photo #9149606

Boston & Colorado Gold and Silver Smelting Company workers pose by stacked silver ingots at Black Hawk. Metallurgist Richard Pearce is on the left. This photo has been identified as being in several different Colorado mining towns, but Pearce worked at the smelter in Black Hawk in 1875 when this photo was taken so that is almost certainly the correct location. The July 17, 1875 edition of the Colorado Miner reported "We learn from Richard Pearce, of the Boston & Colorado Works in Black Hawk, that since November, 1873, the company has shipped 1000 bars of fine silver, value over two million dollars."