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INTRODUCTION
<br />pledged for a down payment on seven and one-half mining claims in
<br />the Aspen area, a one-half interest in the Steele, and full
<br />interest in the One-Thousand-and-One, Hoskins, Monarch, Tron, Mose,
<br />Durant, and Smuggler claims. Hyman never contemplated
<br />participation in Hallam's Colorado adventures beyond his $5,000
<br />"grubstake." Drafted fora payment of $160,000 due in June that
<br />year Hyman became a major player in the development of Aspen in a
<br />way he never intended. Hyman, who would eventually move to Denver
<br />but was never a citizen of Aspen, first arrived in the fledgling
<br />camp to examine his claims in July 1880.
<br />During the spring and summer of 1880, the trickle of
<br />prospectors, miners, entrepeneurs, and others arriving in the new
<br />community of Aspen to seek their fortune became a flood. Among
<br />those who arrived that first summer of the town's existence were H.
<br />P. Cowenhoven, a merchant from Black Hawk, Colorado, who reached
<br />Aspen July 21, 1880 with two wagon-loads of goods (a prodigious
<br />feat in its own right), his wife Margaret, his daughter Katherine,
<br />and his young clerk, David R. C. Brown, who would marry Katherine,
<br />and with his in-laws became another pillar of Aspen's early
<br />development. With of course several exceptions, the most notable
<br />being Jerome B. Wheeler, the "movers and shapers" of early Aspen -
<br />B. Clark Wheeler, Henry Gillespie, Charles Hallam, David Hyman, H.
<br />P. Cowenhoven, and D. R. C. Brown - were now in place.
<br />From that first summer through mid-1884 growth of the camp
<br />could best be described as sporadic, responding to inflated claims
<br />of bonanza strikes with sudden influxes of eager fortune-seekers
<br />and the reality of a mining camp with, so far at least, only
<br />tantalizing traces of high-grade ore, producing an almost-equalling
<br />exodus. The low-grade ores which Aspen had in abundance required
<br />a smelter or a railroad to one. The fledgling camp had neither so
<br />quick riches were hard to come by.
<br />In July 1884 Aspen's first (and only major) smelter, started
<br />by a group of Texas investors in 1882 but purchased and finally
<br />completed by eastern financier Jerome B. Wheeler, was "blown in."
<br />The smelter was located on the west side of town, immediately east
<br />of Castle Creek (it would be joined in 1891 by the Holden
<br />Lixiviation Works, across Castle Creek from the smelter and a much
<br />larger facility). Mining, as opposed to prospecting and "high-
<br />grading" for promotional purposes, began in earnest, albeit still
<br />on a small scale. The smelter had a capacity of thirty tons of ore
<br />a day. it reduced this material to a concentrate worth $600/ton,
<br />which was then carried by mule train to the railhead at Granite
<br />(between Leadville and Buena Vista) and from there to a refining
<br />company in Pennsylvania. By the fall of 1884, Aspen had a
<br />population of 2,500, and silver bullion production for the year
<br />exceeded $1 million in value even though silver prices had declined
<br />to around $1.10/ounce. Finally, Aspen had made the transition from
<br />camp to boom town.
<br />Bruce A. CO11inS - X1V - SMUGGLER BIBLIOGRAPHY
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