Mining

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Mining

• It Rocks!

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Mining Culture
After the California gold rush, each new strike
inspired more settlers westward in hopes of
finding the next Comstock Lode or Klondike River.

• Mining Communities
• Most miners were men, but some families and
  single women also came.
• Mining camps were usually just groups of tents
  and shacks.
• Some camps grew into towns with stores and
  businesses.
• As more families arrived, churches, schools, and
  newspapers sprang up.
• Some camps grew into major cities such as Denver,
  Colorado.

• Mining as a Business
• At first individual prospectors worked mines with
  hand tools.
• When surface deposits ran out, large companies
  moved in to prospect with machinery.
• At that point, most miners went to work for large
  companies giving up on striking it rich.
• It was dangerous work, and some miners tried to
  organize unions for better working conditions,
  but mining companies resisted.

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Discovery of Gold

• John Sutter -- an affable Swiss immigrant to
  California in 1839.
• Wanted to build a private empire
• Built a fort, amassed 12,000 head of cattle, and
  took on hundreds of workers.
• James Marshall and about 20 men were sent to the
  river by Sutter to build a sawmill
• The sawmill was nearly complete when a glint of
  something caught Marshall's eye. It was January
  24th, 1848.
• "I reached my hand down and picked it up it made
  my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold.
  The piece was about half the size and shape of a
  pea. Then I saw another."
• But it wasn't long before stories of gold
  filtered into the surrounding countryside. Yet
  there was no race to the American River. The news
  of Marshall's gold was just another fantastic
  tale -- too unlikely to be believed.
• Sam Brannan- a San Francisco merchant,
• a skilled craftsman of hype. Eventually, the Gold
  Rush would make him the richest person in
  California -- but Sam Brannan never mined for
  gold.
• running through the streets of San Francisco
  shouting about Marshall's discovery
• he wasn't planning on digging for it. He was
  planning on selling shovels. And the first person
  who sold shovels got a lot more gold that the
  person who had to dig for it."
• Brannan keenly understood the laws of supply and
  demand.
• His wild run through San Francisco came just
  after he had purchased every pick axe, pan and
  shovel in the region. A metal pan that sold for
  twenty cents a few days earlier, was now
  available from Brannan for fifteen dollars. In
  just nine weeks he made thirty-six thousand
  dollars.

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California Gold Rush- 353
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The Pattern

• Gold found- or at least reported as found
• Population Boom- Boom Town
• Gold either not found in abundance or it all gets
  mined out- Ghost Town

lt Nome, Alaska Goldfield, AZ gt
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Gold Fever

• Farmers left their fields merchants closed their
  shops soldiers left their posts -- and made
  plans for California. Newspapers fanned the
  fires.
• Horace Greeley the of New York Tribune
  "Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as
  plentiful as the mud in our streets. We look for
  an addition within the next four years equal to
  at least One Thousand Million of Dollars to the
  gold in circulation."
•  By early 1849, gold fever was an epidemic.
• "In the Richmond, Indiana paper (in 1849) for
  example, there was a big ad. This guy was selling
  salve you got it in a bottle -- and for 2.50 or
  5.00 you could get this bottle of salve. And all
  you did was rub it all over your body, get up on
  the top of the mountain and roll down and all the
  gold stuck to you and guaranteed you by the time
  you got to bottom with one roll you'd have enough
  gold, when you scraped it off, to live happily
  ever after. That was all you needed. And he sold
  two types of salve, one for gold and one for
  silver.

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• No expression characterized the California gold
  rush more than the words "seeing the elephant."
  Those planning to travel west announced they were
  "going to see the elephant." Those turning back
  claimed they had seen the "elephants tracks" or
  the "elephants tail," and admitted that view was
  sufficient.
• The expression predated the gold rush, arising
  from a tale current when circus parades first
  featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went,
  hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his
  wagon with vegetables for the market there. He
  had never seen an elephant and very much wished
  to. On the way to town he encountered the circus
  parade, led by an elephant. The farmer was
  thrilled, but his horses were not. Terrified,
  they bolted, overturning the wagon and ruining
  the vegetables. "I dont give a hang," the farmer
  said, "for I have seen the elephant."
• For gold rushers, the elephant symbolized both
  the high cost of their endeavorthe myriad
  possibilities for misfortune on the journey or in
  Californiaand like the farmers circus elephant,
  an exotic sight, an unequaled experience, the
  adventure of a lifetime.

