Russellville

When the Pikes Peakers of 1859 reached the trail crossing at the head of Cherry Creek they found a small community already established near the spot where Green Russell had first found gold. The town went by the name of Russellville.

Site of Russellville

Samuel D. Raymond, 1 June 1859.

“Travelled to day to Russellville 35 mls from Auraria. There is a sawmill - lumber 80 dollars a thousand - and 13 nice log houses built of pine and hewn inside & out. It is quite a fine place for a village. Here also is a branch of Cherry Creek where some have prospected and dug some gold. One man today dug out between four & five dollars. Several log shanties were built on the bank but were deserted for better diggings. Mr Nye prospected a little and obtained a few grains of Gold...Here we found good grass & wood with excellent spring water. Heard here good news from the Mountains, Miners doing well. Cheered with the thought that I'm almost at my journeys end.”

Source: "Samuel D. Raymond Journal," edited by Lloyd W. Gundy. Wagon Tracks, Vol.10, No.1 (November, 1995).

Calvin P. Clark, 2 June 1859.

“Cherry Creek. saw some men minning here. some sez they make $5.00 per day and some sez they not make bord. night some prospecting.”

Source: Two Diaries. (Denver: Denver Public Library, 1962).

George M. Willing, 10-11 June 1859.

“In camp at last on head waters of the long sought, anxiously looked for Cherry Creek. Saw three men working on a tom. They were washing only the surface sand, and as the result of their day's labor took out about five dollars. Not very encouraging. Washed out a panful myself and got about three cents. This would pay. All about us is another pine forest, and in the midst of it a new town called Russelville. Here there is a steam sawmill in operation, which cuts about 4,000 feet a day. Since the first of April when they commenced operations, they have sold 60,000 feet of lumber, at $8 per hundred, which, considering the abundance of material and its convenience, is a pretty tall figure.

“Persons having claims here represent that they are making about eiqht dollars a day, and profess themselves satisfied. No proper prospecting has yet been done. The bed-rock has nowhere been reached. It is our purpose to reach it. The formation here is of conglomerate and drift, intermixed with porphory, hornblende, crystalized quartz, iron pyrites and mica - there are also indications of granite. Am very sleepy - good night.

“Saturday, June 11. Prospected pretty thoroughly, and found gold in every instance, but it is very fine. Wages, say $2 or $3 per day, can be made here, if quicksilver be used. Dug down to the bed rock but once, all the rest of the washings being taken from surface. Everybody is leaving here, attracted by the reports that have reached us of wonderful discoveries of coarse gold made on Clear Creek and at Gregory's Diggings! I shall go with the crowd. The gold on Cherry Creek is not drift, but such as in found among transition rocks. Drift gold is always found in alluvial bottoms and on bars; the gold here has been deposited by some great upheaval, along with other geological products. Scorvia, lava and other eruptive evidences are plainly visible on the hills adjacent.

“One need not starve here. Deer, elk, mountain sheep and other game are almost constantly in sight; and the ground in many places is covered thick with wild strawberry vines, which at this time are in full bloom. Snow fell yesterday and to-day on the mountains.”

Source: "Diary of a Journey to the Pike's Peak Gold Mines in 1859," by Dr. George M. Willing. Edited by Ralph P. Bieber. The Mississippi Historical Review, Vol.XIV (June 1827-March 1828).

A.M. Gass, 13 June 1859.

“Tonight we are camped on the far famed Cherry creek. Very little gold has been as yet discovered on this creek. I saw a man wash a pan of surface dirt. He got about one cent of very fine scale gold. Under the surface there is no gold, as they have not been able to find a bed stone. There has been much work done here prospecting. Several cabins have been built, and forty or fifty more commenced and left unfinished; and nearly all have left here and gone to Clear creek diggings, west of the Platte river. The gold here is of fine quality, but not in sufficient quantity to pay. The most that I can hear has been made here in a day, was one dollar and fifty cents. There is a steam saw mill here, on the head of the creek, and it is making a vast amount of timber; yet can hardly supply the demand, at eight dollars per hundred, at the mill; which increases to thirty dollars, in the mines sixty miles from here.”

Source: "Diary of A.M. Gass," Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, ed by LeRoy R. Hafen. (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1942).

Charles C. Post, 26 June 1859.

“Sunday, June 26th. We arose at two o'clock, rode twenty-one miles to head of Cherry creek by eight o'clock and breakfasted, cooking our "old Ned" on coals and making tea in a tin cup. At ten o'clock we rode down creek four miles and found some miners camped. They told us they were averaging about two dollars or three dollars per day, not water enough to run sluices, with cradles being the only chance. They seemed quite cheerful. We went about four miles more and came to a saw mill in full blast -managed by N.J. Wyatt. It is a small rotary engine mill, but cuts some three to four thousand feet per day, which sells readily for one hundred dollars per thousand in Auraria and Denver, or eight dollars at mill. It made me feel quite at home.”

Source: "Diary of Charles C. Post," Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859, ed. by LeRoy R. Hafen. (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Co., 1942).