The Sears Gazetteer contains a list of locations in the USA with the name Sears, compiled by Ray Sears over the years. Also see Sears Gazetteer – Maine, Sears Gazetteer – Mississippi, Sears Gazetteer – Alaska and Sears Gazetteer – New Mexico.
Making a left turn at Alburquerque and travelling underground about an hour and a half across the border from New Mexico to Colorado, you will end up inside the Sears Number One Mine in San Miguel County. The Sears Number One Mine is just outside of Slick Rock, Colorado, in the Slick Rock Mining District.
Coincidentally, searching for Slick Rock on Amazon results in this thrilling page-turner as the top hit.
What did The Sears No. 1 mine produce? The Sears No. 1 mine produced Uranium and Vanadium.
Searching for the mine on Google presents us with some unrelated litigation via The Colorado Law Reporter, Volume 1. SEARS v. COLLINS, April, 1881 has Collins in court against Sears, his brother-in-law, “to compel a conveyance of the undivided one-half of a mining claim called the Rough and Ready lode. This would have been during the Colorado Silver Boom.
There’s more info on surveys and mining claims in this book.
The Boulder County, Colorado Surveys and Mineral Claims at the General Land Office, 1859-1876: An Annotated Index contains the names of the mine owners (claimant), surveyors and survey crew members, along with the mines and their range and township information. One additional piece of information was added when found—cabins, houses, barns, buildings, bridges, boarding houses, mills, toll roads, wagon roads, creeks and rivers. Using those listings is one way to see what was built where during these early mining days.
Missouri Falls is quite far away from Sears No 1. Mine, and SEARS lost the case, so let’s move on.
In the Colorado Mine Directory 1879-1910, there are a number of Sears listed.
CW Sears was a part of Golden Age Mining Company in Lake County. Charles B Sears was a part of Red Park Mining & Water Co in Grand County.
JH Sears worked at the Greenback Mine. L Sears (or multiples of such) worked at Fulton, Idaho, and Spar Mine. All of those were in Ouray County.
Nathan Sears worked at Whitney Mine/Mill. TD Sears was a part of Black Hawk Tunnel & Mining. Both in Gilpin County.
There’s a book or two written about Gilpin County gold mines.
Clark, Sears & Co ran the Magnolia Mine for awhile, a mine situated 12,198 feet above sea level. Pike’s Peak for comparison, is 14,110 feet.
Pike’s Peak was named after Brigadier General Zebulon Montgomery Pike, who was killed during the Battle of York in the War of 1812 .
Rufus Wainwright wrote a song about Zebulon (well, probably not about General Pike).
Pike’s journals are defined as culturally-significant works which were required reading for all American explorers who followed him in the 19th century. A Pike’s Gazetteer could be put together just on places and things named after him.
The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, later known as the Colorado Gold Rush, started in 1858 and was one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history.
According to The Diggings.com, Ralph Sears of Grand Junction, Colorado is the owner or former owner of 16 mining claims in San Miguel. All are just north of the Sears Number One Mine.
I haven’t found yet where the name Sears Number One Mine came from, though there are 270 more results for Sears on The Diggings. I can see this being useful research for future posts about the Sears family members who worked the mines for a living.
Travelling east from Sears Number One Mine about another 6 1/2 hours you will end up at Sears Spring in Huerfano County, south of Pueblo, Colorado. Here’s the Sears Spring Topo Map. I didn’t find a lot on Sears Spring.
Another Sears location in Colorado, though not in the Gazetteer, is the Sawyer House / Sears Hotel (Burge Hotel) in Phillips County. The Hotel is on the National and State Register of places, and is located at 230 N. Interocean, Holyoke.
The Burge Hotel was built in 1887. It opened as the Sawyer House and eventually became the Sears Hotel around 1912. In 1926 the name was changed by the new owners to Burge Hotel.
Finally, the Wes Sears’ Wildlife Memorial Garden was planted at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Boulder in 2005. The Boulder County Audubon Society has published a book on Colorado Wildscapes. Another scenic spot to be added to the Sears Gazetteer.
Colorado Wildscapes: Bringing Conservation Home
Also see:
Abandoned Eagle Mine, EPA Superfund Site in Accipitridae, Colorado (flickr)
San Miguel County Historical Register and Designation of Historical Landmarks
Colorado Mining History books on goodreads.com
San Miguel County, Co
Cabot’s Pueblo Museum
History Colorado – El Pueblo History Museum
Colorado Preservation Inc