The Clear Creek district of Chaffee County had seven mining camps
rivaling each other in 1881. Only two survived, Vicksburg and
Winfield. Today both have been changed into summer resorts where
fishing is the principal sport and main attraction.
_From Gunnison_
[Illustration]
Tin Cup was “a wild ’un.” Probably Creede, Leadville and Tin Cup
attained the worst reputations (and rightfully) of Colorado’s many
mining camps. Tin Cup was particularly hard on marshals. The first two
officeholders were weak and completely under control of the vice element
who ran the gambling dens, sporting houses and saloons full tilt. The
marshals’ orders were to give an appearance of law and order so as to
make it easier to fleece the suckers.
Finally conditions grew so bad that a sincere attempt was made to
straighten up the corruption. The first strong marshal, Harry Rivers,
was shot in a gun battle. His successors were shot, resigned, went
insane, or got religion and changed their calling to that of the pulpit.
Their infamous story has been very ably portrayed by Rene Coquoz,
Leadville historian. “Frenchie,” the saloon keeper who shot one of the
marshals, ran a place across from the Town Hall at Washington and Grand
Streets. The saloon still stands.
Tin Cup’s history begins very early in 1861. A prospecting party that
consisted of Jim Taylor and two companions was camped on the Taylor
River. One of the men brought back to camp some promising looking gravel
in a tin cup which suggested the idea of a name for the region. They did
a little placering; but in the next years the Civil War curtailed mining
activities throughout Colorado. Nothing much happened in the region
until the late 1870’s when strikes were made on the Gold Cup, the Tin
Cup, the Anna Dedricka and the Jimmy Mack. Immediately there was a rush
to the area, and in 1879 the town of Virginia City was surveyed and
platted.
[Illustration: Unknown, 1906; D.P.L.]