[Illustration: Robert Symonds, 1954]
Crystal City had its beginnings in 1880 when prospectors, working north
from Gunnison through Gothic and Schofield, drifted down the south fork
of the Crystal River. They found outcroppings of transparent quartz shot
with crystallite and called the river and their little settlement,
Crystal. From that year until 1885, about seven good silver mines were
opened up in the surrounding mountains, notably the Lead King in Lead
King Basin, the Inez, the Harrison Farley, the Catalpa, the Sheep
Mountain tunnel and the Black Queen.
Isolation was Crystal City’s greatest problem. Shipment of ore had to be
by long jack trains along treacherous trails either via Schofield to
Gothic or down the Crystal River to Carbondale. The trails were harassed
by both rock and snowslides, and the miners who wintered there were
completely snowbound. In 1883 a four-mile road was completed from
Schofield. Crystal City’s population mounted to about three hundred that
year and to about four hundred by 1886.
The town had several stores, two newspapers, the _Silver Lance_ and the
_Crystal River Current_, the usual saloons, two hotels, a barber shop,
pool hall and a renowned club—the Crystal Club. It also had a very
unusual mill used at different times in its history by the Black Queen,
the Sheep Mountain tunnel (which was over half a mile long) and the Lead
King. The last time the mill was used was in 1916 when an attempt was
made to re-open the first two mines, but the ore was not rich enough for
consistent profits.
Crystal City’s population fluctuated radically as did that of all mining
camps. After the Silver Panic people moved out until in 1915 there were
only eight residents. The next year the count rose to over seventy-five
because of Black Queen and Sheep Mountain tunnel mining activity. But
when this venture failed, Crystal City died completely.
In 1954 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Neal of Indiana, who were enthralled with
the beauty of Crystal City’s setting, allied themselves with Mrs. Helen
Collins in a movement to preserve the remaining buildings of Crystal
City. In 1960 the town was a summer resort, accessible by an automobile
road from Carbondale and by a jeep road from Schofield Park and Gunnison
County towns.
Its unusual mill stood, if increasingly dilapidated, the most
picturesque mill in Colorado, and lent delightful Crystal City a unique
charm.
_From Aspen_
[Illustration]
The drive to Lenado (which the natives incorrectly call Lenade-o—see
over for pronunciation) will take you through a colorful red sandstone
area that looks unmineralized. But close to the head and on the south
side of Woody Creek were two rich tunnels—the Aspen Contact mine and the
Leadville. The unusually rich zinc-lead-silver vein from which they stem
was found in the early 1880’s by A. J. Varney who climbed out of Aspen
up Hunter Creek, over Red Mountain and around the lower reaches of Bald
Knob.
Varney formed the Varney Tunnel Company, and a settlement of some three
hundred people grew up below the tunnels. They erected log cabins, some
frame houses, a store, a boardinghouse, two saloons, a sawmill, a mill
for the ore, and a big log barn to shelter the mules used in the mines
and for transporting concentrates to Aspen and on to Leadville. The road
followed the approximate route Varney had taken when he found the
outcropping.
About 1888 the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (which had arrived in
Aspen the year before) graded an eight-mile roadbed up Woody Creek from
the Roaring Fork Valley. But later it was decided shipments of ore from
Lenado would not support a branch line. Lenado continued operating as it
had been until the Panic of ’93 when the sawmill, mill and mines shut
down. Around the turn of the century they were started up again and ran
until 1906.
Then Lenado lapsed to ghost status until 1917 when lead and zinc were
needed during World War I. The Smuggler Leasing Company built a new
boardinghouse, rebuilt some of the old houses and opened the sawmill and
the mines. Trucks were used to transport the ore for milling and
smelting elsewhere.
[Illustration: J. E. Spurr, 1898; U.S.G.S.]