Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Leadville, CO

Leadville is a statutory city and the county seat of Lake County, Colorado, and it is the only incorporated municipality in the county.

Sitting at an elevation of about 10,150 feet, Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States and is nicknamed the Two-Mile-High City and Cloud City.

The city lies near the headwaters of the Arkansas River in the Rocky Mountains, in view of Mount Elbert and Mount Massive, the two tallest peaks in Colorado.

Prospectors found placer gold in California Gulch beginning in 1859 and built the camp of Oro City, but the heavy black sand that clogged their sluices proved to be silver-rich lead carbonate, touching off the Colorado Silver Boom.

Leadville was founded in 1877 by mine owners Horace Tabor and August Meyer and was incorporated on February 18, 1878.

By 1880 Leadville had more than 15,000 residents and was one of the world's largest and richest silver camps, and in the late 19th century it was the second most populous city in Colorado after Denver.

Horace Tabor, the 'Leadville Silver King,' built the Tabor Opera House, which opened on November 20, 1879, and his Matchless Mine and his widow Baby Doe Tabor became enduring legends of the silver era.

Leadville's fortunes collapsed with the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in the Panic of 1893, after which local mines relied increasingly on lead, zinc, and gold.

The Leadville Historic District, filled with surviving mining-era buildings, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961.

The nearby Climax mine, once the largest underground mine in the world and at one time the source of about 75 percent of the world's molybdenum, long anchored the local economy and resumed production in 2010.