Oro City, Colorado facts for kids
Oro City is a ghost town in Lake County, Colorado, United States. It was once a busy gold mining town.
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What is Oro City?
Oro City was an early gold mining town in Colorado. It was located near the modern city of Leadville. The name Oro means gold in Spanish. This area was famous for one of the richest gold discoveries in Colorado. Miners found a huge amount of gold here. Experts believe they found about 120,000 to 150,000 troy ounces of gold. This was worth millions of dollars at the time.
Where is Oro City Located?
The site of Oro City is at 39°14′05″N 106°15′08″W / 39.23472°N 106.25222°W. It is in a place called California Gulch. This spot is about one mile (1.6 km) northeast of Leadville. It sits in the Mosquito Range mountains. This area is part of Lake County, Colorado, in the United States.
The History of Oro City
Gold was first found in this area in late 1859. This happened during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush. At first, the gold found was not very exciting. But on April 26, 1860, a miner named Abe Lee made a big discovery. He found a lot of gold in California Gulch. This rich find was about six miles (9.7 km) east of the Arkansas River.
Soon after, Oro City was founded right where the new gold was found. By July 1860, about 10,000 people lived in the town. They also lived in the areas nearby. In that first summer, about $2 million in gold was taken out. This gold came from California Gulch and Iowa Gulch.
However, after a few years, the easiest gold was gone. The population of Oro City dropped to only a few hundred people. Many small mining claims were combined into bigger ones. Miners then used a method called ground sluicing. In 1877, a ditch was dug to bring water for hydraulic mining. But this new mining method was not very successful.
Miners always had trouble with a heavy brown sand. This sand made it hard to find the gold. Around 1874, a miner discovered something important. The brown sand was actually a lead mineral called cerussite. This sand also contained a lot of silver. Miners had already found some gold veins. But following the brown sand led them to huge silver deposits.
The discovery of silver started a new rush. Many silver prospectors came to Oro City. But most people moved to the new city of Leadville nearby. Leadville grew much larger than Oro City. By 1890, the census showed that Oro City had only 222 people left.
Famous People from Oro City
- Horace Tabor was one of the gold miners in Oro City in 1860. He later became a very successful silver miner and politician in Colorado.
