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17-565: Thomas F. Walsh had emigrated penniless from Ireland to the United States in 1869, then over the next quarter century built up a small fortune as a carpenter , miner , and hotel manager . His first daughter (born in 1880) died in infancy, but his daughter, Evalyn (born in 1886), and son, Vinson (born in 1888), both survived. He lost nearly all his life's savings in the Panic of 1893 . The family moved to Ouray, Colorado , in 1896, where Walsh bought

34-630: A US commissioner to the Paris Exposition of 1899 ., On July 11, 1879 in Leadville, Colorado, he married Carrie Bell Reed. The couple had two children: In 1903 the family moved into an ornate mansion at 2020 Massachusetts Avenue . Later, the house became the Indonesian Embassy . On January 23, 1909, The Aero Club of Washington was founded, with Walsh as president, to promote the new technology of aviation . Due to his prior involvement with

51-428: A short period of time, Walsh had made a fortune totaling $ 3,000,000 (equivalent to $ 109,872,000 in 2023). With this wealth, Walsh and his family enjoyed a lavish lifestyle that included trips to Europe, fine clothes, and expensive motor cars. Soon after his mine was established, around 1898 the family moved to Washington, D.C. . Walsh was moving in prominent circles, and President William McKinley appointed him as

68-616: A time, Thomas settled in Worcester , Massachusetts , with his aunts, Catherine and Bridget Walsh Power, who helped "shake the greenhorn off him." In the early 1870s Walsh heeded the call to " Go West, young man " and settled in Colorado , where he was paid well for his carpentry skills. Walsh was said to be attracted to the opportunities that came with the gold rush, including trading goods and services at inflated prices, as opposed to gold mining itself. Gradually, he became more and more immersed in

85-520: A two-gun police sergeant in Leadville, Colorado . Their brother Michael died in 1904 in Denver, Colorado , of dropsy of the liver . According to his daughter Evalyn Walsh Mclean's book, Father Struck It Rich , Walsh became an apprentice to a millwright at the age of twelve and grew into a fine carpenter. In 1869, he and his sister Maria emigrated to the United States after the death of their father. For

102-705: Is a famous and highly productive old gold mine located between Ouray and Telluride, Colorado . The mine is within the Sneffels-Red Mountain-Telluride mining district in the San Juan Mountains. It was discovered by Thomas F. Walsh in 1896, and is (or was) owned by the Federal Resources Corp. The mine produced about 1.5 million troy ounces of gold, and 4 million troy ounces of silver, from 1896 to 1990. At 2009 prices, Camp Bird's production would be worth over US$ 1.5 billion. Walsh sold

119-609: The Camp Bird Mine (which was thought to have been worked out) and struck a massive vein of gold and silver. Now a multi-millionaire, Thomas Walsh moved his family to Washington, D.C., in 1898. After spending 1899–1900 in Paris , France , the Walshes returned to Washington where Thomas Walsh commenced the construction of a mansion on Massachusetts Avenue NW. The Walsh-McLean House, completed in 1903, cost $ 835,000 (the most expensive residence in

136-668: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Colorado signed an Administrative Order on Consent with Caldera Mineral Resources, which purchased the property out of bankruptcy. The Order specifies on-site erosion control "to prevent the downstream migration of contaminated soil", with work to be accomplished in two phases. Phase 1, the EPA’s Time-Critical Removal Action, was started in August 2017, and

153-585: The Camp Bird Mine in the 1930s in his classic memoir One Man's West. C.W. McCall sang "Way out in Colorado, in the Camp Bird Mine, down deep in the darkness, on level nine..." The song moved the mine's founding to 1892 to make the rhyme work and added a ghost. The Camp Bird Mine filed for a permit to resume mining in late 2007, but remains inactive as of August 2008. In 2012, the mine received permits to rehabilitate existing mine workings. In August 2017,

170-529: The Paris Exposition, Walsh became friends with Leopold II of Belgium , for whom he designated a suite in his home. The King never made it to the United States but when Albert , Leopold's nephew, and his wife Elisabeth traveled to the United States in 1919, Walsh's wife, by then widowed, was decorated by the King for her service during World War I . In 1908, Walsh's daughter Evalyn married Edward Beale McLean ,

187-680: The allegedly cursed Hope Diamond for his wife for $ 180,000 (although the purchase was not formalized until February 1911, and not completed until after a lawsuit settled out of court in 1912). Evalyn Walsh died on April 26, 1947. To cover Evalyn's significant debts, the Walsh Mansion was sold in 1952 to the Government of Indonesia for use as an embassy. 38°54′36.9″N 77°2′46.5″W  /  38.910250°N 77.046250°W  / 38.910250; -77.046250 Thomas Walsh (miner) Thomas Francis Walsh (April 2, 1850 – April 8, 1910)

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204-465: The city at the time) and had 60 rooms, a theater, a ballroom, a French salon, a grand staircase, and $ 2 million in furnishings which took several years to purchase and install. Walsh's daughter Evalyn Walsh married Edward Beale "Ned" McLean (the publishing heir whose family owned The Washington Post ) in 1908, and after her father's death in April 1910 lived in the Walsh Mansion. In 1910, Ned McLean bought

221-488: The gold industry. He was soon trading mining equipment to prospectors in exchange for their mining claims as payment. He also studied mining technology at night. In 1877 he moved to Leadville, Colorado with a small fortune of between $ 75,000 (equivalent to $ 2,146,000 in 2023) and $ 100,000 (equivalent to $ 2,861,000 in 2023). Along with his wife, he ran the Grand Central Hotel in Leadville. Eventually Walsh

238-483: The property for US$ 5.2 million in 1902. Walsh's daughter, Evalyn Walsh McLean , later purchased the Hope Diamond . Walsh died in 1909. His daughter Evalyn Walsh McLean devotes several chapters to the mine in her autobiography "Father Struck It Rich". Camp Bird is named after the "Camp Birds", probably Gray Jays , that ate many a miner's lunch. Western Colorado native David Lavender related his experiences working at

255-453: The son of John Roll McLean , who later became the publisher and owner of The Washington Post from 1916-1933. Walsh died on April 8, 1910, at his home in Washington, D.C. Thomas Walsh was a cousin twice removed of W. Arthur Garrity, Jr. , the federal judge who issued the famous 1974 order that Boston schools desegregate by means of busing. Camp Bird Mine The Camp Bird Mine

272-543: Was an Irish-American miner who, in 1896 in Colorado, discovered one of the largest gold mines in the United States of America. Walsh was born April 2, 1850, to Michael Walsh, a farmer, and Bridget Scully. He was most likely born on his father's farm, Baptistgrange , in Lisronagh , Tipperary, Ireland. He had two siblings, who both also emigrated to the United States and settled in the West. His sister Maria married Arthur Lafferty,

289-446: Was overcome by gold fever. Unlike other prospectors, however, he took a methodical and careful approach to prospecting, which paid off. In 1896, he came home and uttered the words which his daughter later used as the title of her memoir: "Daughter, I've struck it rich!" His Camp Bird Gold Mine near Ouray, Colorado was soon turning out $ 5,000 a day (equivalent to $ 183,000 in 2023) in ore. The Walsh family became very wealthy. In

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