Unit 4: Miners

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Unit 4 Miners
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THE DECADE OF THE 1850S

• Slow-Fur trade was over and there were few
  settlers
• Uncertain-no mines were open
• and farmland was plentiful
• Uneventful in the
• Eastern United States

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GOLD
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Searching for Gold

• Spanish sought gold when they first came to North
  America
• 1849 California Gold
• Rush (the 49ers)

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Major Gold Finds

• 1828-Georgia-Led to Indian dispersal (Trail of
  Tears)
• 1848-Sutters Mill near Sacramento Ca.
• 1859-Pikes Peak area
• 1859-Nevada-Gold and silver found
• 1863-Montana
• 1876-Black Hills of S.D.
• 1890s-Klondike of AlaskaCanada in Yukon area

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Why Gold is Valuable

• Rare
• Indestructible-Does not tarnish
• Medium of exchange (most societies accept this as
  money)
• Cant reproduce it
• Malleable-Can be broken
• to any size
• Gold is gold-Pure in form unlike diamonds (A
  karat is 1/24 part of pure gold-24KPure gold)

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Pikes Peak or Bust

• 1850 Cherokees found small amount of gold in
  Arvada
• Fall Leaf, an Indian army scout, returned to
  Kansas with gold
• Winter of 1857-58 -- Lawrence, Kansas group left
  for Colorado (due to Fall Leafs stories)
• Winter of 1857-58 -- Oklahoma group (William
  Green Russell), along with Cherokees went West
  found several hundred dollars in gold
• John Cantrell joined them, went back East, told
  everyone about gold
• August 1858 Newspaper Gold in Kansas
  Territory (Colorado)
• Led to Pikes Peak or Bust

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Pikes Peak or Bust
Due to John Cantrells claims of gold, the Pikes
Peak Gold Rush of 1858-59 began
Spring of 1859 100,000 59ers set off for
Colorado
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FIRST GOLD STRIKES

• Idaho Springs (Jan 1859)
• Gold Hill, above Boulder (Jan 1859)
• Central City/Black Hawk (Apr 1859)
• All tried to keep it a secretNO LUCK
• Due to the little gold found, only about 25,000
  of 100,000 59ers stayed

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Placer Mining

• Surface mining
• Panning
• Needs water
• More popular

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Placer Mining
Sluice Box
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HARD ROCK MINING

• More Difficult
• Underground
• Mined gold ore from the veins
• Required expensive equipment (brought from east)
• Shafts, tunnels

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