The store at the left is labeled C. E. Blackburn, General
Merchandise. Blackburn was in business there during 1902 and ’03. In
1904 he was also postmaster. Previously the same building had held
the bank. The large building in the center of the photograph (with
two windows facing this way) was the Larson Hotel. The three-roofed
building was the courthouse. It obscures the jail which stood behind
it in 1898, in a direct line with Hahns Peak. On a night that was
twenty-eight degrees below zero, Lant and Tracy, outlaws and
escapees from the Utah penitentiary, beat and bound the sheriff and
left him senseless in the jail. They crossed the street to the
livery stable and stole the tired stage team. Courageously captured
a second time by the same sheriff, the outlaws escaped again and
left Colorado. Details of their story make a thriller. The upper
photo was taken by a panoramic camera and makes the main street
appear much wider than it really is. It also diminishes the height
of Hahns Peak in the background. A number of buildings are identical
but appear different because of the two types of cameras. Poverty
Bar, the placer and flat which was worked with hydraulic hoses and
yielded close to a half million dollars, is off to the left behind
the Blackburn Store in the upper photo and the school house in the
lower. Herman Mahler, Hahns Peak’s oldest resident, worked the
placer around 1913. In 1960 he was still faithful to the town for
five months of the year. Hahns Peak is completely deserted through
the long harsh winter months.
[Illustration: D.K.P., 1960]
_From Glenwood Springs_
[Illustration]
Fulford was originally two towns, Camp Nolan and Polar City. They date
from the spring of 1887 when prospecting began up East Brush Creek from
Eagle. In June of that year William Nolan accidentally shot himself, but
his friends continued to call the camp after him because he had been the
original leader. It was located on a small slope beside White Quail
Creek before it joins Nolan Creek. As rich mines were opened up on New
York Mountain, some bearing free gold, Camp Nolan grew until there was
no more room.
Newcomers settled farther down in a meadow through which Nolan Creek
runs and called the new settlement, Polar City. This name commemorated
one of the richest mines on New York Mountain, the Polar Star. Other
good producers were the Iron Age, Richmond, and Cave.
Both towns grew side by side until New Year’s Eve of 1891. At that time
it was the custom of all miners “to take to the hills” on the last day
of the year, and 1891 was no exception. Any tenderfoot would immediately
ask, “Why?”
The answer lay in the mining laws which stated that any claim, not
proved up on by midnight of the fiscal year, was open for relocation.
Anyone intrepid enough to get there and drive new stakes could own the
property. Miners would eye a good claim enviously and keep tabs to see
if the owner was doing the required amount of work. If he was not, woe
to him! A new claimant would be driving stakes on his mine while he
toasted in the New Year at some saloon.
In 1891 Arthur H. Fulford was a popular resident of Eagle, well-known
there and in Denver. He had mining interests throughout the county and
knew of a good property across New York Mountain and down Bowman Gulch
that would be open for re-staking. Accordingly he made an engagement to
meet a friend in Camp Nolan the last day of the year so that they could
make the difficult hike together.
[Illustration: W. Mackey, 1902; Harriette Daggett Collection]