Prospectus for Canton Gold Mining and Milling Co. - Cripple Creek Mining District - Americana

Prospectus booklet for the Canton Gold Mining and Milling Company. Mines in the Cripple Creek District. 14 pages and measures 3 1/2" x 6".

"Part-time cowboy and full-time drinker" Robert Womack found gold float in 1879, which led him to digging countless prospecting holes in an attempt to find its lode, earning him the name "Crazy Bob". His efforts finally paid off in 1890, when he found the El Paso lode. Winfield Scott Stratton discovered what became his Portland Mine at the site of Victor. By 1893, 10,000 miners working the district produced one third of Colorado's gold output. Gold cyanidation was introduced in 1895, and used alongside chlorination in the mills for gold extraction. By 1895, half of Colorado's gold production of 660,000 ounces came from the district. In 1897, half a million Troy ounces of gold was produced, and in 1900, 900,000 troy ounces, two thirds of the US output. By 1920, 41 mines were active, and cumulative gold production was over 500 tons.

Located a few miles southwest of Pike's Peak, the Cripple Creek district wasn't discovered until later in the "rush", which was known as the "Pike's Peak Gold Rush", because Pike's Peak was a landmark visible 100 mi (160 km) out on the plains. The towns of Cripple Creek and Victor were established to serve the mines and miners of the district. Among the principal mines were the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine at Cripple Creek and Stratton's Independence mine, at Victor, Colorado. Gold production up to 1990 was 21,000,000 troy ounces (650 t) worth about US$17 billion at 2008 prices), making it the most productive gold-producing district in Colorado, and the third-most productive in the United States (after Carlin, Nevada and Lead, South Dakota). Many of the mines in the district were quite deep and difficult to drain. The almost five-mile (8.0 km) Roosevelt Tunnel was a mine drainage tunnel dug between 1907 and 1919 below the Cripple Creek area to drain the mines and simplify ore haulage.

The Cripple Creek mining district covers a Miocene volcanic caldera filled with quartz latite porphyry. The ore bodies are veins and replacement zones within the quartz latite. The ore minerals are gold and silver tellurides, with accessory fluorite. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_mining_in_Colorado#Cripple_Creek_district

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