After Winfield Scott Stratton discovered the Independence mine in 1891, miners and prospectors flooded into the area. Soon after, Warren Woods, with his sons Frank and Harry, set about establishing a townsite at the foot of Battle Mountain. They formed the Woods Investment Company, purchased a 136-acre site, named it Victor, and marketed lots for $25 each. Thus was born Victor, Colorado, “The City of Mines.”
Two headframes of the Portland Mine stand guard
over Victor.
Victor grew in the shadow of some of the most productive mines in the District, the Portland, Independence, Strong and Ajax mines. Marketing its lots as gold mines turned out to be prophetic. In 1896, while the Woods were excavating a foundation for the new Victor Hotel, they discovered a twenty-inch gold vein within the city limits. They moved the hotel to a new site and started the Gold Coin Mine, which produced in excess of $50,000 per month in ore. Today, there are more than two miles of Gold Coin tunnels beneath the streets of Victor.
The magnificent workings of the Gold Coin Mine
in downtown Victor.
Because the waste from the Gold Coin could not be dumped in the streets of Victor, a new way had to be devised to remove it. According to Marshall Sprague's book "Money Mountain," a dump was established for the Gold Coin some 4000 feet away in Arequa Gulch. To reach the new dump, the Woods drove a $200,000 underground transportation tunnel and created a tram system to traverse it. At the end of the tunnel, the $500,000 Economic Mill chlorination plant was constructed.
One of the District's greatest industrial
enterprises was the Woods' Economic Mill.
Underground tunnels and chlorination mills are more economic if they service multiple mines, so the Woods began buying up mining properties in the vicinity. It also became apparent that underground trams, interurban passenger trams, chlorination mills, and mine hoists would all require more and more electricity. Who better to supply that power than the Woods? They invested another $500,000 borrowed dollars in building the Skaguay hydroelectric power plant.
Alas,
hydroelectric power plants sometimes generate more power than can be easily
sold. The Woods answered this call by building the resort town of Cameron,
spending in excess of $200,000 to do so. When it became clear that Cameron
would not be a paying enterprise, or much of an electricity eater, the Woods
entered the electric street car business in Pueblo. This move made enemies
of the Thatcher family, who had controlled Pueblo since territorial days.
Enemies and potential rivals, all threatened by the Woods' growing influence,
were beginning to add up.
On August 21, 1899, a fire began in a crib in Victor's notorious Paradise Alley. Fourteen blocks were destroyed, leveling 800 buildings, causing $1.5 million in property damage and leaving 1500 people homeless. As the largest property owner, the Woods Investment Company suffered the heaviest loss. Although the Woods' Gold Coin operations were hampered by the fire, Victor quickly recovered and again began to prosper. But the enormous costs of rebuilding the city, combined with the Woods' already strained financial position, left them vulnerable.
The Gold Coin Mine engulfed in flames August
21, 1899.
In 1900, the main ore vein of the Gold Coin Mine pinched out and its profits declined precipitously. Then, to heap even more misfortune on misery, the expensive and inefficient Economic Mill burned. The vultures began to circle above Victor. The Woods empire was worth $45 million, but who knew how much debt it rested on? Rumors of an impending collapse caused a run on their First National Bank of Victor. Another important source of cash and credit dried up. The vultures pecked at the Woods empire until it could no longer be sustained. It slowly collapsed under a mountain of debt until finally the Woods Investment Company closed its doors in 1910.
Harry moved to California to start a new fortune in the oil business. He died in moderately comfortable circumstances in 1928. Frank suffered many personal tragedies, first losing his son in a mining accident, and later his daughter and two wives. Frank made every attempt at a financial comeback, but great success eluded him. When he died in Los Angeles in 1932, his friends had to take up a collection to pay for his burial.
At their peak, the Woods family controlled more than two dozen mining companies, including the Doctor Jack Pot, the First National Bank of Victor, the Economic Mill, the Pike's Peak Power Company, the Teller County Mining Supply Company, extensive real estate holdings, and untold blocks of stock in other companies. Many of their miscellaneous mining properties were consolidated into the United Gold Mines Company after its incorporation in 1902. This was likely an effort to issue shares in an exciting, new company and boost the value of the stock so that it might be used as loan collateral.
United GMC would continue to be a holding company for most of the District's great properties, eventually achieving the Woods' goal of consolidation and control. Unfortunately, they would never share in the fruits of the District's consolidation era.
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