City of Gold, South Pass City - Main Street, Wyoming

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- [Announcer] Your support helps us bring you programs you love. Go to wyomingpbs.org, click on support and become a sustaining member or an annual member. It's easy and secure. Thank you. ♪ Narrator: From the very beginning, it was all about the gold... The initial rumors, the early explorations, those first strikes... it was about the gold. Then came the giddy throngs, chasing dreams of instant wealth, followed by those who would ultimately profit by supplying the treasure seekers. Directly or indirectly, it was all about the gold. Tents and slapdash cabins were soon joined by other structures -- hotels and livery stables, breweries and mercantiles, billiard halls and saloons, lots and lots of saloons. From these tenuous beginnings, a city emerged -- a city with a singular purpose, a solitary industry... a City of Gold. ♪ You take your troubles with ya ♪ ♪ But maybe I can feel brand-new again ♪ ♪ Oh...across the line ♪ Reports of gold along the banks of the Upper Sweetwater River emerged as early as the 1840s. Mountainmen talked about finding some gold in the streams, in the Sweetwater and some of its tributaries, going all the way back into the 1830s and '40s. Soldiers posted along the immigrant trail used their leave time to prospect for the Sweetwater Gold, but short tours of duty coupled with long and harsh winters stopped the soldiers from developing the promised riches. The frontier headquarters at Ft. Laramie and Ft. Bridger proved fertile grounds for spreading rumors. Soon, stories of Sweetwater Gold raced to the nation's cities. In the spring of 1867, a party of prospectors followed the Ft. Bridger rumors to the South Pass area. On a ridge above Willow Creek, they found a vein of gold ore. The Coriso Load, later to be called the Carissa, had been discovered. A gold discovery of this size was impossible to keep quiet. The following spring of 1868 brought with it throngs of prospectors and a great gold rush. By 1868, it was definitely in full bloom, lots and lots of people there. 1869, the summer was probably the peak, roughly 2,000 people or so there in South Pass City itself. The initial prospectors and gold seekers of 1868 probably did not come here with their eye on building a log cabin for the first six weeks that they lived here. They were anxious to get out and dig gold while it was still available. Nobody knew for su how long it would last. The type of people who lived in the town were not generally the types of people who were willing to stay. They were not really interested in putting down roots and establishing a community. They were there to make some fast money and leave town. The initial prospectors probably slept in tents out in the open, underneath wagons, a very simple way of keeping themselves dry. They started at the crack of dawn and they worked until dusk at night, and the process of placer mining and gold panning is a lot of work. Placer mining is when you're mining the gold that is accumulated in creek beds that nature has already mined for you and concentrated in gravel deposits. First, starting in the streams and perhaps following a good lead up a stream to where you could see a mountainside washing out, hoping that would be a good place to start a gold mine. At South Pass, they trace the placer deposits up the gulches to find those outcropping of quartz on top of the hills. When a miner made a discovery of a vein cropping out at the surface, he would try and determine its course first, and once he determined what he thought was the course of the vein, then he would put four stakes at each corner of his claim and put a notice up right in the center of the claim advising everybody else that he discovered this and he was claiming it, and then he would go to town and find the, what they called the District Recorder, and enter his claim in a record book. As the early miners reached greater depths, they encountered ore that had not been exposed to erosion and other natural forces. This material required greater effort and technological sophistication to separate valuable metal from the host rock. Gyorvary: After they got more than a few feet deep below the surface weathering, they had to drill holes by hand using short lengths of drill steel and making them longer and longer and pounding them with a sledgehammer by hand until they could drill a series of holes several feet deep in the rock and they would fill those with black powder. And then, you gotta be careful tamping that stuff in the holes, and they would set off those holes in a certain pattern in order to break the rock the most efficiently. As shafts sunk lower and lower into the surrounding terrain, ladders and artificial lighting were installed. Miners also constructed simple hoists to raise buckets of rock for processing. Gyorvary: And so it was a lot of back-breaking labor -- the standard day was 10 or 12 hours a day being down in that hole or being up on top winding up a 500 pound bucket of rock or 100 pound. Mining in the early days was riddled with hazards. Foul air filled the deeper shafts, poisonous gases from spent explosives combined with carbon dioxide from the miners' own labored breathing, falling rock and cave-ins also took their toll and almost all mining operations below 75 feet were complicated by naturally occurring ground water. For the miners, hard rock mining was a hard life. ♪ Social activity in South Pass City started with a bang in the summer of 1868. The town featured saloons, billiard parlors, a bowling alley, and a shooting gallery that catered to the tastes of hard-working miners. Ellis: Believe it or not, the most popular beverage was champagne, they would drink it by the case. Public drunkenness was very much a thing that happened around South Pass City. Possibly they could have been celebrating, and possibly they could have been drowning their sorrows as well. Massie: The saloon that's down by the livery stables, it's one of the oldest ones in South Pass. It was one of 17 saloons in South Pass City in 1868, 1869. It was also on what they called the shady side of town, in that, it was just right outside the red-light district. I guess you could say it was the working man's saloon to the Nth degree, because it was not only the working man's saloon, but also the working lady's saloon. Polly Bartlett is a major story that everybody tells. Polly Bartlett was supposedly a woman who owned a boarding house out on Slaughter House Gulch. Massie: A lady and her brother who ran a roadhouse out by the South Pass Historic Trail, that a lot of the miners went out and visited, and she was a lady of ill repute and also ran a house of ill repute, as well as a very popular bar out there. But some of the folks who went out there never came back, and people started wondering what was happening to them. So they rode out there and found these missing men buried in the corral with the horses stomping down the graves, and then dug these guys up and found out that they had been murdered. They were running a scheme out there where she would entice the men into the bedroom and he would come in and kill them and they would rob them. So they brought her into town and tied her up in the front where the schoolhouse was and the brother eventually rode by, saw her tied up just inside the window and he was on a horse and emptied his shotgun into her, killing her on the spot. Unfortunately, the time period that she was supposedly here, there isn't any references to the Bartletts on any of the census records or anything like that, but it is a great story and it kind of adds flavor to the South Pass mythology. The vast majority of businesses were devoted to feeding and equipping the area's gold seekers. In reality, most people said that those who got rich were the merchants and those who served the miners, rather than the miners themselves. The primary hotel is now called the Sherlock Hotel. When it was first built, it was called various names depending upon who the owner was at that particular time, but it was one of the first ones built and it was clearly there in an 1868 photograph of the town, and the Sherlock Hotel, very early in its existence, fell into the ownership of a woman who'd become one of the most important first settlers and then residents of South Pass City. My great-grandmother and great-grandfather came into South Pass in 1868. She came from Scotland, he came from England, and they were Mormon converts, so of course the Mormons helped them get over here. They came by wagon train out to Salt Lake City. They lived there for several years, and then they were thinking about going to California for the gold rush. Then they heard about South Pass. She came in the first boom and she came with her first husband, and Mr. Sherlock eventually died about four years into their stay. At that point in time, she found herself with several kids and she needed to make a living. She got the lease and contract on the South Pass City Hotel, and opened it up for business. She bought that hotel and a boarding room that was attached to it and she cooked for the miners up at the mine. They'd come down and have their dinner at the hotel, at the boarding house down there, and a lot of them stayed in the hotel. She bought that in 1872, and that was a respectable job for a woman in that time. The family lived downstairs in their private quarters. The children were all expected to work... emptying chamber pots, carrying water, chopping wood, whatever was needed to run the family business. The guestrooms were upstairs -- only one, the honeymoon suite, had a stove for warmth. The rest relied on an opening above the door to let in heat. Janet soon remarried local business owner James Smith. Lane: She eventually opened the Smith-Sherlock Store, which was the major mercantile. The Sherlock Store here on South Pass City Main Street, they were making money like you wouldn't believe. They were supplying food and equipment and fuels to the mine. We have evidence of timber contracts, timber cutters going into the mountains, cutting cords and cords of wood to fuel the boilers up there. They were certainly making money. In addition to the gold and commerce, South Pass City was becoming an important population center in a region with an emerging identity. The Wyoming Territory was created in 1868 for two reasons: and we often hear and most people understand, it was because of the Union Pacific Railroad building across the southern part of the territory, but it was also because of the South Pass area gold mine. South Pass City was just as important as Cheyenne, and Laramie, and Green River, and some of the Union Pacific towns at that time. Those were the two center of populations in Wyoming Territory that eventually convinced the Dakota Territory to give up its claims to the western part of its area, and for Congress to