Editing Silver Cliff, Colorado (section)

==History==
[[File:Market. Cor. Main & Mill Sts., (...) Silver Cliff, Colo, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views.jpg|left|thumb|Corner of Main & Mill streets, from Robert N. Dennis collection of stereoscopic views 1870?-1900?]]
Silver Cliff was formed in the late 1870s to house the miners of its namesake, the Silver Cliff mine, and other silver mines in the neighborhood, such as the Bull-Domingo. The town, incorporated in 1879, had 5,040 residents by the 1880 census, making it the third most populous town in Colorado, after [[Denver]] and [[Leadville, Colorado|Leadville]].

Silver Cliff was the county seat from 1886 (when the town won the seat from [[Rosita, Colorado|Rosita]]) to 1928 (when the seat moved to nearby [[Westcliffe, Colorado|Westcliffe]]).

The Silver Cliff mine, also known as the Geyser mine, is on the hill immediately north of the town. Although a large operation that employed many residents of Silver Cliff, the mine was the unfortunate object of eastern stock manipulators. Shares in the Silver Cliff mine were promoted in 1879 by [[James R. Keene]], a famous New York stock operator. The company went [[bankrupt]] within a few years, and was sold to the Julianna Mining Company, which was run by an even more unscrupulous stock promoter, Dr. Richard C. Flower of [[Boston]]. The Julianna company went bankrupt in 1888. The shareholders rescued the company and renamed it the Geyser Mining Company. Although Flower withdrew from the management, the Geyser Mining Company continued to be run by some of Flower's cronies, so it should not be a surprise that the mine never made a profit. At one time the Geyser mine was the deepest mine in Colorado.<ref>Dan Plazak (2006) ''A Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top'', {{ISBN|978-0-87480-840-7}}</ref>