- Moss Agate from Montgomery, Colorado
- Montgomery, Colorado 39.3555° N, 106.0765° W
- Collected July 1870
- BM 1948.64.113
Thin piece of moss agate. Moss agate is a semi-precious stone commonly used for jewelry.3 From Montgomery, Colorado. The now abandoned mining town has become a reservoir.1
Reeve would have been visiting just after the gold rush ended. The town would have been mostly abandoned at this time.2 This was part of a Yale geological trip of the northwest, right after Reeve’s graduation from Yale. The group had a military escort, and during the first day of the expedition they were joined by William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody. After a long and arduous journey, they reached Colorado near the end of their trip.6
For Further Reading
- Spencer McKee. 2019.”The Story of Colorado’s Sunken Ghost Town.” Outtherecolorado.com (Colorado Springs, CO). https://www.outtherecolorado.com/colorados-sunken-ghost-town/
- Hafen, LeRoy R., Parsons, William Bostwick, and Tierney, Luke D. 1941. Pike’s Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859. Arthur H. Clark Company
- (2009) moss agate. In: Manutchehr-Danai M. (eds) Dictionary of Gems and Gemology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
- (1984)”BLM Colorado State Office Cultural Resources Series Publications.” The New Empire of the Rockies: A History of Northeast Colorado, no. 16.
- Cody, William F. 2011. The Life of Hon. William F. Cody, Known as Buffalo Bill. UNP – Bison Original.https://archive.org/search.php?query=Life%20of%20Hon.%20William%20F.%20Cody%2C%20Known%20as%20Buffalo%20Bill
- Betts, C.W. 1871. “The Yale College Expedition of 1870.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine 43: 663-671. New York. Harper Brothers Publishing. https://books.google.com/books?id=CEtOAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA671&lpg=PA671&dq=yosemite+expedition+yale+harper&source=bl&ots=l_nVjo61A-&sig=ACfU3U0ljsudziR9EBVepfAVq7YtmkGwkQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhhMLRsvfoAhXBc98KHXioB9QQ6AEwDnoECAgQLg#v=onepage&q=yosemite%20expedition%20yale%20harper&f=false