A history discussion from Friends of Gilpin County
Recently an online thread started up about Henry Niccum and his “patented” Henry-Hole method of prospecting. We have also had periodic references to the Town of Apex over time. In a harmonic convergence of sorts, sticks of dynamite unearthing gold had a hand in the creation of Apex as a town. Apex was a pretty big deal for a while as you can see from the picture. The main street of Apex was no different from other mining towns of the area. It was lined with saloons, stores and hotels. How the town came into being is, however, much different from most.
Sometime during the late 1870s, a guy named Richard Mackey made a good, but not particularly great strike in the Pine Creek mining district. He promptly sold his claim. His buyer turned around and sold it as well. This occurred a few times until a man by the name of Mountz acquired to claim. By this time, the claim was known as the Mackey Lode. Mountz, however, had a problem. He had no money with which to develop the claim. So he set about trying to locate a partner and eventually succeeded. Soon, Mountz and his new partner had mined about $30,000 of the “easy” blossom rock gold from the claim. One morning Mountz awoke to find his “partner” and the $30,000 in gold gone. Down to his last dollar and despondent over the unhappy turn of events, Mountz took his last few sticks of dynamite, bored a hole at the mouth of the mine, inserted the dynamite, lit the fuse and walked away. The next morning, he returned to the site for a last farewell. But lo and behold, what he found in the debris from the blast was some very rich ore, and, an exposed vein of gold. When he had the ore tested, it assayed out at $1,800 a ton. On the strength of this he was able to get credit in Denver, with which he ordered sacks and wagons for transporting the ore. Needless to say Mackey could now pay his bills and even make some money. In short order a town and a mill sprouted.
Apex was founded in 1891, after the towns of Central City, Black Hawk, and Nevadaville were already well established. It eventually had two hotels, a miner’s hall and a dance hall. At one time, in 1896, 1,000 people lived here. Because the Mackey Mine continued producing rich ore, it justified its own mill, something of a rarity.
My grandfather Harry Blake worked at a mine in Apex for a while when my Dad was a boy and in the summer the family stayed in a cabin in Apex. Dad showed me the location and I need to go see if there is anything on that street. —Diane Blake Rittenhouse
According to Louella Fritz, there were over 5,000 people who received their mail at the Apex PO prior to WWI. She was born there and her dad was Postmaster. She talked to us when we had Gilpin County Reminiscences as an Adult Ed feature at the “new” school sometime in the early ’80s. Sure wish I knew where those tapes of those sessions went to. Rumor had it that the school taped over them. Jim Peyrouse did the excellent camera work of those sessions. —Kay Bower