CHAPTER XIV.THE MONARCH CAMP—JEALOUS MINERS WANTED THE NAME CHANGED.
THE MONARCH CAMP—JEALOUS MINERS WANTED THE NAME CHANGED.
FOREST fires started by the Indians, carelessly or out of pure deviltry, had swept the hills to the east of the divide in Chaffee County, and sufficient time had elapsed to allow a pompadour of pine to grow in the crest of the continent, so thick that it was almost impenetrable. In July, 1878, having chopped a trail through this forest, Creede came to the head of the little stream where the prosperous town of Monarch now stands. For thirteen days the prospector was there alone, not a soul nearer than Poncha Springs, fifteen or twenty miles away.
Elk, deer and bear were there in abundance, and the prospector had little difficulty in supplying himself with fresh meat. In fact, the bear were most too convenient,—they insisted upon coming in and dining with the silver-seeker.
Creede located a claim, called it the Monarch, and gave the same name to the camp. Among the first claims located was one called the “Little Charm.” It proved to be a good property—but not till it had passed into other hands. The formation in the Monarch district was limestone, and in limestone the prospector never knows what he has. To-day he may be in pay ore and to-morrow pick it all out. Creede had picked out some promising prospects in the same formation. He had discovered the Madonna, but had more than he could handle. Hetook Smith and Gray up there and told them where to dig; they dug and located the Madonna claim. They kept it and worked the assessments for five years and then sold it to Eylers of Pueblo for sixty thousand dollars.
AMETHYST TRAMWAYAMETHYST TRAMWAY.
AMETHYST TRAMWAY.
AMETHYST TRAMWAY.
The ore is very low grade, but was of great value to these men, who were smelters, for the lead it carried.
By the time the snow began to fall there were a number of prospectors in the new camp, and having tired of the place, which was one of the hardest, roughest regions in the state, Creede sold what claims he had for one thousand seven hundred dollars, but returned every summer for five years, cleaning up in all about three thousand dollars.
In Monarch, as in his last success, there were a number of jealous miners who wanted the name of the camp changed.
They were, or most of them, at least, light-weight politicians, who didn’t care a cent what the town was called so long as they had the honor of naming it, but the name was never changed.