A quaint sight and a complete fulfillment of the old prospector’s
prophecy are these spruce trees growing inside former residences.
[Illustration: D.K.P., 1960]
_From Steamboat Springs_
[Illustration]
Hahns Peak is the lowest in altitude of our selected towns—8,163
feet—and the farthest north—almost to the Wyoming line. It is now solely
a summer resort, but a summer resort fully conscious of its mining
history. Two monuments fill a grassy plot in its main street.
One is a large hose nozzle which bears a plaque commemorating the work
that the “little giant” (as the nozzle was called) did in a former
placer operation. The other reads in part: “This monument is dedicated
in honor of Joseph Hahn and other pioneers of this great basin. In the
summer of 1862, Joseph Hahn, and two unknown companions discovered gold
at the foot of this great peak....” After the Civil War Hahn returned
with two friends who named the peak for Hahn. In the spring of 1867,
while Hahn was returning to Empire for supplies, he died in Middle Park
of exhaustion.
Most of Hahns Peak’s production was placer gold, and close to $1,000,000
was extracted around 1901. Previously in the 1870’s the placers were
worked with almost no profit because of the cost of building three
ditches. There was also a silver-lead mine high on Hahns Peak, the Tom
Thumb.
The most amazing bit of the town’s history occurred in the winter of
1898 when Hahns Peak (then the seat of Routt County) was the scene of a
real “Wild West” TV script. Sheriff Charles Neiman, after a sensational
and tricky chase, succeeded in incarcerating two outlaws, Harry Tracy
and David Lant, in the Hahns Peak jail. By a ruse they escaped, leaving
the sheriff for dead; were recaptured and escaped again. The astounding
story is told with full details by Wilson Rockwell in _Sunset Slope_ and
gives Hahns Peak its unique TV character.
[Illustration: Unknown, 1902; D.P.L.]