“The spring is backward, and the snow is long on leaving the mountains” - J. M. Fox, May 8, 1859, Denver City, Kansas Territory.
The trip from Lawrence, Kansas, to present-day Denver took about 20 days. The unpredictable weather was hard on livestock and many animals were lost along the trail. Handcarts were often the first to leave for the Snowy Range because they did not have to wait for the grass to get green on the prairie to feed the pack animals.
During the spring of 1859, hundreds of people arrived every day to the site of present-day Denver. Just as many returned east after seeing that gold not just lying on the ground and many were left living on “cactus and crow.” These discouraged prospectors often returned without ever having struck a pick to the ground. They became furious and attempted to turn back everyone they met on the trail with tails of starvation, freezing and robbery.
At the time, Auraria and its sister city, Denver City was made up of something like one hundred log cabins that included six stores, one hotel, twelve or fifteen saloons and many small cabins. It was a colorful place as evidenced by some of these descriptions;
“There is more drinking and gambling here in one day than in Kansas City in six - in fact one-half of the population do nothing else but drink whiskey and play cards.” - G. N. Woodward, April 3, 1859.
“Inhabitants are Indians, Mexicans, and white people - about equally divided – all hard cases. Drinking and fighting all the while, someone killed nearly every week - now and then one hung.” - Unsigned letter, April 17, 1859.
Maybe not the drink of choice, but the drink of abundance was Taos Lightning. Taos Lightning was a distilled corn beverage or “cornwhiskey” from New Mexico that “struck hard, fast and often” and it was said that it tasted so bad that anyone who drank more than one tin cup of the stuff never lived long enough to become addicted.
Another beverage that dated back to the early fur trading days was “Indian Whiskey.” It was said a single bottle could be traded for a buffalo robe. It was made with a barrel of creek water, two gallons of the cheapest grain alcohol you could find, two ounces of strychnine for the kick, and three plugs of chewing tobacco for the color, which was added to make the Native Americans sick, because they believed that if the whiskey did not make you throw up, it was no good. This concoction was stirred once a day for a week.
After a thorough prospecting of all the streams emanating from the foothills neighboring Auraria during the spring of 1859, Clear Creek appeared to be the richest. A town of about fifty houses sprang up about four miles from the mountains. It was called Arapahoe. This town was soon abandoned as Golden City was founded a little higher up the stream, adjacent to the mountain front.
The constant influx of pioneers seeking the chance of finding habitable land stunned the Native American residents of the Front Range. William M. Slaughter, who became the mayor of Central City, wrote in his diary: “As I sit, in the early morning, and gaze on the ruins of this savage but once mighty people, their council-fires were smoldering embers, a strange race overwhelming them in countless thousands and pushing them away from the land where lie buried their fathers, I cannot but feel sad on account of their misfortunes; and I think how well it may be that, in ages to come, the proud race which is now occupying their pleasant places shall in like manner be crushed out by a still stronger race.”
References
Fossett, F., 1876, Colorado, Its Gold and Silver Mines, Farms and Stock Ranges and Health and Pleasure Resorts: 1st ed., Crawford, N.Y.
Hollister, O.J., 1867, The Mines of Colorado, Samuel Bowles and Co., Springfield Mass., 45 p.
Thayer, W.M., 1888, Marvels of the New West, Henry Hill publishing Co, Norwich Conn., 715 p.
