Sam and Tim Harmon grubstaked two of the first miners to explore Crystal River Valley. In return, they received controlling interest in the silver the miners discovered. Thus, they set up the Black Queen Mine1 and worked three good veins from 1869 until 1893. In its heyday, the mine employed two shifts of five workers each and produced $50,000 worth of silver a year from 1879 to 1891. Fred Keeperly, a foreman at the mine, developed a way to mill the ore at the mine, which solved many of the transportation woes before the Crystal River Railroad came in 1880. But snowslides, explosions, and spring floods increased operating costs so that expanding the mine became impossible. When the price of silver plummeted in the Panic of 1893, the Black Queen closed down. Sam’s wife, Dell, died of fever that year, and he moved back East. Tim took a foreman’s job at the quarry.

It's Marriage
Anne Harmon and Tim Harmon
Sam Harmon and Dell Harmon
Jordan Harmon and Leah Cole
Laura Keeperly and Fred Keeperly

It's Family
Tim Harmon and Sam Harmon
Anne Harmon and Tim Harmon had Margaret Harmon, Esther Harmon, Jordan Harmon, Laura Keeperly, nee Harmon, and Isaac Harmon
Sam Harmon and Dell Harmon had Ernest Harmon and Eric Harmon

It's Hatred

It's Friends

It's Business
Tim Harmon
Sam Harmon
Fred Keeperly

It's Complicated

It’s a secret tearing at the soul

It’s a secret growing in the soul
