Leadville's 13th Street Drillhole.

[Chris Walker]

Hiding away in the DPL is a mislabled picture  so after several years of research, I present my conclusions, coincidently as it is exactly 40 years(26thSept) that I first visited Leadville.


Have you ever wondered why there were no Mines to the West of the old D&RG Depot?  

Establishing just where I'm be writing about.....

DPL The Leadville mining district map segment.


USGS 1913 Leadville Topo Map segment.

#11, arrowed is the Drillhole, #10 on Hazel St. is the Villa Mine.

An entry in the Herald Democrat of 1903-9-11 first mooted a Drillhole on the Neusitz Placer, for the purposes of establishing whether or not the mineral belt extended that far West.

In the Summer of 1907, actual drilling of a borehole was started ....











Which leads me to the picture, mislabled as "Florence oil feild"
DPL CHS.X8026

"View of an oil derrick, probably owned by the United Oil Company, people, wood frame houses, a hill and an outhouse near Florence (Fremont County), Colorado."

Note the twin D&RG Watertowers in the left rear background,  the Leadville Ice(and Coal Co) at left.
 

and the distinctive valley of the upper Arkansas.  



Conclusively not Florence.

For those of you who read this far, the Western Mining Co controlled the Penrose(Keith's work-in-progress) at one time, that was served by the C&S via switchback.

[Jim Courtney]

Interesting conclusions, Chris. Looks like you've nailed the location of the photograph.

FWIW, the owners of the Gold Pan operation in Breckenridge hired geologists to drill multiple churn holes, in various locations in the Molly Placer, to guess where the Gold Pan Pit should be located, for maximum gold extraction. A portable churn drill was employed:




Unfortunately the Gold Pan Pit failed to be profitable due to an erroneous assumption. The owners assumed that the gold in the gravels of the Blue River drainage was distributed evenly from surface to bedrock. In fact, the gold had settled deep, near bedrock. The dredges, with long bucket arms, ultimately proved to be the solution for gold extraction all along the Blue River valley.

[Matt Hutson]

Since I am in Leadville pretty much every day, I thought I'd stop by and take a look at this location. Here's a pic taken yesterday at the corner of 13th and Harrison. The foreground is quite different, but the mountains in the background line up. No trace of the drill hole:


Cheers,
Matt

[Chris Walker]

Brilliant Matt,  thank you for having a look; streetview coverage is limited to a number of streets not mapped.