Mining

Placer mining played an important role in the establishment and growth of Fairplay. With the introduction of hydraulic machinery in 1867, placer mining took off and Chinese immigrants began arriving to work the mines. Chinese miners were renowned for their "knowledge of water management," which made them skilled at placer mining.[1] Fredrick A. Clark and J. W. Smith owned the Fairplay Placer and, with the help of Edward Thayer, employed hundreds of Chinese miners.[2] By 1875, Thayer had developed new mines along the South Platte, employing approximately two-hundred Chinese workers during the summer months.[3] These new placer mines were "the most extensive in the country" for many years[4] and Chinese labor boosted profits for Clark & Smith.[5]

After severe flooding obliterated the Fairplay placer in 1878, Thayer headed to Como and, while many Chinese miners followed him,[6] some chose to stay and continue working the placers near Fairplay.[7] The Flume records that there were forty to sixty Chinese miners at Fairplay in 1882[8] and that, in 1883, they were continuing to have financial success.[9] Chinese miners were employed by the Pease & Sidell placer along Beaver Creek in 1883[10] and in 1884 Chin Lin Sou and Ah Yot were organizing miners along the Platte.[11] Unfortunately, the success of the Chinese miners made them targets for violence in the form of claim jumping and robbery.[12]

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[1] William Wei, Asians in Colorado: a History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2016), 47.

[2] Linda Bjorklund, A Brief History of Fairplay (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013), 70-71.

[3] Gerald E. Rudolph, “The Chinese in Colorado, 1869-1911” (dissertation, 1964), 47.

[4] Frank Hall, “Park County,” in History of the State Of Colorado, vol. 4 (Chicago, IL: The Blakely Printing Company, 1895), 265.

[5] History Colorado, "Historic Mining Sites of Park County," YouTube, August 11, 2020, video, https://youtu.be/IcMc4OoD0r8.

[6] Bjorklund, 73.

[7] Rudolph, 50.

[8] Fairplay Flume, Apr. 6, 1882, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/.

[9] “Mining Notes,” Fairplay Flume, Aug. 2, 1883, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

[10] “A Good Clean-Up,” Fairplay Flume, May 24, 1883, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

[11] Fairplay Flume, Jul. 17, 1884, Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection.

[12] Wei, 51.