Sunshine History
Sunshine was settled in 1874 among the numerous hard rock mines of the Sunshine district. A post office was established in 1875. The town peaked in the 1870s, but endured as a mining town for four decades.
The 1880 publication History of Clear Creek and Boulder Valleys, Colorado described the early history of the town:
The Sunshine mining town is situated eight miles westerly from Boulder, on the easterly mountain slope that greets the rising sun. The scattered pine-tree groves and grassy surfaces make the scenery picturesque. Hunters and prospectors roamed over the pleasant ground as early as 1859, and kicked the rotten rock (tellurium blossom) around as if it was of no value. Fifteen years later (1874), came the pioneer family of the present settlement – that of Peter Turner. Soon after their arrival was born to them the first baby of the camp, a daughter, whom they named Sunshine. The Turner family was soon followed by those of E. M. Rhodes and Mrs. C. M. Wood.
The first telluride mine found was the Little Miami, in the fall of 1873, by D. C. Patterson, who afterward represented this county in the Territorial Legislature. The Sunshine Lode first showed rich mineral in the spring of 1874. The American mine, to which the fame of Sunshine was mainly due, was discovered the 22d of May, 1874, by Hiram Fullen, a notable pioneer miner of this section. The same season, the American was sold to Hiram Hitchcock, of New Hampshire, through the agency of Prof. J. Alden Smith, who remained for a number of years the successful resident manager of this property.
The marvelously rich ore of the American, and the money made out of it, gave impulse to the place, and in 1876 the population numbered 1,200, with all branches of business represented. Telegraph and post office had been established the year before; and still earlier, July 5, 1874, Sunshine became an incorporated town. The first school was opened in the spring of 1875.
About the 1st of May, 1875, a newspaper, the Sunshine Courier, was established by J. B. Bruner and J. W. Cairns. The proprietorship was changed to Bruner & Hawkins June 30, 1877; to Bruner & Shedd Nov. 3, 1877; to William G. Shedd Aug. 2. 1878, who removed the paper to Boulder, and soon after consolidated with the Boulder County News.
Sunshine is now experiencing the re-action inevitable to all mining towns built up on excitement; but is beginning to revive and build up on a solid basis, and, doubtless, its premature expectations will, in the end, be fully realized.
Most photographs of Sunshine date from the late 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s, when the town was experiencing a resurgence in mining activity. The photograph below, taken around 1910, suggests that much of the original town had by then been covered by mine infrastructure and waste rock piles. The revival proved short-lived, however, and the town was soon largely abandoned. Its post office closed in 1913.
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