Augusta Tabor

Augusta Tabor was the first white woman to live in the mining camp in Idaho Springs. Later she and husband Horace moved to Leadville, where they set up a store. After nearly 20 years of gold mining in the Colorado mountains, supplemented by Augusta’s earnings from taking in boarders and doing laundry, they literally struck it rich in 1878 with a silver vein that soon produced $10,000 a day. Horace was elected lieutenant governor later that year and surprised Augusta with a $40,000, 20-room house at Eighteenth and Broadway in Denver. After Horace left her for “Baby Doe” and her marriage dissolved, Tabor continued to live in the Broadway mansion, keeping as many as 14 boarders at a time. She hosted fund-raising events in her large home and gave to community charities and civic projects. She dedicated herself to the Pioneer Ladies Aid Society, helping pioneer women in need.