CRIPPLE CREEK, SCRIPOPHILY AND GOLD SHARES

Up until a few years ago when I met a scripophilist my knowledge of scripophily was just about zero!  But being a life-long learner I begin to gather information, albeit cursory, about the study and collection of stock and bond certificates.  I had seen old stock certificates before and actually had a couple stuck away in my cabinet of natural curiosities—picked up at garage sales decades ago.  I simply liked the engraving on the certificates, and the fact that both were associated with mining companies in in the western states of Utah and Colorado.  Recently I picked up a couple of additional certificates closely associated with Colorado Springs.  I am not about to become a scripophilist since correct pronunciation of the term, and spelling, is difficult for an ole country boy like me used to single syllable words like dog, cat, pig etc.

The first certificate I collected was a never issued certificate printed by the Bradbury Gold and Silver Company.  Their principal place of business was noted as Silver Cliff, Custer County, Colorado.  Bradbury was capitalized at $1,000,000 and trying to sell 100,000 shares at $10 each.  Interestingly the certificate was signed by the company president; however, I was unable to decipher his name.  Otherwise, the certificate was devoid of issuance information. My scripophilist friend told me that this certificate was probably at the “back of the book” and simply never sold.

A cursory examination of the history of Custer County did not reveal a single tidbit of information about the company.  I also was unable to locate any sort of information, other than their incorporation date of November 1, 1881.  Perhaps Bradbury was just part of common “get rich” schemes.  Anderson (2015) noted: “At the same time [1870-1880s], accounts of fabulous wealth acquired quickly through investments in Western mines were rampant in the East, where considerable capital was available for investing. In addition, many inexperienced individuals, looking to get rich quickly, came West to develop mines. Some of the surplus Eastern capital found its way to the Silver Cliff District.”  At any rate, although the Silver Cliff District did produce metallic minerals, I could not locate information on any success of the Bradbury Gold and Silver Mining Company.  Perhaps a visit to the Custer County archives would be in order.

Another garage sale produced a nicely engraved certificate noting that Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith Incorporated purchased one thousand shares of Capital Stock of United Park City Mines Company in 1973 for $1 each.

United Park City Mines Company is a relatively new company and was formed in 1953 by merging of the Silver King Coalition Mines Company and Park Utah Consolidated Mines Company.  Their mining of metals continued off and on until 1970 when the Anaconda Company and ASARCO formed Park City Ventures and leased all mining properties of United Park City Mines Company in the Park City District.  However, United must have experienced a vision and in the early 1960s developed a small ski resort (Treasure Mountain) complete with 19 runs, a lift and an aerial gondola.  The last mine in the area, the Ontario struggled on until it closed in 1982. 

United had seen the future and after 1970 became active in the sale, development and lease of its more than 8300 acres of land.  Today some of that land is occupied by Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort.  In 2003 United Park City Mines Company was sold to Capital Growth Partners.  

During my time at the University of Utah in the late 1060s Park City was run down old mining town with many abandoned buildings, cheap real estate and the small Treasure Mountain resort.  Serious skiers gravitated to the resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons adjacent to Salt Lake City.  Skiers who desired a party atmosphere with more “open entertainment” rode the Snowball Express ski train from Salt Lake City to Park City and experienced “liquor by the drink” since the Federal government controlled the trains and “dry” Utah could not control their servings!

Closer to home I recently found a certificate noting in 1938 the Golden Cycle Corporation of Colorado Springs sold “exactly seven shares” of their Capital Stock to Boettcher & Co. for $70 ($10 per share).  The Corporation originally was incorporated as the Golden Cycle Mining Company (in West Virginia,1895), changed its name to the Golden Cycle Mining and Reduction Company (1915) and finally to The Golden Cycle Corporation (1929).  Its major business was mining gold at Cripple Creek and Victor but later expanded to buying a railroad (Midland, transporting ore from the mines to Colorado Springs), building a gold mill in Colorado Springs, and mining coal from the Popes Valley/ Rockrimmon area (Pikeview Mine) in north Colorado Springs for use by the mill.  In the late 1940s Golden Cycle dismantled its mill in Colorado Springs and moved it to Cripple Creek/Victor where it operated until 1962--although they continued mining the soft coal here in northwest Colorado Springs.  

In 2008 Golden Cycle became a subsidiary of AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.  with its main producing asset the Cresson Mine at Cripple Creek/Victor, smaller production projects in Nevada, and major exploration projects  in the Philippines.  In August 2015 Ashanti sold the Cripple Creek/Victor Mine (Cresson Mine) to Newmont Mining Corporation.