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Weird Ways West

• Rufus Porter, founder of Scientific American,
  planned to fly 49ers west on propeller-driven
  balloons powered by steam engines. He went to far
  as to advertise the expedition, and 200 brave
  souls signed up for the trip. But the "airline"
  never got off the ground.
• Then there was the "wind wagon," sort of a cross
  between a sailboat and a wagon. It seemed like a
  good idea on paper after all, it can be very
  windy in the West. A prototype was built and for
  a brief moment it barreled across the plains at
  the advertised 15 miles-per-hour. Then it went
  out of control and crashed. The inventor --
  Wind-wagon Thomas -- kept trying for years, but
  never succeeded.
• Others took a more low-tech approach, making the
  trip with only a simple wheelbarrow. It's hard to
  imagine pushing a fully-loaded wheelbarrow for
  2,000 miles, but several dozen attempted the
  trip. For a time, they could outpace everything
  on the Trail, but human endurance has its limits.
  No one is quite sure if any of them made it all
  the way with their wheelbarrows.

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The 100 drink of water

• Would you spend 100 for a glass of water? Some
  49ers on the California Trail did.
• Because of poor planning, many western-bound
  49ers were unprepared for the hot, dry deserts of
  Nevada. A few sharp businessmen in California
  knew this and took advantage of the situation.
  They traveled eastward with barrels of water.
  Extremely thirsty, many 49ers paid 1, 5, even
  100 for a glass of precious water.
• But water was not the only expensive item on the
  Oregon-California Trail. For example, at the
  start of the journey, flour could be purchased
  for 4.00 a barrel, but further along the price
  rose to a sky-high 1.00 per pint. Other staples
  could also be quite expensive
• Sugar 1.50 per pint
• Coffee 1.00 per pint
• Liquor 4.00 per pint
• Surprisingly, there were other staples that were
  amazingly cheap. For example, at Ft. Laramie,
  bacon could be had for a penny per pound. Those
  who had excess bacon often considered it
  worthless and dumped it by the side of the road.
  One emigrant reported seeing ten tons on one
  pile.
• Why the wide disparity in prices? The basic laws
  of supply and demand were at work. Most wagon
  trains took too much bacon and so it had little
  trading value. Water, on the other hand was in
  short supply and thus commanded a high price.

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Traffic on the Trail

• Bumper-to-bumper highway congestion isn't just a
  modern phenomena. Rush hour traffic on the
  Oregon-California trail was just as bad --
  probably worse.
• The image of a lone wagon on the endless prairie
  is largely myth it's more accurate to imagine a
  moving city. Many reported seeing wagons all the
  way to the horizon day after day.
• And just like today's highways, there was quite a
  bit of jockeying for position. The goal was to
  get in front of the pack because anyone who was
  behind had to eat the billowing dust kicked up by
  the wagons ahead. Competition was fierce those
  in the back often had to put on goggles just to
  see.
• The crowded conditions got even worse in the
  evening when the wagons came together to camp.
  Many 49ers discovered that previous wagon trains
  had overgrazed the prairie, and so there was no
  remaining grass for the oxen and mules to graze.
  So it was not uncommon for 49ers to venture miles
  off the trail in the evening in search of grass
  for their animals.
• A more serious consequence of all this crowding
  was poor sanitation. Each new wagon train dug
  their latrines near the previous group's -- and
  there was often leakage into the water supply.
  The result was illness and death.

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To California via Antarctica

• Not every 49er used the Oregon -California Trail.
  There were other routes to gold country -- one
  came perilously close to Antarctica!
• Those who did not want to endure a four month
  walk across the west, traveled to California by
  ship. Trouble was, there was no direct water
  route to the west coast. So a ship leaving New
  York had to travel all the way to the tip of
  South America -- skirting the edge of the the
  Antarctic continent -- before heading north to
  California. It was a difficult trip that
  sometimes took a complete year.
• So it was inevitable that several shortcuts were
  developed for the gold-crazed 49ers who were in a
  big hurry to get west. The most popular cutoff
  involved taking a ship to the Isthmus of Panama,
  then trekking overland to the Pacific side
  (remember, there was no Panama Canal then) where
  another ship would pick them up -- hopefully.
• When the 49ers got to the Pacific side, they
  waited and waited for weeks, or even months. When
  a ship finally did arrive, passage might cost
  500 or 1000, and sometimes there was no space
  at any price.
• Even worse, many of the Pacific-side ships were
  unseaworthy and sank en route. In the end, many
  regretted not taking the overland route.

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Okay, so who, how, but where?

