By Steven Veatch
Connecting with the past of Cripple Creek, a place that means so much to so many, came closer when I looked at a collection of photographs and ephemera that belonged to William W. “Bill” Sutton, who had donated this collection to the Cripple Creek District Museum. Sutton’s collection takes us back in time—over eight decades—to Cripple Creek during a part of the Great Depression. And the photographs bring back a group of men who were largely forgotten by history.
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| Photo of William W. Sutton. He was well-grounded in western mining and came to Cripple Creek to work on a gold mine. Photo date circa 1932. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
Bill Sutton came to Cripple Creek in 1932—when the Great Depression was underway—to start a mine. It was a hard season for finding work. Because of the difficult times, there was renewed interest in the Cripple Creek mining district. The great gold camp carried with it the promise of something better, and men came looking for opportunities. Bill Sutton was one of these men and was ready to start work on the Geophysical mine, a new location on Carbonate Hill, northeast of Cripple Creek.
After Sutton arrived in Cripple Creek, he reported to Charlie Kuhlman, who had achieved a solid reputation in the district as a gold miner. Sutton’s first encounter with Kuhlman was tense. Kuhlman took one look at Bill Sutton and said, “You won’t last a week.” Sutton recalled, “I fooled him and stayed three years” (Sutton, n.d.).
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| William Sutton standing in front of Charlie Kuhlman’s house where he lived for 16 months. Photo date circa 1933. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| This local boy was Sutton’s neighbor. During the Depression young men found their way into a world of mining in Cripple Creek that was larger than they could imagine. Photo date circa 1933. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
Sutton roomed with Kuhlman in his rundown home on Crystal Street in Cripple Creek. Sutton wrote, “Al Mousseau and I lived with Charlie Kuhlman in his old shack and lived on boiled cabbage, black beans and sowbelly” (Sutton, n.d.). Kuhlman, who was born in Langendier, Germany in 1880, came to the district as a teenager in 1897, and latched onto mining like a bulldog with a fresh bone. He started out as a blacksmith in a mine and ended up as a gold miner.
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| Al Mousseau, a Detroiter who worked with and lived with Sutton and Kuhlman, poses for the camera. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
Officers of the Geophysical mine arrived in Cripple Creek in 1932 to meet and look at their investment. They were a diverse bunch, but a competent team. The mine had to be developed on a shoestring budget. The stakes were high. If they failed, they would lose all the money they had invested. As night fell on the day of their meeting, the men didn’t know enough to admit failure and so decided to go ahead with developing the property. They believed the district was still viable, with plenty of unknown and untouched ground. The men buzzed with energy and ideas. They were living an adventure story while looking for the sunburst dazzle of gold. With the future in front of them, they felt they had the luxury of time to find gold in Cripple Creek’s ground.
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| Photograph of the seven-person Geophysical mine group. Left to right: Bill Sutton, Al Mousseau, Karl Jorn (geophysicist), Charles Sutton (president), Mr. Williams (vice president), Mr. Hegee (secretary/treasurer), and Charlie Kuhlman. This group financed and operated the Geophysical mine on Carbonate Hill from 1932 to 1933. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
Sutton, Kuhlman, and Mousseau began the hard work of developing the mine. With the help of Karl Jorn, a geophysicist, they located they platted out the mine on the ground.
Once the mine was located, they set up the gin pole that served as a temporary headframe. Gathering steam, Sutton climbed to the top of the gin pole and attached guy wires to stabilize it. Below the gin pole the men built a wooden foundation, in the form of a framed rectangle, that they assembled with bolts and iron pins on the ground.
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| Wooden planks form a foundation around the mine shaft. Two men are setting up the gin pole. Photo date circa 1932. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| Sutton sits on top of the gin pole and attaches the guy wires to stabilize it. Photo date circa 1932. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| This view shows the pile of tailings that Sutton, Kuhlman, and Mousseau mined. Photo date circa 1932. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
After drilling, the holes were packed with explosives, and then the rocks were blasted. The air got so dense with smoke from the blast that it was blue. Once the dust settled and the smoke cleared, the broken rock was mucked and sent up the shaft in an iron bucket. Because it was a small operation, a hand windlass (manual-powered winch) was used to hoist the bucket, filled with waste rock and any ore, to the surface. When the bucket reached the surface it was upended, and its load dumped (Twitty, 2005). This bucket continued to come up to the surface until the miners cleared the bottom of the shaft of broken rock; then they drilled and blasted another round (Twitty, 2005). This process was repeated: drilling, blasting, mucking, and hoisting. As a result, an expanding lobe of rock tailings projected out from the dumping area.
