Tom�s Baby

After gold was discovered in Breckenridge, Colorado in the late 1850s, one of Colorado�s earliest strikes of the precious yellow metal, until the find petered out in the mid 1860s Breckenridge was a typical Rocky Mountain boom town full of prospectors and profiteers. A lot of gold was taken, and a few fortunes made, during Breckenridge�s heyday however one story continues to live on in the annals of gold prospecting and Wild West history.
While the days of easy finds were long past, in July of 1887 a miner named Tom Groves was seen walking into Breckenridge gently cradling a large object swaddled in a blanket. Upon arriving at the assay office Groves opened his precious bundle to reveal what was the largest gold nugget ever found in the state of Colorado, the 13 � pound chunk of pure gold that came to be known as �Tom�s Baby� for the way he had carried it into Breckenridge.
Three days later after being sent via train to Denver, Tom�s Baby disappeared for some 85 years. Though a thorough search was made and rumors as to its location abounded no one knew for sure what had happened to that special nugget until 1972. The Colorado State Historical Museum finally located the missing �Baby� in a collection of gold specimens that had been deposited for safekeeping with a Denver bank in 1926. Though mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of Tom�s Baby for the years that it was missing and when found it was some five pounds lighter than it originally weighed, there was no doubt that this fabulous piece of Breckenridge, Colorado history had finally been located.
While modern visitors are unlikely to find gold nuggets like the one that Tom Groves did back in 1887, the Country Boy Mine in Breckenridge, Colorado offers underground tours of a working gold mine as well as the opportunity to try your hand at panning for some gold of your own. The best part of all is you get to keep whatever gold that you are lucky enough to find.