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Matchless Mine, Silver Kings, Horace Tabor, Baby Doe Tabor. The History Of Leadville, Colorado Boom Days, gold mining, and ghost towns. |
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...To Riches...
Tabor’s Purchase of the Matchless Mine | |
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Even though Tabor’s income was reported to be tens of thousands of dollars
a month, with millions of dollars worth of mining stock accumulating, he anguished over
not owning a single mine in the district purely by himself... all his existing stocks
were shared with other investors. |
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His chance to own a mine that he could call completely his own came in September of
1879 when Tim Foley, A.P. Moore and T.B. Wilgas put their Matchless Mine up for sale.
More than simply money itself, Tabor’s desire to own his own silver mine had to
have been the key to his decision to buy the Matchless, since it had been traded and
bartered so many times before for non-production, and was further embroiled in lawsuit
after lawsuit, that he had to invest over $30,000 just to clear the title and resolve
all the pending litigation. But paying Foley, Moore and Wilgas an additional $117,000,
Tabor proudly touted that he finally had a mine, free and clear, all his own, even if
it wasn't producing or making him any money.
He quickly attempted to get his new "toy" in working order, but by March of
1880, work at the mine finally had to be halted due to excessive water which was
continually flooding the shafts. But Tabor would not give up, and in July he hired a
new manager, Lou Leonard who promptly reopened the mine and began working to resolve the
water problems. It wasn’t long before Leonard happily reported to Tabor that he
had gotten the mine back in working order, and had hit what he claimed was "good ore"
It was far better than "good". Tabor’s Matchless Mine should have been
called the "Cinderella", for by the first of the year, 1880, it was producing
no less than $2,000 a DAY straight into Tabor’s wallet. Assay reports show
some shipments were running as high as 1,000 ounces of silver to the ton!
Horace Tabor had done it again, and it seemed his lucky streak would never end. | | |
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Leadville’s Story of Baby Doe Tabor, Horace Tabor, Silver Kings, Matchless Mine, Boom Days, and Colorado History. |
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