GOLD HILL

 IS WHERE

  This is one of 12 books about the first gold mine town in Colorado and the people who have lived there. Gold was discovered in 1859 by a group of prospectors. It was first found in a creek in Denver. A group of men followed the creek up to the town of Boulder where they camped. Then it was on up the creeks to the Gold Hill area.         History

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Mollie Dorsey’s Journal, was written against a background of historical events which shaped her destiny and that of her friends. Nebraska Territory, to which her father, William Dorsey, brought his wife and eight children in the spring of 1857, had been open to white settlers less than three years.

Gold rather than land was the goal of the pioneers to the area that would later be the state of Colorado. Gold discoveries in the area had been made as early as 1850, but it wasn’t until 1858 that prospectors made the discoveries which touched off the Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859.

 Gold Hill - In The Rocky Mountains -

Saturday 28th 1860
We left Denver Sat. 28th, afternoon. Traveled 4 miles and camped. Reached Boulder Sunday afternoon, a distance of 30 miles. Our road was very rough, full of boulders. Here there is an extensive valley and some farms, fenced in. Boulder’s composed of perhaps a few dozen cabins.

Boulder Creek is a fast rushing stream, clear as crystal, and full of small trout. Under the shadow of immense mountains this little spot is sheltered, a picturesque place for habitation.
On Monday morning we began ascending the mountains. We would go up such steep places that I thought the wagon would fall back on me. I would yell to get out, but found my breath too short to climb far. Our driver assured me the cattle were sure-footed and it was safer to ride, so I would climb back and rest. But I could but be charmed with the surroundings. The rocks are grand! The hill covered with evergreens of spruce and pine, flowers are growing everywhere, peeping here and there from the crevices of the rocks, bright cold springs start out here and there, and silvery cascades come leaping down the mountainsides. Although we seemed so high, there were peaks that rose hundreds of feet above us.

There are a number of cabins in Gold Hill occupied by miners, the largest owned by Holly and Holt, who are putting up a stamp mill. We are in the gulch below, where McKnight is putting up his mill. By is to do the blacksmithing for the company, and as was arranged I am to cook for the men. My heart sinks within me when I see there are 18 or 20, and no conveniences at all. There is a rough log cabin, neither chinked nor daubed, as they call it, no floor and only a hole cut out for a door and window.

A “bunk” is made in one corner. This is covered with pine boughs, and on this are spread our comforts and blankets. We have no mattress -- can’t even get straw or hay to fill a bed tick.


 Gold Hill is a small gold mining camp northwest of Boulder. The Gold Hill Mining District was created on March 17, 1859, and its regulations served as a guide for much subsequent mining laws.
I have to cook out of doors by a fire, but have mustered my small cook stove into service, but that will only hold one loaf of bread, or one pie at a time. All I have furnished to cook is bread, meat and coffee. The cups and plates are of tin.

A long table is made in a shed made of the pine boughs outside the cabin. No table linen is supplied. I fear I shall sink under this burden. It is not what my fancy painted it.
By has been helping me until I get started, but he does all sorts of awkward things. If this does not take the romance out of me, then I’m proof against anything. McKnight is a rough sort of man and don’t seem to know that a woman needs more to do with than men. Mr. Holly does come down to see us often and looks as if he pitied me. There are some very nice boys here. They are nice to me in every way. They sing of evenings and that helps while the time away. They sang “Home Sweet Home” last night and I softly cried myself to sleep.