one. Shirley and Larry were so patient with teaching me how to pan. I learned to always keep the dirt covered with water as I pan, even when fanning the black dirt. And, Shirley told me that for a beginner I have a pretty good swish technique for washing away the black sand from the gold. Must be in my genes.
One pleasant surprise was a group of homeschoolers who were visiting that day to pan for gold. I asked if they'd like to hear Wilburn Christison's story and they graciously agreed. I love telling the story of the Cash Creek Miners to children. They especially like the part about Wilburn's children being the only white children in the camp and that they played with the Ute children when they passed through.

Gayle, Shirley and Larry

Now I am hooked on panning for gold. Ready to go buy a gold pan and a shovel! I knew any prospecting would be dangerous for me; after all, my great-great-grandfather, my great-grandfather, and my grandfather were all miners! And even though I didn't learn to pan for gold from my grandfather, I did learn from two former Colorado state champion gold panners. Thank you, Shirley and Larry, for making a dream come true.

Gayle's Gold Panning Video

This video was taken near the end of the day when I was getting better at working my pan. You experts out there will know I'm still not getting enough water in my pan, but hey, it's better than how I started out!

After Larry Weilnau shoveled out dirt from a spot away from the creek into a five-gallon bucket, he carried it to the creek. He also dug out two holes in the creek so we would have enough water for panning. The creek is low this time of the year, but Cache Creek has always had a problem with enough water flow. I put some dirt in the pan and began washing it.

In the video, you can see two different motions. With the first motion I vigorously agitate the pan side to side and slightly swirl it. This lets the heavier particles of gold settle to the bottom. Gold panning works because gold is 19 times heavier than water and will fall to the bottom of the pan. Next I swish the pan forward, washing out the lighter sand and rocks while the creases or "riffles" in the pan hold the heavier gold. I repeat this over and over until the pan of dirt decreases to a small amount of black sand.

More about the rest of the process in the next post...

The Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium

I will be presenting a paper at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium in Colorado Springs on Saturday June 6. It is sponsored by the Pikes Peak Library District. The theme of the symposium is "Rush To The Rockies: The 1859 Pikes Peak or Bust Gold Rush."

My paper is "The Cash Creek Miners" and it is about the early days of the mining camp where my great-great-grandparents, Wilburn and Elizabeth Christison, first settled. I will share some fun newspaper articles and advertisements, talk about the mining camp, and give details about the ten partners of one mining company who were later involved in or directly affected by the Lake County War, including Wilburn Christison and Father Dyer.

The Pikes Peak History Symposium will be held at the East Library in Colorado Springs at 5550 N. Union Blvd. If you plan to attend the symposium, you need to register at the PPLD website.

Verify Research Sources

Last year, I found an 1859 Post Office Directory at the Making of America website sponsored by the University of Michigan. Making of America has an incredible collection of scanned and searchable books. In the 1859 directory, I found the Cash Creek post office listed. This fascinated me because the histories I've read about Cash Creek indicate the mining camp started in 1860.

Well, I used the 1859 date in my proposal for the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium. I thought I'd better check it again and kept looking in Google Books for the directory and it didn't show up. This morning I remembered it might have been in Making of America and, sure enough, there was the directory with Cash Creek listed. Looking closer at the entry I saw "Cash Creek, Lake, Colo." This time, the Lake County and Colorado caught my eye. Colorado was a part of Kansas Territory in 1859. I went to the title page and found that the Post Office Directory was published in 1870. Ugh.

I'm planning a trip to the Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the National Archives. They have the microfilm of the reports of site locations for post offices. There is no guarantee that the papers for the Cash Creek post office are included (some early post offices aren't), but it is the next step for my research.

Research Tip of the Day: When searching on-line books, always look at the title page for source information and PRINT it!

Cache Creek or Cash Creek?

Today prospectors go to Cache Creek to pan for gold. But in the 1860's, the prospectors headed to the mining camp of Cash Creek. The creek was named Cache Creek after a couple of prospectors cached their supplies in the area, but the mining camp was established as "Cash Creek" when the post office opened in 1859. This makes Cash Creek one of the earliest mining camps in Colorado. When mining companies formed in the early 1860's, they listed their headquarters as Cash Creek.

Cash Creek boomed in 1860. Horace Tabor stopped for three weeks to wash gold at Cash Creek before moving up to California Gulch. It quickly became evident that the creek didn't carry enough water for large scale mining. In 1861, efforts began to build the Cash Creek Ditch to supply water for mining. By 1864, most of the individual mining claims had been bought up by several mining companies. The Gaff and Bailey Mining Company, managed by Joseph Hutchinson, was the largest company and soon bought all of the claims.

1862 Cache Creek

I found a couple of letters in the Rocky Mountain News that describe the mining at Cache Creek or "Cash Creek" in 1862. The writer claims it is one of the best mining regions in the country. He says he saw a nugget taken from the area that weighs "27 dollars." And "the gold is very coarse, the mines easily worked and pay certain. You can depend on the truth of these statements; they are not exaggerated."

