Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859

Examples of Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859 in the following topics:

• The American Indian Wars

  • The Pikes Peak Gold Rush of 1859 introduced a substantial white population into the front range of the Rockies, supported by a trading lifeline that crossed the central Great Plains.
  • Many of the most well-known of these conflicts occurred during and after the Civil War, until the closing of the frontier in about 1890.
  • Before Custer's column had returned to Fort Abraham Lincoln, news of their discovery of gold was telegraphed nationally.
  • This trickle turned into a flood; thousands of miners invaded the Black Hills before the gold rush was over.
  • Portrait of one of the great American Indian leaders during the American Indian Wars.

• Mining on the Comstock Lode

  • The Comstock Lode was the first major U.S. discovery of silver ore, located in what is now Virginia City, Nevada, on the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range.
  • After the discovery was made public in 1859, prospectors rushed to the area to stake their claims.
  • The discovery of silver in Nevada (then western Utah Territory) in 1859 caused considerable excitement in California and throughout the United States.
  • Gold was discovered in this region—the Gold Canyon—in the spring of 1850 by a company of Mormon emigrants who were part of the Mormon Battalion.
  • Most of them assumed they had made a small to modest strike like nearly all other gold strikes.

• The California Gold Rush

  • The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W.
  • While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China.
  • At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners.
  • The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial.
  • Examine the demographics of the population that participated in the California Gold Rush

• The Cripple Creek Miners' Strike of 1894

  • Along with the towns of Altman, Anaconda, Arequa, Goldfield, Elkton, Independence, and Victor, Cripple Creek lay in a deep valley about 20 miles from Colorado Springs on the southwest side of Pikes Peak.
  • Gold prices, however, remained high, and gold was in fact desperately needed to replenish federal reserves.
  • The influx of silver miners into the gold mines caused a lowering of wages.
  • Portland, Pikes Peak, Gold Dollar, and a few smaller mines immediately agreed to the eight-hour day and remained open, but larger mines held out.
  • At the beginning of March, the Gold King and Granite mines gave in and resumed the eight-hour day.

• Expansion and the Mexican-American War

  • With the end of the wartime alliance between Britain and the Native Americans east of the Mississippi River, American settlers moved in great numbers into the rich farmlands of the Midwest.
  • Major events in the western movement of the U.S. population were the Homestead Act, a law by which, for a nominal price, a settler was given title to 160 acres of land to farm; the opening of the Oregon Territory to settlement; and the Texas Revolution.
  • Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail; the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–47; the California Gold Rush of 1849; the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859; and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.
  • American Progress is an allegorical representation of the modernization of the new west.
  • The different stages of economic activity of the pioneers are highlighted and, especially, the changing forms of transportation.

• The Economy and the Silver Solution

  • Proponents of "free silver" believed that the United States economy should be based on silver instead of gold.
  • The Silverites promoted Bimetallism, the use of both silver and gold as currency at the ratio of 16 to 1, 16 ounces of silver would be worth 1 ounce of gold.
  • The issue peaked from 1893 to 1896, when the economy was in a severe depression — called the Panic of 1893 — characterized by falling prices (deflation), high unemployment in industrial areas, and severe distress for farmers.
  • As concern of the state of the economy worsened, people rushed to withdraw their money from banks and caused bank runs.
  • After the Panic of 1893 broke, President Grover Cleveland oversaw the repeal of the Act in 1893 to prevent the depletion of the country's gold reserves.

• Tyler and Texas

  • John Tyler's presidency was marked by a series of moves favoring American expansionism, including the annexation of Texas.
  • He had long been an advocate of expansion toward the Pacific, and of free trade, and was fond of evoking themes of national destiny and the spread of liberty in support of these policies.
  • Other significant events included the opening of the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Emigration to Utah in 1846–'47, the California Gold Rush of 1849, the Colorado Gold Rush of 1859, and the completion of the nation's First Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869.
  • He knew that with little chance of re-election, the only way to salvage his presidency and legacy was to move public opinion in favor of the Texas issue, and he formed his own political party to lobby the Democratic Party in favor of annexation.
  • John Tyler endorsed the idea of manifest destiny to defend the continued expansion of the United States, including the annexation of Texas.

• The Diversity of the West

  • About 4,000 blacks came to California during the Gold Rush.
  • One of the most important figures of the Exodus was Benjamin "Pap" Singleton.
  • The California Gold Rush encouraged large migrations of Hispanic and Asian people, which continued after the Civil War.
  • Chinese migrants, many of whom were impoverished peasants, provided the major part of the workforce for the building of the Central Pacific portion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
  • Starting around 1859 in Texas, Juan Cortina led a 20-year campaign against Texas land grabbers and the Texas Rangers.