Owner Comments:
MEDAL APPEARANCE/CONDITION:
Choice Uncirculated — (Slabbed in Oversized Holder)
*Unique design and extremely rare. This beautiful specimen was kept in phenomenal condition for 132 years at the time of writing this (2023). Completely white, untoned surfaces allow the sharp detail to present itself on this large, 51mm medal. Not only is this a true rarity, having an example in MS makes it all the more scarce.*
MEDAL BACKGROUND:
Struck circa 1891 to commemorate the opening of the 'Colorado Mineral Palace' which was located in Pueblo, Colorado. — Additionally, this is also the “oldest” commemorative-specific medal in this collection which is certainly noteworthy.
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“Colorado Mineral Palace was a very large building, with a square footage about the size of a football field. Here it is pictured in the 1920s, before the roads of the park were paved. Today, the location of the palace is occupied by a municipal greenhouse.
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The result was the Colorado Mineral Palace—a grand building a short walk north of downtown Pueblo, designed to show off Colorado’s mineral wealth as ostentatiously as possible. Multiple major figures of Colorado society became involved in its construction and operation, including former and future state governor Alva Adams, engineer and railroad magnate William Palmer, businessman and political activist William Hope Harvey, and others.
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The Colorado Mineral Palace Company was founded to oversee financing and construction, which began in 1889. “The Colorado Mineral Palace at Pueblo, when completed, will be a dazzling object lesson to all the world of the ore-wealth of the Rocky Mountain region,” crowed the National Magazine that year. “The citizens of this prosperous, and in many ways remarkable city, are entitled to great credit for conception and execution.”
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The company and its investors secured twenty-seven acres from the city for the project, for both the palace itself and expansive grounds. Local laborers and experts from around the country came together to dig a large lake, plant dozens of trees, install expansive flower gardens, construct a public bath house, and even built a small zoo—the second in Colorado.
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Lake Clara
The Mineral Palace Gardens included Lake Clara, which was named for Clara Latshaw who served on the first Park District Board of Commissioners and was instrumental in acquiring land for the park. The lake still exists, though it has been significantly reduced in size.“ — Credited Source: historycolorado.org
RARITY: Unknown; Likely very rare (I have yet to encounter another example)
NGC Census not available.
MEDAL DESCRIPTION:
(White Metal, 51mm, Round, Plain Edge)
OBVERSE: To Commemorate the Opening of Colorado Mineral Palace / (Image of the Palace in Center) / Pueblo, / Colo.
REVERSE: (Far Left and afar Right Images of the City of Pueblo Exhibited Vertically) / Directors / W.W. Palmer, Pres. / D. Fletcher - M.C. Brown / A.W. Chamberlin / G.H. Parsons - G.H. Hobson / F. Barndollar / O.M.P. Baxter / B. Guggenheim / A.J. McQuaid / C.L. Hill - Sec. / (Image of the back of Colorado Mineral Palace) / C. Otero
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
(Colorado Mineral Palace Financial Troubles):
“Despite, or perhaps because of, the grandiosity of the building and the ambition of its developers, from the very beginning it faced financial troubles.
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The Colorado Mineral Palace Company raised over $100,000 for its construction, but in the end the project took a year longer than expected and went $50,000 over budget—an astronomical sum at the time, resulting in a total cost equivalent to $4.3 million in 2020. Shortly after construction was complete, the company filed for bankruptcy and was forced to turn over the property to the city of Pueblo.
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Then came the Panic of 1893, a serious economic depression followed shortly by the crash of the silver market. Colorado’s mining economy suffered greatly, including all the mining magnates who’d financed the Mineral Palace.
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Even in the palace’s heyday the city struggled to maintain it. Repairs were both frequent and expensive, and the building had no heating at all—a cost-saving measure that made it almost unusable for half the year due to cold or windy weather.
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And then, barely three decades after the Palace's grand opening, the Great Depression came.” — Credited Source: historycolirado.org