Colorado -- Early Cache Creek Black & White Photos...

Hey Gold Adventurers...

Here's a few old time black and white photos of the early mining operations at Cache Creek, Colorado.  Pretty rare to find any photos from this era at Cache Creek...

A group of miners at Cache Creek:



Early hydraulic mining with monitors, probably about 1884 to 1889. Note the sluice box in the bottom of the valley:



Sediment dams on Cache Creek close to the Arkansas River:



The town of Granite, Colorado. Note the sediment from Cache Creek flowing into the Arkansas River and the flume/sluice box too:



Yep, lots and lots of hard work by those guys with little more than picks, shovels, hand tools and water............water............running in ditches or sprayed on the hillsides to wash the ground and dissolve the glacial clays and free up that gold!

They moved a LOT of material.............and washed away about 1/3rd of the entire valley before getting shutdown in 1912 for silting out the river and downstream users...

Randy  C-17A    

Thanks for posting this Randy! It makes a person think of how good we have it today!

Russ,

Well...............the prints came in today from the Denver Public Library.............and I couldn't be happier! The glossy paper and reproduction quality is superb.

I can read several pencil annotations on the front of the pics...

The one with the monitor says, "Hydro Mining" on it...

The one with the miners & building says, "1890" and some faint writing I haven't figured out yet.

The one with the sediment dams says, "As goes into the Arkansas River".

They are stamped with a border embossment of "Erdlen" and "Salida, Colo."

All VERY cool... I'll get them framed up real soon.

Randy C-17A