Categories: Colorado

Learn the History of Leadville at the Heritage Museum

See photos and memorabilia of the 10th Mountain Division, victorian-era furniture and a replica of the largest ice castle in the world at Leadville Heritage Museum. Featuring a Diorama room that tells the story of Leadville’s first days and the interesting story of Fryer Hill. Which was at the time, the richest piece of real estate in the world. Most mines have a good ore vein that measures three-four feet thick with about fifty ounces of silver to the ton. But the mines on Fryer Hill had ore veins that were twenty to thirty feet thick and yielded one-hundred to a thousand ounces of silver to the ton. In other words, there are no other mines in the world as rich as these.  Obviously, when Fryer hill became famous for having the richest silver deposits in the world, everyone wanted a chance to make a fortune and over a hundred people a day arrived in Leadville.

Fryer Hill and the Silver King

When Horace Tabor was mayor of Leadville in 1878, he was commissioned to buy a promising claim on Fryer hill. In order to protect this claim, Tabor also bought another claim from another prospector, Chicken Bill Lovell.  However, Chicken Bill tricked Tabor and sold him a salt mine instead called the Chrysolite.  Chicken Bill sunk a discovery shaft in the Chrysolite but didn’t discover any silver. Then when he got tired of digging, he simply dropped some stolen high-grade ores down the shaft to make it seem like a million-dollar prospect. Without delay, he sold the useless hole to Tabor for $40,000. But in the end, Tabor got the last laugh because he kept digging in the Chrysolite shaft. And only ten feet deeper than where Chicken Bill stopped, he found a rich vein of silver ore worth $1,500,000. Which made Tabor  Leadville’s first millionaire and they started calling him “The Silver King”. Only a year later Tabor sold the mine to George Roberts and others for $2,778,000. However, he sold the mine too soon because the new owners uncovered ore reserves that were worth $7,000,000! After selling the Chrysolite, Tabor bought another unproductive mine on Fryer Hill, called the matchless mine, and developed it into another bonanza.

The Largest Ice Palace in the World

Back in 1896, they wanted to attract even more people to Leadville so they commissioned an ice palace. In all, five-thousand tons of ice were required for its construction. and it took two-hundred and fifty men working day and night to complete it in thirty-six days.  Once completed, it was the largest ice palace in the world, measuring in fifty-eight-thousand square feet. Sadly an early spring caused the castle to melt prematurely and the investors were not able to make a return on their investment so the castle was never rebuilt. Even though the palace was condemned on March 28, skaters continued to use the skating rink. And the last formal event was a maypole skating party on May Day but the locals continued to use the rink until June. Now you may not be able to see the real thing, but the Leadville Heritage museum has a scale replica that you can admire. And it’s impressive, I would have loved to see the real thing.

Hours

Memorial Day weekend – last weekend in September 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Closed

October – Memorial day weekend

Admission

$8

Plan to spend about an hour to an hour and a half here.

Directions

Leadville Heritage Museum

102 E 9th Street

Leadville, CO 80461

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Accommodations

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