Treasure Tales and Treasure Stories About Colorado from the Archives of Lost Treasure Magazine

Dump and tailing treasure

When the railroad was brought up to the mining town of Ward, Colo., in 1897, there were high hopes of a second gold boom. The gold mines that had turned out many millions of dollars worth of ore during a 20-year period had also produced thousands of tons of low assay ore which had been abandoned in dumps surrounding the town. The steep grades leading up the Left Hand Canyon had made shipment by wagon so expensive that it offset the value of extracting the gold. Cheaper rail transportation, it was thought, would make it possible to convert the trash to cash. The economics just didn't pan out. During the next couple of years, mine production fell and a fire in 1900 virtually wiped out Ward. I find no record that the low grade ore was ever exploited. At today's prices it might prove beneficial for recreational miners to obtain permission to search the local dumps and tailings around Ward.