{"id":17116,"date":"2016-08-28T04:33:36","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T09:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=17116"},"modified":"2022-05-14T05:26:50","modified_gmt":"2022-05-14T10:26:50","slug":"digging-minerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/digging-minerals\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging for Minerals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A mine is a hole in the ground owned by a liar<\/em> (attributed<\/a> to Mark Twain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began some initial planning for a brief county counting trip to West Virginia that I hope to undertake in a couple of months. Examining potential routes, I noted a county called Mineral that I would hit in some of the likely scenarios. I’d crossed into Mineral before, as recently as last year<\/a>, right across the north branch of the Potomac River from Cumberland, Maryland. But I never really gave it much thought at the time. Now I wondered, how did Mineral gets its name? What mineral came in such abundance to deserve its own county?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also found three more Mineral Counties, a total of four. They all seemed interesting in their own ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colorado<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Creede,<\/a>
Creede, Colorado<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Many minerals came from the mountains surrounding Creede (map<\/a>), the local seat of government in Mineral County, Colorado. Above all, silver put it on the map. Prospectors came to Colorado first for gold beginning in 1859 and then for silver a decade later. Colorado underwent a protracted Silver Boom during the last three decades of the 19th Century. Booms jumped from place to place, the final one happening in Creede in 1890<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The town leapt from a population of 600 in 1889 to more than 10,000 people in December 1891. The Creede mines operated continuously from 1890 until 1985. Creede\u2019s boom lasted until 1893, when the Silver Panic hit all of the silver mining towns in Colorado. The price of silver plummeted and most of the silver mines were closed. Creede never became a ghost town, although the boom was over and its population declined.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Outlaws, crooks and nefarious characters inhabited Creede<\/a>, a typical situation for these rough-and-tumble mining camps on the distant fringe. Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith, the King of the Frontier Con Men<\/a>, lived there during the peak of the boom. He died a few years later at the Shootout on Juneau Wharf<\/a> in Skagway, Alaska.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Ford also lived in Creede. Ford originally belonged to Jessie James’ criminal gang and reputedly killed James to collect a reward in 1882. He died in Creede in 1892, shot in the back by Edward O’Kelley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O’Kelley came to be known as “the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James.” A policeman, Joe Burnett, shot and killed O’Kelley<\/a> in Oklahoma City in 1904. That made Burnett “the man who killed the man who killed the man who killed Jesse James.” The chain stopped there. Burnett died of a stroke in 1917.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Montana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Mineral<\/a>
Mineral County Courthouse in Superior, Montana<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mineral County, Montana felt so superior that it named the county seat Superior (map<\/a>), although it may have actually been named<\/a> for the founder’s hometown in Wisconsin. Gold became Mineral’s original namesake, triggered by a rush<\/a> on nearby Cedar Creek in 1869. However silver also existed in abundance<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The history of Mineral County is steeped in the tales of rich gold and silver mines. From the first mining efforts in the early 1860s to the present day, mining has been important to the people who first settled here and to those who now live in this county. Today, people still actively work mining claims, which are an important part of the county economy and heritage.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, neither gold nor silver made the greatest contribution to the history of Mineral County. That distinction went to sheets of paper in the form of the Bible’s printed word. Gideons International placed its very first Bible<\/a> in the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. A Gideon named Archie Bailey stayed at the hotel regularly and sought permission to place a Bible in each of the hotel’s 25 rooms in 1908. Gideons followed that simple act with another 2 billion Bibles left in hotel rooms around the world for the next century and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nevada<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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