CRIPPLE CREEK PAGE 4
MIDAS OF THE ROCKIES: The
Story of Stratton and Cripple Creek
By Frank Waters.
New York
: Covici Friede, Publishers, 1937, first edition.
Original blue cloth binding with gold embossed
signature on front cover and gold lettering on spine; 344 pages; dust jacket.
"This
is an intimate and dramatic portrait of a unique American figure - Winfield
Scott Stratton, the discoverer of one of the world's most famous gold mines; the
carpenter who became the most eccentric of philanthropists; the lone prospector
in whose brain there fiercely burned the idea of a gold at a time when Colorado
was a silver state; the gray, ghostly wolf who slunk for seventeen years through
booming mining camps before he was foolish enough to poke around Crazy Bob
Womack's gopher hole in Cripple Creek ...."
Condition: near fine in very good dust jacket (spine
sunned; head and toe lightly chipped) .
Price:
$250.00
____________________________
W.S. Stratton in Leadville!! thirteen years
before he became Cripple
Creek and Colorado's most eccentric and intriguing gold baron
MINERS EXCHANGE BANK, LEADVILLE, COLORADO
Issued April 19, 1880, on the account of W.S. Stratton, in
Leadville, Colorado. If you know your Cripple Creek history, W.S. Stratton
stands out like no other personality in the gold district. He was just a
skilled carpenter/contractor in Colorado Springs in 1891. Three years
later, he was Cripple Creek's first millionaire. It was not just luck;
Stratton had prospected through the Colorado's Rockies for nearly twenty years
before discovering the Independence Mine in the newly formed Cripple Creek
(Womack) Gold Mining District. It is accepted that Stratton had a brief,
and generally unremarkable, presence in other Colorado mining districts
throughout the 1870s and 1880s; however, actual physical evidence of him being
in one of these districts is very, very scarce, especially for the
collector. Here, on the check presented above, is the signature of W.S.
Stratton -- later to be Colorado's most eccentric and benevolent gold baron --
showing he was in Leadville, Colorado in April 1880. Was Stratton
prospecting at this time? Was he working for H.A.W. Tabor, as Marshall
Sprague claims in his book, MONEY MOUNTAIN? Well, that is a
mystery. However, this astounding historical document is available to the
collector. Condition: near fine; several pinholes. Signature is
clean and concise. Revenue imprinted. Price:
inquire for latest quote!
__________
THE STRATTON CRIPPLE CREEK MINING AND DEVELOPMENT CO.
letterhead
Dated January 8, 1907, this letterhead displays a superb
steel-engraved portrait of Colorado's most eccentric and benevolent gold
baron. Stratton did not and would not have had his face on his Company's
stationery; however, evidently, those who resumed operations of The Stratton
Cripple Creek Mining and Development Company after he passed on believed this to
be a commemoration to him. Half-sheet size; near fine condition; two light
folds. Price: $200.00
__________
INDEPENDENCE MINE check
Dated May 1, 1899, issued on The Bank of Victor, Victor, Colo.,
Cripple Creek Mining District. This check is NOT signed by W.S. Stratton;
rather, by a secretary named Grant. Steel-engraving on this check is
outstanding. Revenue imprinted. Condition of check: several light
folds, otherwise, very good plus. Price:
$300.00
__________
(Cripple Creek, Colorado) THE OFFICIAL MANUAL OF
THE CRIPPLE CREEK DISTRICT, COLORADO, U.S.A., published by Fred
Hills, E.M., Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1900, first edition. Book is in
its original red cloth binding with gold embossing on cover and spine; 495
pages. Enamel-coated pages; maps and halftone illustrations.
This book was originally intended to be the ultimate in stock broker's
handbooks, providing details of several hundred operating and producing mines
and mining companies in the Cripple Creek Gold Mining District. T.A.
Rickard, State Geologist of Colorado, wrote an article, "The Cripple Creek
District: Its Past and Future," for the book; as well as George Rex
Buckman, "Cripple Creek from the Standpoint of Statistics."
Articles are accompanied by illustrations. Nearly all of the mining
companies have details such as organization, capitalization, property,
development, officers, and so on, along with a plat of mining claims. The
book was originally published with a fold-out map of the Cripple Creek District,
by Fred Hills, and copyrighted 1900. This copy is missing the original
map; however, another original map -- published for William A. Otis &
Company -- accompanies this volume. The Otis map, published in May 1896,
is five-color, larger than the original Hills' map -- 23 inches wide by 34
inches in length -- and more detailed (showing mining claims, towns, railroads,
topography, etc.). Condition of book: very good, with some binding
reinforcement; light soiling; some sunning to spine; bumped corners and a bit of
cloth fraying. Condition of map: good plus to very good; damp-staining in
upper left-hand area of map; weakness in spots; fraying along edges. Book
stated to be Volume 1; however, Hills did not publish another volume.
Hills did, though, publish a small stock broker's handbook in 1902.
Included with this book is an original document signed by Fred Hills. Price:
inquire for latest quote!
__________
Assay certificate signed by Professor Lamb
THE STRATTON CRIPPLE CREEK MINING AND DEVELOPMENT CO.
Assay Office
Assay report issued on the Deerhorn Mine, August 6, 1902, signed
by H.W. Lamb. Professor Lamb taught W.S. Stratton's the practice of
blow-pipe analysis of ore samples in the field before Stratton discovered the
Independence Mine. Condition of assay report: fine; no folds.
Price: $150.00
__________
CITIES OF GOLD: History of the Victor Cripple Creek
Mining District
By Brian Levine, published by Stonehenge Books, 1981, Denver,
Colorado. Author's first book. Publication in its original
gold-colored stiff-wrapper binding; square-bound; 100 pages. Condition:
fine; unread. Signed by the author. Priceless.
________________________________
Please view our other Cripple Creek pages:
Cripple
Creek
Cripple
Creek Page 2
Cripple
Creek Page 3
Cripple
Creek Page 4
Cripple
Creek Page 5
Cripple
Creek Page 6
_______________________________
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