[Colorado]: [Loomis, J.L.]:

$2,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

LEADVILLE, COLORADO. THE MOST WONDERFUL MINING CAMP IN THE WORLD. A CITY ONLY TWO YEARS OLD! WITH TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE...THE MINING LAWS, HOW TO STAKE A CLAIM, WAGES PAID TO LABORERS AND MECHANICS, ... One of the earliest guides to Leadville, Colorado, written at the beginning of the silver boom and providing a description of Leadville, its mining districts, smelting works and sampling works, a brief list of wages for miners or mechanics, a list of applicable mining laws, and a glossary of mining terms. Silver was discovered in Leadville in 1877, and for nearly two years, the miners of the area were able to keep the secret. By late 1878, however, word of the find was leaking out and J.L. Loomis, an assayer at Leadville's Eddy and James Sampling Works (described in the present guide) "wrote several valuable letters on Leadville" to the Colorado Springs Daily Gazette. As the Gazette found Loomis' letters "to possess precise and desirable information," they reprinted Loomis' letters "together with some other interesting material" in the present pamphlet. Loomis' initial letter to the Gazette, dated December 31, 1878, describes Leadville, its mining districts, smelting works and sampling works, and uses the opportunity to come to the defense of his hometown: "The sanitary condition of Leadville has been vilely misrepresented. Considering the general neglect of the ordinary conditions of health, the amount of sickness is much less than might reasonably be expected. Diptheria and

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