Orphan Boy mine

The Orphan Boy mine, also known as The Orphan, is a defunct gold and silver mine located some 12,000 feet in elevation along the Continental Divide near the town of Alma in Park County in central Colorado.

Discovered in 1861, the Orphan Boy was staked in 1862 and patented in 1870. The now ghost town of Sterling (not to be confused with Sterling in Logan County in northeastern Colorado) was established in 1862 to support the mines of the Mosquito Gulch area, including the Orphan Boy. Sterling soon had thirty houses, two stores, three saloons, four stamp mills to crush the ore, and a blacksmith shop. By 1865, the boom had waned, as the miners were compelled to dig deeper and found less gold to the ton but instead galena, the natural form of lead, which is often laced with silver.

In later years, silver, copper, and zinc were mined too. The Orphan Boy was closed at times because of water in the tunnels, litigation, or changes in management. The town of Sterling was deserted, and in 1880 the miners mostly headed north to a strike in Montana. Fewer than a dozen miners remained behind to work the claims in Mosquito Gulch. In 1881, it was reported that the Orphan Boy and another lode, the War Eagle, had produced $500,000 worth of silver in four years of operations. A new town since discarded, Park City, emerged to replace Sterling.

The Orphan Boy was owned by James Moynahan, a former Union Army veteran from Michigan. In 1903, Sheriff Silas D. Pollock forced a sale for some $21,000 to satisfy debts of the company. Thereafter, Moynahan remained as manager when the Orphan Boy came under the ownership of the Kennebec Mining Company. As early as 1879, the Orphan Boy was already considered aged. The Flume newspaper, based in the county seat of Fairplay, even called it the "old Orphan Boy mine."

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