It was an all-day struggle of backbreaking work as they searched for gold. The crew spent the evenings playing cards, smoking, and telling stories between drinks. As the days wore on, they complained about geological conditions and conclusions.
The days of mining blended together as the men deepened the shaft. When they eventually reached 64 feet, they hit a big vein of pyrite that signaled they were close to gold ore. This fueled Sutton’s optimism. In a moment of flashbulb clarity, Sutton knew what they had to do—dig deeper. Sutton wasn’t alone in this stance; Kuhlman felt the same way. At the depth of 64 feet, the shaft had passed the point where the gin pole would work safely. To go deeper, they needed to build a solid headframe over the shaft. Sutton and Kuhlman built a two-post gallows headframe since it was easy to erect and its cost was low.
The men of the Geophysical mine drove on the vein an additional 21 feet. At the bottom of the deepened shaft they chipped off fragments of rock and found more pyrite, lots of it, but no gold. It was pin-drop quiet. A cloud of unease hung over the mine. Bill Sutton’s face changed, and he said they had “worked like hell seven days a week for an interest in another failure” (Sutton, n.d.). They abandoned the mine in November 1933, and the Geophysical mine faded into the district’s whispering rumors of gold.
After they left the Geophysical mine, this same group took up a lease on the old South Burns mine, near the celebrated Vindicator mine, and hired a few unemployed miners. They thought they would have better luck at a developed mine. The South Burns mine, once the property of the Calumet Mining and Milling Company, was purchased by the Acacia Gold Mining Company in 1895 (Hills, 1900). It was worked by the Acacia company as late as 1926, and then the Nuestra Ventura Mining Corporation took it over for the next two years (Munn, 1984). Sutton’s group worked a lease at the South Burns from 1933 to 1935.
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| A view of the South Burns mine, Cripple Creek Mining District. Photo circa 1970. Gene Mourning photographer. From the Gene Mourning collection. Courtesy of the Western Museum of Mining and Industry. |
Sutton and his crew shipped decent gold ore from the South Burns which improved their financial condition. Sutton moved from Kuhlman’s place to the boarding house run by Babe Wolfkill and her daughters. A miner named Ed lived at the Wolfkill boarding house while he worked at the Blue Bird mine. In 1934, Ed was killed in an accident at the Blue Bird, and Sutton wrote, “We called his wife and asked where to bury him, and she said to throw him down the first old shaft you come to" (Sutton, n.d.). Sutton emphatically stated this was a true story. Whether Ed was thrown down a shaft, abandoned or otherwise, is not known. We can wonder if Ed’s wife ever saw the photo in which one of Mrs. Wolfkill’s daughters is holding Ed’s arm.
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| A Wolfkill daughter holds the arm of Ed, a local miner. He was killed in the Blue Bird mine in 1934. Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| Babe Wolfkill and her daughters standing in the yard of their Cripple Creek boarding house. Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
While working at the South Burns mine, Sutton was able to buy a car, a 1928 Dodge, and drove back and forth to work. With his Dodge automobile, Sutton moved in 1934 to what was left of Altman, one of the towns on the east side of the Cripple Creek Mining District. Most of the town had burned down in a 1903 fire started by arson.
Sutton’s accommodations were primitive in Altman. He called his place the “Pilch” and “batched” there for another year while he operated the South Burns mine (Sutton, n.d.). His Altman place must have been terrible for him to call it the Pilch. A pilch is a wrapper worn over an infant’s diaper.
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| A photo of Sutton’s ramshackle home in Altman that he called the “Pilch.” Photo date circa 1934.William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| A group of gritty mining men who lived in Altman and worked with Bill Sutton during the Depression at the South Burns mine. Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| Ben McPherson, a weathered and salty miner, was Sutton’s neighbor in Altman. In the photo he wears a top hat, has one hand in his pocket, and a cigarette in his other hand. His downward gaze is sharp. Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| Texas Art Roer and Clem Anette, both Sutton’s neighbors in Altman, relax by their car. Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
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| This photo shows good fishing below Cheesman Dam for Ed Anette, who was Sutton’s hoistman on the South Burns mine. Born in Kansas in 1875, Anette was in Cripple Creek as early as 1900. Photo date circa 1934. Anette lived in Altman. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
According to Sutton, “we finally shipped enough ore to get all the stockholder’s money back and closed her [South Burns mine] down” (Sutton, n.d.). After the Sutton group gave up their lease and left in 1935, the South Burns mine produced gold ore for the Acacia Gold Mining Company through 1936. In 1937, Golden Conqueror Mines leased the South Burns and mined a large body of ore. Acacia Gold Mining Company operated it from 1938 until 1947 (Munn, 1984).
