In the spring of 1891 W.S. Stratton persuaded Leslie Popejoy to grubstake him in the Cripple Creek District in return for half the profits. William Scott Stratton staked two claims on the south slope of Battle Mountain on July 4, 1891. His two claims were called the Independence and the Washington in honor of the holiday. Stratton quickly sold is house and two lots, one in Denver and one in Colorado Springs, so that Stratton could buy out Popejoy’s share. Stratton’s reason: some assays from the Independence lode showed a value of $380 per ton.
One boulder from the Independence Mine brought $60,000, which Stratton used to sink a chute. While doing so he tapped directly into a rich vein of gold.
In 1892 Stratton hit gold in the Washington Mine.
Stratton was the Cripple Creek District’s first millionaire.
In 1894 miners went on strike, Stratton’s Independence mine and Portland mine came to an agreement with them, against the wishes of other mine owners. Stratton incorporated the Portland Company and was the first president and largest stockholder.
Mining companies were becoming concerned about ore theft and in 1897, they hired the services of Pinkerton agents.
In 1900, Stratton sold the Independence mine to the Venture Corporation of London for $10 million. Venture Corporation incorporated the property as Stratton’s Independence Ltd. And sold shares on the London stock exchange. Ore reserves were discovered to be less then previously thought in late 1900. Venture Corporation sued Stratton, claiming the mine had been salted. Stratton died in 1902, but his estate successfully defeated the lawsuit.
In 1903 there was a major strike by the Western Federation of miners. Many of the miners throughout the Cripple Creek District walked out of any mines that were shipping ore to the mills at Colorado City, in order to support a strike by the mill workers there. On January 26, 1904, non-union replacement workers were coming off shift in the Independence Mine when the cage they were riding in had a serious mishap. The cage was drawn into the sheave wheel at the top of the shaft. The cable that supports the cage was severed, and the cage fell. Fifteen miners died. The coroner’s report stated the engineer lost control because of managements negligence, having failed to properly install a safety device to prevent overwinding. The disk brakes had also been detatched. The Western Federation of Miners echoed the coroners charge of mismanagement. Although the property was at the time guarded by soldiers and enclosed by the militia encampment, providing no access to union members, management accused the union of tampering with the machinery. One hundred and sixty-eight non-union men reportedly quit the mine because of the incident. Just after a few months later and after severl violent incidents were not properly investigated, the WFM was drive out of the district by force of arms in a struggle that came to be called the Colorado Labor Wars.
Between late 1893 and April 1899, approximately 200,000 ounces of gold was removed from the Independence Mine.
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