Back in the late 1800s, the Matchless Mine was one of the richest silver mines in the area. In all, it produced 7.5 million dollars worth of silver, roughly equivalent to about two million dollars today. Unlike most mines that had a few investors, the Matchless Mine was owned by one man, Horace Tabor.
The Silver King
Originally married to Augusta Pierce Tabor, they moved west with the fifty-niners and opened a store and postal system in Leadville. Since tabor was a gambling man, he gave away goods from his store in a grubstake arrangement. Under one of those agreement he got one-third ownership of the Little Pittsburg which he eventually sold for one million dollars. With this money, he purchased the Matchless mine and stuck it rich.
Shortly after, he met Elizabeth “Baby Doe” McCourt and they immediatly fell in love. In 1883 Tabor divorced Augusta and married Elizabeth. With whom he carried an outrageous lifestyle, buying jewels, lavish clothing, building opera houses, spoiling their two children and making a series of bad investments. Elizabeth loved to show off her wealth. As she can be seen in the photograph wearing an ostrich feather hat and ermine coat.
Eventually, the high-grade silver in the mine was depleted. But the Tabors didn’t stop their extravagant spending and soon found themselves short on cash. Even though Tabor owned a lot of real estates, his income couldn’t keep up with his spending. So he used properties as collateral for loans, then borrowed money to pay off the loans. Then the Sherman Silver Purchase Act came out in 1893, which demonetization silver and dealt a huge blow to the American economy. By then the fortune was gone and the Tabors went bankrupt.
Hard times for Baby Doe
After Tabor died of appendicitis in 1899, Baby Doe was left with very little. There is a legend that on his deathbed he told her, “Hang on to the Matchless. It will make millions again”. Which might explain her obsession with holding on to the mine. In 1901, the Matchless mine was sold to settle the Tabors debts. However, Baby Doe‘s sister Claudia McCourt McCabe bought the mine a year later and signed the power of attorney over to Baby Doe and allowed her to conduct all business.
For the following years, Baby Doe leased parts of the mine but production declined and was sporadic. By the late 1920s her income from loans, leases and charity had stopped. It wasn’t long before the property was foreclosed and sold to the Shorengo Mining Company. Who’s owner, millionaire J.K. Mullen bought the mine to allow seventy-one-year-old Baby Doe, to stay in her cabin.
Baby Doe repents
Over the years she grew more reclusive and eventually moved into the Matchless Mines’s cabin where she lived out the rest of her life in self-induced isolation. Since she felt bad for breaking up a marriage and believed she was the cause of Tabors failure, she decided to live the rest of it in penance. So she spent the rest of her life alone writing about her experiences. Until she died of a heart attack in March of 1935 at the age of eighty-one. Sadly they didn’t find her for ten days so by the time they did, she was frozen solid.
Travel Secrets
and Fun Facts
- When Elizabeth and her first husband Harvey Doe moved to Central city in 1877, Local miners lovingly called her “Baby Doe” and the nickname stuck, even after she remarried.
- The mine was so famous that Oscar Wilde toured it during his 1882 trip to America.
- First woman to arrive at the Idaho Springs Camp was Tabor’s first wife Augusta.
- Also the Tabors were the first pioneers to take a wagon over Ute pass.
Hours
| Memorial day weekend – Last weekend in September | 11:00 am – 4:45 pm |
| October – May | Closed |
Admission
$6
$12 guided tour from Friday – Sunday
CASH ONLY! Plan to spend about an hour here.
Accommodations
For the closest accommodations, you will need to book your hotel in Leadville, CO. Best of all, you don’t need to look anywhere else. My link will search through all the online sites to find you the best price available! And if you purchase your vacation through my link, this site will earn a small commission on your purchase. However, rest assured that it will not cost you anything extra! In fact, the only difference is that this site will earn a commission instead of another booking site. Thank your sponsorship!
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