create the Wyoming Territory. South Pass City was at the center of at least one additional historic episode in the newly created Wyoming Territory. And of course South Pass City was key to the creation of Women's Suffrage. William Bright, saloon owner, former Justice of the Peace and a well-respected individual who had a wife who was a Suffragette and went to Cheyenne from South Pass City as part of the first territorial legislature and towards the end of that first territorial legislative session, he used his position to introduce a Women's Suffrage Bill. The Democrats passed the first Women's Suffrage Bill and the Republican Governor signed it, which surprised a lot of the Democrats! So in any event, Wyoming, the Territory became the first Territory or state in the country to allow women the right to vote. What was very important about the act was that it was more than simply voting; it was the ability to serve on juries, the ability to hold political office, the ability to have all the political rights that any other male citizen of the Territory and of the country would have. And so, fully 50 years before the national Suffrage Amendment goes into the U.S. Constitution, and Wyoming women are voting, serving on juries, they're owning property, they're involved in all kinds of manner of political office. And then a few months after that, a local woman in South Pass City -- Esther Morris -- decided to apply to become the Justice of the Peace. The County Commissioners voted two-to-one to accept her application. She served as Justice of the Peace in South Pass City for nine months, which made her the first woman judge, or Justice of the Peace, anywhere in the country. She deserves a great deal of credit for serving in that capacity because she was a legitimate pioneer. There was no woman anywhere that had ever served in that capacity before and a lot of lawyers and a lot of people who worked in the law, to say nothing of lay people, said well women just don't have the temperament to serve as a judge, so she had a very formidable task ahead of her to demonstrate that indeed she could show that women had the judicial temperament to serve as a judge and to set the standard for the ability for women later to serve in that role. South Pass City's boosters soon were outnumbered by those who called the area a humbug. By the end of 1869, the bust was already setting in. People realized they weren't going to strike it rich quickly there. The vein gold had resulted in a few people striking it rich quickly, but they also realized that the geology of that area meant that the gold was in pockets, so you would find a pocket, thought you had struck it rich, but then it would quickly run out. The bust in the mining industry and the loss of all but a few diehard residents sent the town into a prolonged slump. South Pass City still served as a hub for commerce, transport, and social activity, but was greatly diminished in status. So by 1870, people started filtering out of the area. The bust had set in definitely by the end of 1870, and by 1871 or '72, the camps were shadows of their former selves. The remaining residents subsisted by living off the land. They continued mining and timber cutting and also began ranching and hay cutting. The hangers on included the recently widowed Janet Sherlock and her five children. My great-grandmother finally got into the saloon business, I mean, she was so against drinking and everything, but she had to make a living for all these kids, because her second husband died fairly soon, too, and then she was, you know, there by herself. Persistent local enthusiasm was rewarded in the late 1890s when the Carissa experienced a revival under Chicago businessman John C. Spry. Spry's local manager Barney Tibbles was a veteran of prior western mining booms before he reached South Pass City. The energy of Tibbles combined with the pocketbook of Spry proved a potent remedy for a languishing South Pass City. The Carissa boomed from about 1898 to 1905, more than 2,000 ounces of gold were extracted -- worth nearly two million in today's dollars. Unfortunately, Tibbles and Spry often worked at cross-purposes. Tibbles wanted to chase the Carissa's high-grade chutes by stoping or removing valuable ore. That's where the money is made, is by stoping that ore and milling it, and Spry didn't want to stope out his ore and just leave a bunch of holes underground, where he didn't have anything to show anybody, so he was developing ore with an idea towards getting an investor in there. Unsuccessful in attracting a suitable buyer, Spry shut down the Carissa in 1905. The largest building boom in South Pass City since the gold rush had come to its end. Many of the buildings that are standing there now and that have been reconstructed are the legacy of two or three different gold mining booms. Some were built in the 1890s, some built in the early part of the 20th century, so the town that folks see is not a town that is strictly from 1867 to 1870. ♪ ♪ ♪ The 1910s and '20s proved difficult for sustaining hope in the renewal of good times at South Pass City. Community cornerstone, Janet Sherlock-Smith, who had moved to South Pass City during the gold rush and outlived two husbands, died in 1923. She just was so industrious, and that was one of her things was nobody can hold you back, you know, if you keep on going, and she taught her kids that, you know? Yeah, she was the business, she didn't have too much luck with