Welcome to
Mineral Co., Colorado COGenWeb
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Roots Web Mineral County Resources
Parent Counties: Hinsdale,
Rio Grande, and Saguache Counties
County Seat: Creed Incorporated 5/19/1892
Location: 37.69265 N, 106.92687 W
Zip Code: 81130
The COGenWeb Project is looking for volunteers to coordinate Colorado county pages and help with other projects. If you wish to participate, or are just curious, contact the Colorado State Coordinator. or Assistant State Coordinator . You can also learn more by visiting the CoGenWeb state welcome page.
Welcome, I am the new Coordinator, of Mineral County. I have just taken over this site (26 July 2007). Please check back to see my changes!
Our Neighbors
Mineral Co., CO Mailing List
The Rootsweb list Coalamos is being used as the San Luis Valley wide list. This list covers the six counties of the San Luis Valley; Alamosa , Conejos, Costilla , Mineral, Rio Grande & Saguache County. This is so researchers can have one list for the San Luis Valley counties. Residents of the valley often lived in more than one county.
You may post queries to this list, but PLEASE NOTE: NO query OR surname will be picked up by the County Coordinators for posting to the county pages. If you wish to post a query or surname on the County Pages, please use the Message Boards for that county or contact the coordinator for that county.
If you would be interested in joining this list, you may do so by sending a message with the word "subscribe", minus the quotes, in the body of the message to: COALAMOS-request@rootsweb.com
USGenWeb Links
COGenWeb Project USGenWeb Archives Colorado Index
USGenWeb Archives Mineral Co. Index
Unknown County
Count Selection Table
City/County Table
USGenWeb
Do you have Mineral County information? We would love to include it here! Share what you have to help others! Please e-mail comments and suggestions to the County Coordinator,
Brief Historical Sketch
Named for the many valuable minerals which were found in the mountains and streams of the county. Mineral County is located in the Southern Mineral Mountains, it extends south to encompass Wolf Creek Pass and east to include Wheeler Geologic Area. The headwaters of the Rio Grande rise just miles west of Creede in the Weminuche Wilderness Area. Creede itself is located at the mouth of Willow Creek Canyon.
The Ute Indians roamed and hunted in Mineral County. They were forced from the county by the building of Fort Garland. Fort Garland was mandated to move Chief Ouray and his Ute Indians to their current reservations in the Cortez/Ignacio areas. This completed, and with the enactment of the Homestead Act in 1862, Mineral County was then open to homesteaders. Homesteders like, Tom Boggs, M.V.B. Wason, Soward and James Workman, homesteaded and helped to build Mineral County.
Nicholas Creede discovered an enormous silver vein in 1890 and changed Mineral County forever. Mines such as the Amethyst, Commodore, Last Chance and the Holy Moses were found. Fortunes and the population soon swelled. The slab and tent town strung down the canyon consisted of Creede, String Town and Jimtown. Creede's mines were in continuous operation from 1890 until 1985.
As people poured in, more new towns sprang up. Spar City, Stumptown, Weaver and Bachelor all became thriving communities. Today, Spar City is a private resort. There are no buildings left in Stumptown and Weaver, and only stark ruins of a few cabins may be seen in Bachelor.
Over the years, two floods and two fires eliminated most of Creede and Jimtown, and all of Stringtown. The disastrous fire in 1892, which burned the business district, and the silver panic of 1893 combined to spell the end of the silver boom in Creede. The only buildings left standing were in Jimtown. Folks moved to Jimtown and eventually renamed it Creede. Mineral and silver deposits are still plentiful in Mineral County.
County Population 1990: 558
Named for the many valuable minerals which were found in the mountains and streams of the county.
Mineral Colorado GenWeb and the other San Luis Valley GenWeb county pages Alamosa , Conejos, Costilla , Mineral, Rio Grande & Saguache are looking for contributors and other volunteers to help with expanding the resources of the San Luis Valley Genealogy Web project (part of the Colorado GenWeb and USGenWeb) so other researchers can find and make use of them. If you have any information or know of any links you would like to see on this site let me know. Especially we would like volunteers to help with the grave stone transcription and photo project, Colorado GraveStones Project.
If you can help please contact me or the county coordinator for that county you have help for. Thank you.