The stock certificate is noted for the beautiful engraving of the “Company’s Cyanide and Floatation Plant” in west Colorado Springs that later was moved to Cripple Creek/Victor.  Recently (the last decade) developers in Colorado Springs begin reclaiming the land formally occupied by the old mill and its slag pile by covering the toxic residue from the plant with some sort of a “rubber/plastic/something” and then covering that with soil, and finally building houses.  The same is true for the old Pikeview Mine where dwellings are now constructed over a maze of underground tunnels.

 

The final certificate that I picked up was issued in 1928 (100 shares at $1 each) by The Cresson Consolidated Gold Mining and Milling Company to H. Leroy Parker.  Evidently Parker kept the shares until 1948 when the Executor of his estate transferred the shares to Edward F. Puitluga of New York City.

I am not certain about the complete history of the Cresson Company except that the original Cresson mine was not a money-maker until late 1914 when the ultra-rich Cresson Vug (~1265 feet below the surface) was discovered---a room size cavern filled with various ores, mostly sylvanite [(Au,Ag)₂Te₄] and calaverite [AuTe₂], containing crystalline gold.  In a month or so about 60,000 troy ounces of gold was taken out of the vug with hand tools—what is that, 80-90 million dollars in today’s prices?  The mine was still producing excellent gold in1915 and was sold to A.E. Carlton and Associates in 1916.  Carlton and his friends owned the Golden Cycle noted above, and in fact, owned about 95% of the gold properties in the Cripple Creek District.  The Cresson Mine (underground) continued to produce until about 1960 when most mining in the Cripple Creek area ceased.  Small scale surface mining started up in the early 1970s and the giant open pit Cripple Creek and Victor Gold Mine (AKA Cresson Mine) became established (early 1990s) on the site of the old underground Cresson Mine.  As noted above, the mine is now owned and operated operated by Newmont Mining Corporation as a heap leach project and producing over 200,000 troy ounces of gold each year from a very low grade ore.

REFERENCES CITED

Anderson, W.I., retrieved December 2015, The Historic Mines of Custer County, Colorado:  http://www.uni.edu/~andersow/historicmines.html

Goin' up t' Cripple Creek, goin' on the run
Goin' up t' Cripple Creek t' have a little fun
Goin' up t' Cripple Creek, goin in a whirl
Goin' up t' Cripple Creek t' see my girl

As performed by “Mr. Bluegrass” Bill Monroe.

FUSULINIDS, BRACHIOPODS, SOUTHEAST ASIA AND MUNGO JERRY

Readers of this Blog realize that many of my formative years as a university student were dominated by both the conflict in Southeast Asia and the Civil Rights movement in the United States.  In the meantime, I was just trying to be a good student, complete my degrees and move on with my life--wherever that was leading.  I had a great time in graduate school at the University of South Dakota (USD), met many nice fellow students, had some interesting thesis field work in the “badlands,” and married a few days after graduation in August 1967.  One item that stands out in my mind is the great abundance of ROTC students on campus.  Several officer candidates were in my geology labs over the two years and many/most wanted to head to Southeast Asia since that was the best route to promotion.

My next stop was at the University of Utah, a school I picked since it was “close to the mountains.”  It was so near, in fact, that some classes walked to the exposures in the western flank of the Wasatch Mountains.  It was a much larger institution than USD and a complete change for a small town kid like me!  Although in the late 1960s Utah was almost a theocracy, the general attitude of the University students was changing toward the war in Southeast Asia---from one of partial support to one demanding withdrawal of troops.  In early 1968 the Tet Offensive was a series of attacks by the Democratic Republic of North Vietnam against numerous cities and communities in South Vietnam.  The death of so many people sort of stunned the US citizens and massive demonstrations occurred across country.  This sort of activity continued during the years and months at Utah until I left in summer 1970.  It seemed especially disturbing in May 1970 when four students were killed at Kent State University.  At any rate, I had tried to remain a conscientious student and immersed myself in research and studies---all the while sending my grades and enrollment details to the local Draft Board in Kansas. 

I finished my field research in summer 1970 and accepted a position teaching geology at Fort Hays State University in western Kansas.  The students at Fort Hays were not as active politically, or so it seemed, as those in Utah but students were greatly concerned about their future.  There was an underground sort of whispering among the faculty about keeping students from receiving a failing grade.  If they failed a single class their GPA usually was not high enough to satisfy Draft Boards and they entered the service of the United States.  I had nothing but respect for those who served, and tried to help assimilate returning veterans into the University community.  It was a tough time as the war lasted until 1975 although US troops had withdrawn earlier.

Google Earth image showing proximity of the Utah campus to the Wasatch Mountains.

