© June, 2000 Donna Frederick
Seligman is no longer accessible. The road has been blocked off by the U.S. Forest Service.
By 1880, Treasure City was dead and the post office was removed. In 1885, fire destroyed the county buildings at Hamilton, the county seat was to soon be removed to Ely and Hamilton was in decline. Then came hope for resurgence in the “Lead Belt” of the White Pine Mining District. Their hopes were not futile. The “Lead Belt” has yielded most of the ore mined in the White Pine District since 1886. The lead-silver ore bodies contain some copper and zinc. White Pine News reported January 29, 1887 that Sam Liddle and Prof. Price had given the “high sounding” name Leadville to a promising new mining district. This was located on the west side of the White Pine Mountains, near Sawmill Canyon about a half mile west of the Purcell series of mines. Liddle and Price laid out a townsite near by bearing the name “Irene .” There was no doubt Irene would soon be incorporated as a city, as Sam Liddle thought the Leadville district would soon rival its namesake in Colorado. By July of 1887, travel was brisk between Hamilton and Leadville and Sam Liddle moved his family there.
The distance between Hamilton and the new town of Leadville was six miles by trail. The Hamilton correspondent to the News gave a glowing description of the festivities held in Leadville to celebrate the Fourth of July. Twenty vehicles of all grades from a sulky to a quartz wagon, loaded to full capacity had come to Leadville for the celebration. Many others had to take “Shanks Horses” (on foot) and came directly over the mountains. The festivities lasted from early forenoon of the Fourth of July 1887, until early dawn of the fifth. It was reported that “all present enjoyed themselves as suited their tastes.” A fountain, constructed by miners during their odd hours, paved and surrounded with fossils, shells, bric-a-brac and ore from all parts of the White Pine Mountains, “played in the center of a shady arbor.” George W. Halstead’s boarding house went full blast until the final closing of the celebration.
By July 4, 1887 a boarding house, saloon and an assay office were the primary establishments in Leadville. The saloon was a frame building, 16x26 feet, with a cellar in the rear. The saloon was in the charge of D. J. Mahoney and the bar fixtures were described as being as "fine as any fixtures in the State." Sam Liddle had brought several specimens of stuffed ornithological specimens from San Francisco, and they adorned the cabinet. A great attraction for the children was the stuffed monkey, who appeared to be playing the banjo in a comical way.
The three-room assay office was built in the hill on the upper grade. Accommodations for the traveler had been well planned and the News reporter stated that “A stable is built to accommodate visiting teams and a nice bathroom for dusty travelers has been fitted up.”
Leadville (Seligman) is at approximately the same altitude as Hamilton - 8,300 feet. A good horseback trail was constructed to the mine. A large number of blasts were planned to coincide with the Fourth of July festivities, to accomplish a double purpose: necessary grading and celebrating the day. Several people were also grading in preparation to building cabins, while others were partly finished. The transient residents used a number of tents and wagon covers.
A short distance from Leadville, and close to the new trail to the tunnel and mine, lay the graves of Osborn and Ward, who lost their lives in a snow slide in 1880. The canyon where they lost their lives was located some distance to the south.
Miners are an optimistic breed as shown by the following song printed by the White Pine News and sang by H. Bush, J. Brown and J. Rosevear at the Fourth of July, 1887 celebration:
LEADVILLE
Oh, Leadville the gem of the Mountain,
The home of the brave and the free,
The shrine of each miner’s devotion,
White pine offers homage to thee.
Thy treasure makes capital assemble,
When thy ore veins, bright gems, stand in view,
May thy spurs and summits oft tremble
To the blasts of thy miners so true.
The wine-cup, the wine-cup, bring hither,
And fill you up to the brim,
May the laurels we’ve won never wither,
Nor the river of our prosperity grow dim.
May the Miners united ne’er sever,
But each to his station prove true.
Here’s to Leadvill, our home forever
And the wealth it will bring to us, too.
Residents of Leadville were soon tearing down buildings at Hamilton and Eberhardt and moving them to the new townsite. By the end of July, Leadville had been surveyed and re-named Seligman (after the bankers of that name). Counters, shelving, etc. were being transported from Hamilton to Seligman and E. N. Robinson, Superintendent of the Sweetwater Mining Company, was grading for his residence and hauling timbers cut for it. Mr. Robinson hired every man who applied to him for work at the beginning of this project. Two tunnels were started; one was to tap into the Purcell vein at a depth of 800 feet and a lower one to tap into it at 960 feet. By running along on the course of the vein from the latter to the south end of the claim, a depth of 1680 feet would be attained.
Freight was arriving at Seligman from Eureka and by August 27, 1887, eighty men were at work building and mining. Water, that precious commodity in all mining camps, was needed for the mines, concentrating work, sawmill and the town. The supply came down from the canyon about a mile south of Seligman. The elevation at the source of the water was high enough to carry it to any point desired on the Purcell mine with a fall of 800 feet at the lowest distributing point. Water pipes were laid from the water works to the mines and through the main canyon to the town. It was felt that the water supply was ample for all requirements.
By the first part of September 1887 Seligman contained a boarding house, store for general merchandise and mining supplies, a feed stable, washhouse, ten private dwellings, blacksmith shop and assay office and ten private dwellings. It was expected the town would continue to increase. Wells Fargo and Co. Station located here in 1887. Application was made to the Postal Department for a Post Office to be established at as early a date as possible.
Mr. Robinson ordered new equipment hauled in and soon there was concentrating machinery with a 100 ton per day capacity. The machinery included: a sawmill capable of turning our 20,000 feet of lumber per day; a Burleigh compressor with the capacity to run three air drills; three Ingersoll Eclipse air reservoirs; an automatic tramway for transferring ore to the reduction works and a fully equipped machine shop. Mr. Krom, the inventor of the Krom steel rollers, had the contract for supplying the concentrating machinery.
By September 19, 1887, the residents of Seligman had their Post Office. It remained open until November 1891 when it was ordered to close. The order was rescinded on December 15, 1891 and the Post Office remained open until December 31, 1905 when it finally closed.
