Boreas Pass, Colorado

Boreas Pass Summit

Spring is ushering out winter’s cold and snow. Buds are sprouting on trees. Flowers are peeking up from the ground and people are itching to step outside to enjoy summer’s warmth. For those wanting more than a backyard barbecue, Colorado’s Rocky Mountains are an outdoor enthusiast’s play land. Fishing, hiking, camping, and horseback riding are in abundance, but nestled between crevices, streams, and mountain valleys is a land rich in history, with several historic sites still somewhat intact to explore by foot or car, affording breathtaking views of mountain peaks and Aspens. Boreas Pass linking South Park to Breckenridge is no exception.

Formerly known as Breckinridge Pass, Boreas Pass came into existence during the Colorado Gold Rush. The pass was originally a foot route prospectors used to get from South Park to Blue River Valley near Breckenridge where they panned for gold. In 1866, the foot path was widened to a wagon road for stagecoaches. In 1882, Sidney Dillon of Union Pacific Railroad joined forces with the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad and began laying narrow gauge tracks up the pass. During this time, Dillon renamed the route to Boreas Pass after the Ancient Greek God, North of the Wind.

Boreas Town

The railroad tracks connected to Breckenridge and later on to Leadville. This line was deemed a ‘major engineering feat’ because of the deep winter snow at high altitude. Completion of the line not only included the tracks, but dozen of snow sheds along the route and the birth of the town Boreas. Built at the top of the summit, the town’s primary objective was to house workers to clear snow from the tracks during the winter.

Stone Engine House

In its prime, Boreas was home to a 57 x 155ft stone Engine House, equipped with an engine turn table, water tank and coal bin. The town also housed a 600ft snow shed that was later extended to over 900 feet, with doors on the Breckenridge side to block out drifting snow. A depot was built in 1898 to provide comfort for train passengers, but the harsh winter winds and deep mounds of snow often buried the tracks. Clearing them proved costly and time consuming. During the winter of 1898-99, no trains ran from February thru April. By 1905 Boreas was pretty much deserted. Only the Post Office remained. The station itself burned down in 1934. After the fire, train service was discontinued and the line completely abandoned in 1937.

Boreas Pass Today

Today, there isn’t much left at the summit; a few out buildings, a train car and a sign. But the drive up and over the pass into Breckenridge is a great way to spend a Saturday morning. 

Virginia City, Nevada

Comstock Lode

Virginia City, Nevada is likely familiar with people because of the television show, Bonanza, or the Comstock Lode. As men made their way across the United States to San Francisco’s gold rush, many traipsed over Nevada’s mountains. Feint strains of gold were seen, but most men didn’t put much faith into the strains containing valuable ore and pressed on to California. But the boom of San Francisco’s gold rush fizzled in 1859 when Pat McLaughlin and Peter O’Reilly discovered gold at the head of Six-Mile Canyon in Nevada. Henry Comstock was a fellow prospector in the area and convinced the men the gold was on his property. McLaughlin and O’Reilly believed Comstock and assured him he would earn a place in history when the giant lode was named; hence the vein becoming known as the Comstock Lode. The gold was followed up the canyon where an outcropping of gold in quartz was found by another miner, James Finney, saddled with the nickname ‘Old Virginny’. It is believed Finney honored himself by christening a new town at the top of the gulch, Old Virginny Town, during a drunken celebration.

Early on the miners faced a problem when panning for the newly discovered gold. A sticky blue-grey mud clung to axes and shovels. The mud was assayed and found to be silver of exceptional purity, worth over $2,000 per ton. Miners swarmed the area and Nevada became a territory in 1861. Within two years, the population of Virginny Town soared from 4,000 to 25,000, as saloon, hotels and various businesses sprang quickly into existence. Miners struck it rich and built their own mansions, importing furniture and fashion from Europe and the Orient. In the mix of this, Virginny Town was renamed Virginia City and became as important as Denver and San Francisco, with a reputation similar to modern day New York City. It was the town that never slept. Morning, noon and night, something was always going on above and below ground.

Comstock Minors

The rapid growth spurt of Virginia City produced the building of the Virginia-Truckee Railroad, which shuttled folks from Reno to Carson City to Virginia City. Investments made in the Comstock ignited the building of San Francisco. Among those striking it rich were Ralston and Crocker, founders of the Bank of California, Leland Stanford and George Hearst. Eventually, the gold mixed with the high quality of silver caught President Lincoln’s interest. He needed both to keep the Union solvent and made Nevada a state even though the population wasn’t enough for the land to qualify as a state. By the 1870’s, the Comstock Lode had produced enough money to help finance the Civil War and bolster the value of the Union’s greenbacks.  

The MacKay--Present Day

Virginia City’s population began to decline in 1877. In 1930, about 500 people remained. The city remains in existence today and is one of the largest federally designated historical sites in America. Many of the original buildings and homes are intact, most notably the Castle, the MacKay and the Savage. The Virginia-Truckee Railroad once again runs from Virginia City to Gold Hill.

****While my teachers briefly touched on the Comstock Lode in history classes, I gained a better knowledge for the silver mines in Nevada while researching Lady Luck. William Larsen is the villain in Lady Luck. Having grown up in poverty, William is now a prominent San Francisco banker, having gained his riches by stealing from his late boss and from the customers at his bank. But the wealth and power he’s accumulated isn’t enough to satisfy the memory of his cruel beginnings. He wants more and hopes to gain it by joining forces with those backing the Comstock Lode. However, he needs more cash than he has on hand to throw in with them, hence his quest to take possession of Lady Luck, the notorious gaming ship permanently dry-docked along the Barbary Coast.