Colorado Gold Rush
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The Colorado Gold Rush was the boom in the prospecting and mining of gold in present-day Colorado in the United States that began in 1859 and lasted throughout the early 1860s. The gold rush, which followed approximately a decade after the California Gold Rush, was accompanied by a dramatic influx of emigrants into the region of the Rocky Mountains and exemplied by the phrase "Pikes Peak or Bust", a reference to the mountain in the Front Range that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the Great Plains. The prospectors provided the first major white population in the region, leading to the creation of many early towns in the region, including Denver and Boulder, as well as many other smaller mining towns, some of which have survived (such as Idaho Springs and Central City) but many of which have become ghost towns.
The boom was largely concentrated along the South Platte River at the base of the mountains, the canyon of Clear Creek in the mountains west of Golden, and South Park. As prospectors flooded the region in search of quick riches, the rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861 and to the U.S. state of Colorado in 1876. The easy-to-reach gold deposits were largely played out by 1863, although the region would continue to produce gold ore many other minerals up to the present day. The railroad lines built to haul gold from the mountains were a major factor in creating the economic base of the region in the following decades, especially as Colorado would experience a second major mining boom in 1879 with the Colorado Silver Boom.
Early discoveries of gold
Gold had been discovered in small amounts in the region along the base of the Rockies by early Spanish explorers in search of El Dorado, as well as by Native Americans and early white trappers. Juan Rivera, a Spanish explorer who passed through the region in 1765, brought back ore samples to Santa Fe, but they were not considered promising enough to initiate further exploration, especially considering that the Spanish believed that Native Americans cities of gold were located in the Southern Rockies.
In 1807, U.S. explorer Zebulon Pike encountered an American trapper in present-day New Mexico, James Purcell, who told him about gold in the mountains to the north, but the inclusion of the information contained in Pike's report did not cause any particular excitement. Likewise William Gilpin, who traveled throughout the Rockies with John C. Fremont, told tales of gold but his reports created no particular interest. Part of the reason for the lackadaisical response was probably that reports of gold were a common feature of frontier exploration, but few such reports proved to bear any weight of truth.
William Green Russell
In 1848, a group of Cherokee on their way to California over the Cherokee Trail discovered gold in a stream bed in the South Platte basin. The Cherokee did not stop to work the stream beds, but they reported the information to other members of their tribe upon returning to Oklahoma. The information remained ununused for the following decade, however, until it reached William Green Russell, a Georgian] who had worked the California gold fields in the 1850s. Russell was married to a Cherokee woman, and through his connections to the tribe, he heard about the reported gold in the Pikes Peak region of the western Kansas Territory. In 1858, upon returning from California, Russel organized a party to the area, setting off with his two brothers and six companions in February 1858. They rendezvoused with Cherokee tribe members along the Arkansas River in present-day Oklahoma and continued westward along the Santa Fe Trail. Others joined the party along the way until the number reached 104.
Upon reaching Bent's Font, they turned to the northwest, reaching the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platton May 23. The site of their initial explorations is in present-day Confluence Park in Denver. They began prospecting in the river beds, exploring Cherry Creek and nearby Ralston Creek, but without success. After twenty days, a number of the them decided to return home, leaving the Russell brothers and ten other men behind. In the first week of July 1858, they finally discovered "good diggings" at the mouth of Little Dry Creek on the South Platte, panning out several hundred dollars of gold dust from a small pocket, the first significant gold discovery in the region. The site of the discovery is in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood, just northwest of the junction of U.S. Highway 285 and Interstate 70.
When word got back east, the Colorado Gold Rush was on; Pikes Peak or Bust! was the slogan. By 1859 large numbers of prospective miners and settlers had come to the Denver area. At first there was only the slight showing in Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, but soon paying quantities of gold were discovered at Idaho Springs and Central City. By 1860 Central City had a population of 60,000 people and Denver and Golden were substantial towns serving the mines.