Bill Sutton and his crew spent their Depression-Era days chasing ore and most of their nights cursing their lack of finding it. Cripple Creek, though, offered them many diversions. Sutton described Cripple Creek as a “fun place . . . where the sky was the limit” (Sutton, n.d.). Saloons were busy and dance halls hummed. One favorite diversion was gambling. Bets were placed on donkey races, boxing matches, and everything in between.
Sutton and his South Burns group wanted to make a good bet and improve the odds to win. To help win the bets they made on the local boxing matches, they brought in a young prizefighter by the name of Chief Stanley Fell to fight all of the local young mining toughs who stepped into the ring with him. Fell’s hometown was Lamar, Colorado. He was 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighed 200 pounds. He fought in the 1931 Kansas State Amateur Championship Tournament as a heavyweight. Fell later went professional and was managed by Hoot Burger. He won the 1934 Colorado Heavyweight Title against Carl Walker, at the match in Lamar, Colorado.
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| Chief Stanley Fell, a boxer the Sutton group “imported to fight local boys in the ring.” Photo date circa 1934. William Sutton collection, courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
As the depression deepened, Charley Lehew, owner of the Cripple Creek Auto Company and the local Buick agent, wanted to stage events to bring people and their money to Cripple Creek in the summer. He decided to hold a donkey race: the “Grand Donkey Derby Day Sweepstakes.” Lehew, with his business partner, Bryan Jones, started the Donkey Derby Days in 1931. Lehew, Jones, and Mr. Lynch of the Palace Hotel started the “Miles High Club” to support the event (Summers, 2011).
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| Avis Welty’s membership card in the Miles High Club. This club was organized to support the Donkey Derby Days. The club later changed its name to the “Two Mile High Club” and continues to take care of the Cripple Creek donkeys. Courtesy of the Cripple Creek District Museum. |
In addition to the donkey race, Lehew and Jones included a boy’s relay race, a girl’s chariot race, a tug-of-war between Cripple Creek and Victor businessmen, saddle-horse races, stock-car races, and a boxing match (Summers, 2011).
After the success of the donkey races, Lehew built a racetrack and added car races. According to Sutton, Lehew “furnished the shovels, picks, dump truck, and kept a keg of good old Cripple Creek whiskey for all who worked on the racetrack” (Sutton, n.d.). Sutton said Lehew held the auto races first, then the donkey races followed. Sutton never missed a Donkey Derby Days event while he was in Cripple Creek.
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| A parade down Cripple Creek’s Bennett Avenue to celebrate the start of the Third Annual Donkey Derby Days. Photo date 1933. From the Wilkinson Family collection, Cripple Creek District Museum, CCDM 2000134. |
Bill Sutton’s three years of working in Cripple Creek came and went, and we are as close to knowing Sutton’s story as we can come. After the crew ended their lease on the South Burns in 1935, things changed. Some of the people in this story stayed, others left.
Bill Sutton slipped away into the long ago, and what happened to him after his three years in Cripple Creek is not known. Chief Stanley Fell left boxing and Cripple Creek to work at the CF&I steelyards in Pueblo. Fell died in 1986 in Pinedale, Wyoming. In 1936, Charlie Kuhlman married Gladys Adams. Kuhlman remained in Cripple Creek the rest of his life and died there in 1965. Ben McPherson later moved to Goldfield, where he lived with his wife and daughter.
All of Sutton’s outfit had lived on the excitement of gold mining during those Depression years. Sutton’s manuscript and his photos conjure a story of men who belong to another time. Because of Sutton’s donation to the Cripple Creek District Museum, we get to hear their story and meet those men while we learn about their mining adventures in Cripple Creek.
Acknowledgments
I thank Shelly Veatch and the Colorado Springs Oyster Club critique group for reviewing the manuscript, and Dr. Bob Carnein for his valuable comments and important help in improving this paper.
References and further reading
Hill, F., 1900, The Official Manual of the Cripple
Creek District: Colorado Springs, Fred Hill.
Munn, B., 1984, A Guide to the Mines of the Cripple
Creek District: Colorado Springs, Century One Press.
Summers, D., 2011, Colorado Community Media, Donkey
Derby Days Through the Years, retrieved from https://coloradocommunitymedia.com/stories/donkey-derby-days-through-the-years,81373,
on November 13, 2020.
Sutton, W.W., n.d., untitled manuscript, Cripple Creek
District Museum Archives.
Twitty, E., 2005, Riches to Rust: A Guide to Mining
in the Old West: Montrose, Western Reflections Publishing Company.