In 1857 gold was found in Cherry Creek, in present-day Denver, luring thousands of people to the Rocky Mountain region. One party, led by Thomas Aikens, departed from the stream of gold-seekers and camped near Red Rocks at the mouth of Boulder Canyon in 1858. That fall and winter they started prospecting Boulder, Four Mile, St. Vrain, and Sunshine creeks. In mid-January of 1859, while prospecting on Four Mile Creek a significant amount of “color” was discovered. The digging, called 12 Mile Diggin’s, was the beginning of the discovery of significant lodes and the discovery of the town of Gold Hill.
Experienced miners and people with golden dreams came west to find a new future. Some came west in search of job security and a good wage, others came for adventure or to fulfill their dreams of upward mobility. Many people did not see mining as permanent endeavor, but expected to get rich quick and move on to stable life. Prospectors and miners (often bachelors) filtered up Boulder County’s canyons in “search of color.” A few struck it rich and many survived on the dreams of getting rich. New camps and towns were established and disappeared with the boom and bust cycles of the mining industry. Wall Street is one of the camps that survived through the years, tucked away in a wide spot in Four Mile Canyon.
Wall Street History
The mining camp had its beginnings with the arrival of Gardner P. Wood around 1866 when the vicinity was known as Sugar Loaf, named after the prominent mountain in the area. As the years went by two separate communities grew, one at the base of Sugar Loaf Mountain and one at the top.
In 1891, a disagreement began over where the post office would be located. During this four-year dispute, the mountaintop settlement was known as South Sugar Loaf and the base camp remained known as Sugar Loaf. Finally, in the winter of 1895, two post offices were operating and boardinghouse keeper Mary Collie convinced her neighbors to change their town’s name to Delphi. This name wouldn’t last for long. Charles W. Caryl appeared in Boulder County in the spring of 1897. “Caryl was outfitted splendidly always, had a fine carriage, and a set of blonde whiskers that were the envy of men everywhere.” He worked fast, quietly, and Boulder County could only guess what he was up to. A newspaper reported: “What does it mean? A man named Caryl has bought the Collie place on Four Mile Creek and has fixed it up nicely. He has, so it is said, purchased and paid cash for some 40 mines and prospects on the other side of the creek… The neighborhood is to be known as Wall Street… The affair looks like a gigantic one. Mr. Caryl says very little, keeps his own counsel, and pays as he goes along. There is no telling what may be developed up there.”
Caryl quickly established the Wall Street Townsite Company, the Nancy Gold Mining and Milling Company, the Wall Street Tunnel Company, and the Gold Extraction Mining and Supply Company. The town was platted under the name of Harry S. Badger, the superintendent of the mining and supply company.
From the spring of 1897 until the summer of 1899 Caryl’s companies enlarged Mary Collie’s boarding house creating the Wall Street Hotel, and built the Wall Street Mercantile and the Assay Office plus various cabins and storage buildings. On the 1899 Tax Roll, President Caryl of the Gold Extraction Mining and Supply Company owned all six blocks of Wall Street, nine structures, and 23 mines for a total taxable value of $6,500.00.
Charles Caryl had a vision and must have been a charismatic speaker for he was able to convince many people (mostly New Yorkers) to invest in his grand plans, But his dream began to unravel in 1899 when Mrs. Mary Williams, a wealthy 70 year old widow, filed a law suit saying she had been swindled out of $130,000. Mrs. Williams died the following month. Caryl settled the suit out of court with the Williams’ family heirs by giving them numerous mines and all of the Wall Street Townsite west of Third Street, which included the land on which the Assay Office sat.
In March of 1900 the newspapers reported that Charles Caryl was planning to build a $100,000 mill at Wall Street, but his finances and plans were unraveling rapidly. By the end of 1902 Caryl had sold or lost most of his Wall Street property. A new Boston-based organization, “The Wall Street Gold Extraction Company,” bought from the William’s estate: Caryl’s Assay Office, the lots to the west, and the land marked “Reserved.”
It took them 22 months to build their enormous mill on the land, and for a time Wall Street was the center of attention in the Boulder County mining districts. “Some [tourists saw] the mill illuminated at night by its hundreds of electric lights, providing such a beautiful evidence of new life and vigor to this section.”
The $150,000 mill was a failure, sold at a bankruptcy sale in 1907. It was dismantled for lumber and machinery to be used primarily in the U.S. Gold Corporation Mill on Sugar Loaf. It was from this company that the Bailey Family acquired the Assay Office in 1909.
Even though Caryl’s grand plan never came to be, and even though the Wall Street Gold Extraction Company Mill failed, many mines in the Wall Street area were successfully operated from the 1860’s until the Gold Mine Closing Order (L-208) of 1942.
The Assay Office is the only structure in Boulder County built by Caryl, and the only building associated with the Wall Street Gold Extraction Company Mill, which has survived intact and virtually unchanged.
Visiting Wall Street today is a peaceful drive up a winding road. Most of the buildings from the mining days are lost; some may remain as part of a house or cabin. The assay office is one building that retains almost all of its character from the mining days due to the care of the Bailey family.