About The silver lance. [volume] (Crystal, Colo.) 1892-1899
Crystal, Colo. (1892-1899)

The Silver Lance and Marble Times and Crystal Silver Lance

George C. Rohde founded the Silver Lance in Crystal, Colorado in 1892. He was alternately described by his fellow newspapermen as " … one of those slimy, greasy individuals who occasionally disgrace the newspaper profession by entering its domain" (Avalanche, March 16, 1893), and a "forcible writer, a clear thinker, and a jolly good fellow" (Marble City Times, August 10, 1894). Rohde set up shop in Crystal, a mining town high in the Elk Mountains of Gunnison County, after purchasing the Aspen Union Era and moving it to Crystal. The Silver Lance began its run as an unapologetically People's Party paper, running the Populist "Confession of Faith" in almost every issue.

We believe:

That metallic money is a fraud.

The private property in land is robbery.

That protective tariffs are a delusive sham.

…

That the SILVER LANCE is the newspaper of this section.

That human ignorance is the sole cause of human misery.

…

The Avalanche lobbed harsh criticism at Rohde in several editorials from March 1893, calling him a "snapping cur," a "wearisome grumbler," and a "pretty good-sized bag of wind." Rohde snapped back. In a response from March 14, 1893, he warned, "People who treat us like a dog should not grumble if they get bit."

In 1894, Rohde relocated to Gunnison to launch another populist paper, the People's Champion. Rohde sold the Silver Lance to George C. Eaton and Josephine L. Wise. She was listed as the publisher of the Lance by 1896 and later went on to become the editor of the Elk Mountain Pilot. Frank I. White, alongside Eaton, took the helm of the Lance as publishers in 1897. White briefly left the Lance to work at the Glenwood Post in September 1898, but was back at the Lance by December of the same year boosting the virtues of Crystal. In a salutatory article, reprinted in the Aspen Daily Times on December 23, 1898, White said, "we feel our energies are to be employed in a period of rapid development and fruitful production of the richest mineral district of the Rocky Mountains." Despite White's optimistic outlook of Crystal's—and the Lance's—economic potential, the Lance was forced to consolidate with the Marble City Times for financial survival in 1899. On December 7 of that year, the Aspen Tribune reported, "There is one great disadvantage resulting from the consolidation of the Crystal Silver Lance and the Marble Times … and that lies in the length of the name of the consolidated sheet." The newly consolidated Marble Times and Crystal Silver Lance moved to more prosperous Marble, Colorado, and Crystal was largely abandoned by 1917. The Marble Times and Crystal Silver Lance eventually reverted to the shorter Marble Times. The Colorado Business Directory last mentioned the Marble Times in 1906.

Provided by: History Colorado