What does all this banter mean?  Mostly that 1970-71 was somewhat of a tumultuous time in my life.  I started my new job in August, although the first paycheck did not arrive until October 1 and it was tough to make expenses.  I was assigned to teach four courses: Invertebrate Paleontology, Sedimentary Geology, Introduction to Geology, and Ground Water Resources of Western Kansas.  The first three were reasonable; however, I had never experienced a ground water course in my life!  I spent tens of hours trying to keep ahead of the students.  In addition, I started writing my dissertation as I came to Fort Hays ABD, an acronym hated by Ph.D. students as it meant “all but dissertation.”  It was not the best situation but my fellowship had expired at Utah and I badly needed a job---$9000 a year.  After rent, car payments, taxes, retirement investments, and health care there was not much left.  On February 9, 1971, my spouse finished typing the first draft of my dissertation (I never learned to type although today I am a pretty speedy two-fingered word processor) and the next day my son was born. But, we all survived.  

Upon arriving at Fort Hays I knew little about teaching as the Ph.D. is a research degree.  I had taught Intro to Geology at Utah but was just sort of thrown into the class at the last moment when a faculty member received a big grant and “purchased” his classroom release. 

New faculty members at that time usually “taught as they were taught.”  Luckily I had some great mentors at Utah where the geologists were pretty much field geologists and took their students on many field trips.

So, about the first thing that I did at Fort Hays was to plan for a field trip to eastern Kansas with the Invertebrate Paleo class—Road Trip.  Why this part of the state?  Well, I wanted to go in October when the trees and grasses in the Flint Hills were at their finest colors, and because the Permian and Pennsylvanian rocks provided world-class collecting of invertebrate fossils.

ROAD TRIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvUQcnfwUUM

The Flint Hills provide so many places to collect that it was difficult to pick out sites and in the initial first and second years of the autumn trips I just sort of blindly picked outcrops---and we were successful.  During those days (and until I left in 1991) I required students to compile a collection of fossils complete with proper curatorial information and a notebook with stratigraphic sketches.  Most students turned in about 100 different species from the Flint Hills and everyone, and I mean all students, had a hunk of limestone containing “fusulinids.”

Piece of Biel Limestone showing weathered shells of fusulinids.  Width of rock ~10 cm.  

Photomicrographs showing internal structures of fusulinids.  Both circular (~4 mm) and longitudinal (~6 mm) cross sections are shown.

What are these ubiquitous Paleozoic fossils?  They are single celled organisms that create calcareous shells but lack tissues and organs and belong to the Phylum Retaria.  I usually shy away from fossil classification schemes but believe it important that readers know the Retaria contains the Radiolarians (siliceous shell) and the Foraminifera (mostly calcareous shells).  These single cell organisms occur in all sorts of marine environments.  The fusulinids are large (compared to most other foraminifera) and generally shaped like grains of wheat.  In fact, over the years I received many visits from the general public wanting to know about their “fossilized wheat!”  The fusulinids range from the Silurian to the end of the Permian when they succumbed to the great Permian-Triassic extinction event.  But, during their “heyday” in the Mississippian to Permian fusulinids often were excellent index fossils (age indicators), were extremely common, and occurred in unbelievable numbers of individuals.  In some limestones found in Kansas the shells compose most of the rock! My specimen is a part of the Biel Limestone (Pennsylvanian).

Productid brachiopod ventral valve; Permian; Glass Mountains, Texas.  Public Domain photo.

The other rock that I want to emphasize in this small Post is an extremely fossiliferous bed in the Matfield Shale (Permian). Unlike the Biel Limestone specimen where a single species dominates, the densely populated shale contains an impressive number of species.  The Biel and Matfield are remnants of warm tropical-subtropical waters associated with the late Paleozoic continental marine waters.  When these waters retreated from North America, probably as the result of continental collision, many of the invertebrate and single-celled animals that had existed for large parts of the Paleozoic Era became extinct.

Part of a large slab of shale collected from Matfield Shale.  D is large brachiopod named Derybia.   Bry is a partial bryozoan colony.  Productid brachiopods anchored their shells in “mud” by large spines protruding from the shell.  These broken spines make up much of the “fossil hash” on the slab.  Brachiopods are bivalve animals and two valves articulate along a hinge line.  Notice the projection labeled tooth along the straight hinge line. The tooth fit into a socket on the other valve and helped with articulation.  That labeled valve also has an arrow pointing to small knobs on which spines once attached.  The upper photo shows a complete, although “smashed,” specimen on a brachiopod named Composita.  Most of Paleozoic brachiopods and bryozoans became extinct at the Permian-Triassic extinction event.    

As for my comments about the troubles in both Southeast Asia and various American universities, well they just automatically pop up in my mind when I think about those early days.  As I tell my children, it was a different time!

When you're weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
I'm on your side. When times get rough
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Simon and Garfunkel 1970