husbands, but she had a pretty good business head. Peter Sherlock, Janet's eldest son by her first marriage, took over the helm of the family's operations. Although blinded in a mining accident, Peter's intelligence and work ethic helped him manage the family's diverse business concerns. He had gone to Creighton College and I have some of his reports of his schooling, he was a brilliant man and he was getting ready to go into law when he was home for the summer and he was blinded in an accident. He had a cane and he walked from the store to the hotel, and if the weather was bad, which it was a lot of the time, they strung a rope from the store over to the hotel and then he'd just walk along that rope. His business decisions that he made that were good. In any event, he called the shots, and he was a good livestock manager. Although the Carissa remained closed to mining, John Spry still tried to attract buyers. Mining engineer Harry Currin worked for Spry, inspecting and sampling the ores of the Carissa. He produced detailed maps and assay records, which proved irresistible to potential buyers. In the 1920s, the economy was roaring and Americans searched far and wide for new financial opportunities. Such was the case for a group of Washington State investors who formed Midwest Mines Corporation and took over the Carissa. Hopes were high their investment would pan out. They borrowed money and built a new head frame and trestle. An unused millhouse was transported piece-by-piece from nearby Atlantic City, and reassembled on-site to become the Carissa Mill seen today. With all these improvements, the future was looking bright, but fatefully, the year was 1929. That October, the Stock Market crashed and the subsequent Great Depression created panic among the Carissa's many creditors, they demanded payment. The newly minted venture was forced to abandon operations just a year later. Once again, the Carissa Mine and Mill closed. World War II followed rapidly on the heels of the Great Depression and the area remained quiet. That all changed in 1946 when Mica Mountain Mines Corporation refurbished the Carissa. South Pass City enjoyed yet another increase in population and economic and social activity. Shorty Nickels bought that Carissa Saloon. My dad went over there and got in the habit of going over there maybe once a week and have a beer or even two beers. The post-war boom ended in 1949. Consistent pay rock eluded miners once again and Mica Mountain Mines shut down. Gold production resumed only briefly in 1953, marking the end of the mine's bullion production. Bypassed by a new highway and without an economic engine to drive the local economy, South Pass City finally lost its most devoted citizens. Having held onto their hopes and their business interests in the town since the gold rush of 1868, the Sherlocks finally relinquished their family store in 1949. In 1947, they opened a new highway that misses South Pass, because in 1946, the only road from Farson to Lander was right to South Pass, it was a gravel road. We didn't sell much gas anymore. We didn't sell much groceries anymore. There were only two kids left, me and my older brother, and so the state said no, we're not going to support a school. So that kind of made my folks decide it was time to get out of town. I stayed up there until I was almost eight years old, and then we sold out and moved down the hill, and boy, it just broke our hearts. We just never thought we'd get along with all this city living. Up there, we knew everybody; down here, man, there's strangers all over the street. ♪ From such a promising beginning, South Pass City became one of the first boom and bust stories in a state destined to repeat that pattern time and time again. Because it was so focused on a single industry, when the mines played out, the City of Gold proved to be no more than a flash in the pan. Roberts: Here is a town with great potential and great hope and they're going into the mining business full throttle and things don't work out and everybody leaves and people get disappointed and close up their shop. If South Pass had only thought about another industry, perhaps South Pass would have still been the county seat of Sweetwater County and perhaps Sweetwater County wouldn't have been broken up into two chunks and South Pass City could've had a shot maybe in 1904 for the capital of the territory or the state. South Pass City struggled until July of 1967, when a group of concerned Wyoming citizens began an effort to preserve the remaining original structures as a Wyoming historic site and museum. Lane: Their eye was on securing the town site and the buildings, the remaining buildings themselves, for the people of Wyoming, an inheritance for them, a kind of a cultural inheritance for those folks. Meanwhile, as the town was being restored, interest in gold mining at the Carissa continued with new geological examinations and stock selling schemes. Finally, it too was purchased and restored by the state so future generations might understand and experience the colorful history of Wyoming's City of Gold.

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Channel: Wyoming PBS

Views: 37,546

Rating: 4.8921571 out of 5

Keywords: Wyoming Gold Rush, South Pass City, Boom and Bust, Wyoming, WyomingPBS, Main Street Wyoming

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Length: 26min 21sec (1581 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 19 2017