What is so great about finding these letters (besides the great descriptions) is that the writer became a partner in a mining company with Wilburn Christison and others a couple of years later.

Cache Creek

Granite Cemetery with white crosses. Cache Creek in the background.

Cache Creek facing east towards Granite.

Gayle with Cache Creek in the background.

While in Granite on December 14, Deb and I stopped in at the Granite Peddler and asked how to get to Cache Creek. This is the mining camp where Wilburn and Elizabeth Christison first settled in Colorado in 1861. The man in the store told us to take Lost Canyon road behind the store. Now, I had seen the road and had no intention of driving up the one-lane road winding around the side of the mountain. When I was a child, my Dad liked to go 4-wheeling in his Scout. One of my memories includes me screaming in the back seat for my Dad to let me out. I never liked the feeling of the Scout tilting sideways with a drop-off down the mountain. But Deb said we should go and if I wouldn’t drive, she would. Reluctantly, I turned the truck up the road and held onto the steering wheel for dear life. Thankfully, the road never tilted and before long we were at the top looking at a sign that read “Granite Cemetery.” Cache Creek lay below us.

With the frigid wind howling from the north and patches of snow around us, we walked through the cemetery. I believe one of Wilburn and Elizabeth’s sons is buried there. 10-year-old Boone Christison died August 13, 1864 at “Cash Creek.” As many as 70 graves are unmarked in the cemetery and there are no written records. Deb and I walked down the trail towards the creek, watching for signs of where cabins stood. Reaching the creek, I stood speechless picturing Wilburn standing in the creek, leaning over a gold pan as he swirled the water and sand watching for small nuggets. I turned and pictured the cabin where Elizabeth cared for their six children. What was it like for Elizabeth to be the only woman in the mining camp? I smiled as I pictured the children running and playing with the Ute Indian children, as Ernest had related to his granddaughter.

After an hour of wandering around, Deb and I hiked back up the mountain to the truck. The euphoria I felt lasted as I drove down the valley. It was amazing to walk along the creek, see the frozen water, and feel the same icy cold wind Wilburn and his family felt when they lived there. Later, I got out of my truck at Salida and looked down to see the brown dirt that fell from my shoes. I caught a glimpse of sparkling specks in it and realized I was walking around with Cache Creek gold dust on my shoes. Perfect for the granddaughter of three generations of gold miners.

For more on the history of Cache Creek click here

Arkansas River and Family Roots

In the summer of 2004, I drove our pickup truck west, pulling my family’s 4-wheelers and motorcycles. Winding alongside the Arkansas River on US Highway 50 on the way to Salida, I reveled in the gravitational pull as I swung into the curves and marveled at the ascetic beauty of the harsh canyons and the white-water of the river. The deep canyons and river-winding curves brought to mind childhood memories of riding in the back seat of an International Scout that overflowed with sleeping bags, tents, water jugs, my Mom and Dad, my brother Brian, and Smokey, our black Labrador. Just as it did in my childhood, anticipation filled me to the point of bubbling over because the Arkansas River signaled the beginning of a family camping trip at Spring Creek.

The Arkansas also represents the connection to my family roots. The memories of camping with my family were just the beginning. I recalled Grandpa’s stories of growing up in tiny mining towns in the region and in Canon City. His father, Lewis, worked in the mines when the glory days of the mining era were a faded memory. I thought about Lewis’ older brother, Ernest, the cattle rustler who had a ranch north of Howard, and wondered how he ever herded cattle through this harsh territory. And I thought about my great-great-grandparents, Wilburn and Elizabeth Christison, who traveled from Kansas in a covered wagon pulled by oxen in 1861, settling first near the headwaters of the Arkansas River at Cache Creek. They raised nine children in the upper Arkansas Valley and South Park while Wilburn endeavored to bring truth and justice to a lawless land.

Although I’ve never lived in the area, I always feel an uncanny sense of coming home. Maybe it is the camping trips and memories of Grandpa cooking pancakes on the griddle over the campfire. Maybe it is walking down a road leading to a mine knowing my great-grandfather tread those same rocks or climbing the stairs of the Fairplay courthouse where Wilburn practiced law and served as a county judge.

While camping at Spring Creek with my husband John and our children Kate and Kenny, I thought about Wilburn and Elizabeth. What were their hopes and dreams? What heartaches made their journey in life more difficult? What drove them to move to the wilds of Colorado just as it became a territory? I wanted to know more about my people. And I wanted to share my people with my family so they could have a glimpse into the past; a glimpse into the lives of ancestors that intertwined with the history of Colorado.

And so, I renewed my journey in researching and writing the family history. Over the past two years I have driven to Canon City, Howard, Salida, Buena Vista, Cache Creek, Granite, Leadville, Fairplay and La Veta and I’ve spent countless hours in libraries, museums and courthouses. What an adventure! I’ve discovered amazing things about my family, their neighbors and the region they lived in. Join me as I share more about my adventures and discoveries in Colorado history!