The gold of Ophir

"The gold of Ophir" by D. Howard Gwinn is a novel written in the late 19th century. It reads as a frontier adventure that marries gritty Colorado mining-camp realism to treasure-hunt lore with hints of biblical legend and a lost civilization. The story centers on Chicago-bred Thomas Hardman, Jr., whose love and pride drive him West, and the seasoned prospector Abner Callaway, as they gamble everything on a great strike in the Gunnison country.

The opening of the novel follows Hardman from a privileged but penniless Chicago youth—his romance with wealthy Lena Upton blocked by her parents—into the explosive chaos of Leadville’s boom. He boards in a rough camp, befriends the guileless old prospector Abner Callaway, and inspects their faltering Little Pittsburg claim while taking a clerkship in an assay office. Alongside vivid scenes of saloons and stampedes, two sharp portraits of “experts” unfold: Captain De Vere, who quietly recognizes value in a spurned white clay and flips the revived mine for a fortune, and Jim Mitchel, a mining shark who baits a cautious doctor into a ruinous deal. After selling his own shares for a modest sum, Hardman stakes Callaway’s solo prospecting push. Weeks later, a rancher named Riley Cox arrives with word that Callaway has struck it rich, prompting Hardman’s swift, secret ride into the Gunnison. He finds Abner with coarse gold in hand, hears the tale of tracking the parent ledge through brutal country, and the partners settle in to build a stout cabin and begin serious work.