Leadville

History

The Leadville area was first settled in 1859 when placer gold was discovered by A. G. Kelley in California Gulch, and by Abe Lee in April (25/26) 1860, during the Pikes Peak Gold Rush. Horace Tabor, who became known as the "Leadville Silver King", and his wife Augusta were among the first prospectors to arrive in Oro City. Horace was appointed as the postmaster of Oro City on November 30, 1868. The early miners had noted that mining for placer gold was hampered by heavy black sand in the sluice boxes, and in 1874 it was discovered that the heavy sand that impeded gold recovery was the lead mineral cerussite, which has a high silver content. Prospectors traced the cerussite to its source, present day Leadville, and by 1876 had discovered several silver-lead lode deposits. By this time, most of the placer gold had been extracted from the gulch; attention shifted to nearby Leadville, and Oro City became a ghost town. The town was built on desolate flat land below the tree line. The first miners lived in a rough tented camp near the silver deposits in California Gulch. Initially, the settlement was called "Slabtown", but when the residents petitioned for a post office, the name "Leadville" was chosen. By 1880, Tabor and Meyer's new town had gas lighting, water mains, of streets, 5 churches, 3 hospitals, 6 banks, and a school for 1,100 students. Many business buildings were constructed with bricks hauled in by wagons. In early 1878, Meyer, along with Leadville's pioneer smelter entrepreneur, Edwin Harrison, after whom the famed Harrison Avenue is named, and Tabor established a post office in Leadville, with George L. Henderson designated as postmaster on July 16, 1877. Swindles were not uncommon in the mining community. When the Little Pittsburg mine was exhausted of…

Geography

At an elevation of , Leadville lies close to timberline, which in Colorado is from . The surrounding peaks are all well above 12,000 feet, and are thus bare of trees. Leadville has the highest elevation of any city in the United States. Leadville lies in a valley at the headwaters of the Arkansas River, situated between two mountain ranges, the Mosquito Range to the east and the Sawatch Range to the west, both of which include several nearby peaks with elevations above , the so-called fourteeners. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city of Leadville has an area of , all land. The lower part of California Gulch runs past the southern edge of the city, flowing west to the Arkansas River. Leadville has an alpine subarctic climate (Dfc) with cold winters and mild summers, bordering on a cold semi-arid climate (Bsk). The average January temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . The average July temperatures are a maximum of and a minimum of . There are an average of 271.7 mornings annually with freezing temperatures, which can occur in any month of the year. The record high temperature was on July 17, 2023. The record low temperature was on February 1, 1985. Average annual precipitation is . The wettest calendar year was 2014 with and the driest 1994 with . The most precipitation in one month was in January 1996. The most precipitation in 24 hours was on February 13, 1986. Average annual snowfall is . The most snowfall in one year was in 1995. The most snowfall in one month was in May 1995. |source 2 = National Weather Service }}

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Mountain Chickadee

  Poecile gambeli (Ridgway, 1886) · Aves
  1,417
• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,010
• Gray Jay

  Perisoreus canadensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  952
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  917
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  869
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  842
• Steller's Jay

  Cyanocitta stelleri (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  797
• Broad-tailed Hummingbird

  Selasphorus platycercus (Swainson, 1827) · Aves
  743

Largest nearby schools

• Lake County High School
  High · LEADVILLE · 414 students · 14.3:1 ratio
• Lake County Elementary School
  Elementary · LEADVILLE · 268 students · 17.9:1 ratio
• Lake County Intermediate School
  Elementary · LEADVILLE · 262 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• Cloud City High School
  High · LEADVILLE · 35 students · 11.7:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2026-06-06
  10 km NE of Redstone, Colorado
• M 2.6 — 2026-02-06
  12 km S of Mulford, Colorado
• M 2.5 — 2022-06-23
  6 km NNW of Gypsum, Colorado
• M 2.8 — 2021-04-11
  9 km E of Woody Creek, Colorado
• M 2.5 — 2020-10-24
  2 km ESE of Georgetown, Colorado
• M 2.6 — 2019-05-28
  1 km ENE of Gypsum, Colorado