• California- 1849
• Cherry Creek, CO- 1858
• William Larimer- I am Denver City
• Comstock Lode- 1859
• Yukon Gold Rush- 1897

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Boom Town and Gold Strikes 147
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Boom Town- one minute
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The Miner

• People, men almost exclusively, from all jobs and
  locales
• Expensive to head west and get started
• Many left families at home in towns out West
• Most busted, some very wealthy in the end
• Mining takes a large corporation to be profitable
  usually

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Individual Miners

• John W. Mackay- Big Bonanza on silver
• Comstock Lode- Henry Comstock, 11,000
• Panning for gold
• Laws amongst miners

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Law and Order

• The gold rush had attracted a less desirable
  crowd. Crooks, bandits, claim jumpers,
  professional gamblers and others came to take
  advantage of the wealth.
• No Laws
• Claims in some camps- only one 10 foot square
• Claim Jumping- taking someone elses claim.
• Swindlers would also "salt" the ground,
  scattering a little gold around and then sell the
  land for lots of money.
• Punishment for crimes was often fast and simple.
  Fines or banishments. Small crimes were punished
  by flogging with a whip. For more serious crimes,
  such as robbery and murder, the punishment was
  hanging.
• The government could not control the crime.
  People set up vigilante groups to track down
  criminals and ensure justice.
• Bull Fighting- brought by Mexicans was changed to
  bear v. bull- The Bear would bear-hug the bull
  and pull it down. The Bull would charge the bear
  trying to gore it swinging its head upward.
  (Wall Street Jargon A Bear market is down and
  the Bull Market is up.)

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Mining Methods- 125
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Gold Country

• Most of the world's gold is locked deep
  underground -- embedded in hard rock. But
  California gold was different -- easily
  accessible to anyone with a few simple tools and
  a willingness to work hard.
• It's free politically. It doesn't belong to
  anybody. There is no sign that says keep out.
  There's no government. There's no wire. There's
  no order. There's none of the normal obstacles
  political obstacles. The California Gold Rush is
  there, open, free. There is no military force
  here to impose any rules. There's no taxes
  collected, no tax collectors. There's no judicial
  system. There are no boundaries, there's no
  rules. It's there, it's free.
• It was free -- and it was plentiful. Soon there
  was too much money in California and too little
  of everything else. The lessons of supply and
  demand were often painful. A forty-niner who
  earned a dollar a day back home, could make
  twenty-five dollars in a day of mining -- but
  that was often just enough to buy dinner.
• Camps sprouted up and evolved into ramshackle
  boomtowns to serve the growing population --
  places with accurate names like Hangtown, Gouge
  Eye, Rough and Ready, and Whiskeytown. Places to
  avoid -- were it not for the gold. Places that
  were wild, open, free.

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Collision of Cultures

• Many mines, especially in the south, were worked
  by foreigners who came solely for the gold.
  Chinese, Chileans, Mexicans, Irish, Germans,
  French, and Turks all sought their fortune in
  California.
• Foreign miners had no intention of staying in
  California. Their goal was to get the gold and
  get home. But hauling gold out of the country was
  a difficult operation -- bandits often preyed on
  foreigners. The Chinese had a unique solution-
  melting it down into cooking utensils.
• California legislature passed the Foreign Miners
  Tax in 1850, a 20 per month levy payable by
  every foreign miner
• Yet one ethnic group did not do well -- the
  original residents of California's gold country
  Native Americans. Uninterested in gold or in
  mining -- they were almost immediately
  annihilated. 300,000. And it was quickly reduced
  to only 50,000.
• Southerners who brought their slaves to help in
  the digging quickly found out that 49ers didn't
  take kindly to that idea -- but it wasn't because
  of an opposition to slavery. The miners had quite
  a different reason for objecting.
• In 1850, California was admitted to the Union as
  a free state

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The Gold Rush and Native Americans (0624)
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Women in the Mining Community

• One woman made 18,000 just from a single Dutch
  oven. Women relished their first taste of
  economic independence. If you could wash clothes,
  you could make 8 a dozen. If you could cook a
  meal, you could sell it for 5- 10, if you could
  run a boarding house, you could clear a 200 a
  week, if you could get enough boarders. And a
  number of women simply put to use their domestic
  skills which was a very smart thing to do.
  Because men didn't want to cook. And there were
  all those men with dirty shirts and hungry
  bellies waiting for somebody to come and take
  care of them."
• "A fellow who got married charged 5.00 for
  people to come to his wedding so they could see
  his bride.

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Entrepreneurs

• Sam Brannan- cornered the market on certain goods
  and raised the price.
• Levi Straus- pants out of canvas and the use of
  metal rivets
• Phillip Armour- opened a meat market and
  processing plant
• John Sudebaker- wheelbarrow maker turned covered
  wagon maker for the Oregon Trail
• Wells and Fargo make Wells Fargo, a giant in
  banking.

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Yukon Territory- 353
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Flock to the Yukon- 359