1. Unit 4: Miners

2. 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

3. GOLD

4. Searching for Gold… Spanish sought gold when they first came to North America 1849 – California Gold Rush (the 49ers)

5. 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 Alaska;Canada in Yukon area

6. 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-24K=Pure gold)

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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 secret…NO LUCK Due to the little gold found, only about 25,000 of 100,000 59ers stayed

10. Placer Mining Surface mining Panning Needs water More popular

11. Placer Mining Sluice Box

12. HARD ROCK MINING More Difficult Underground Mined gold ore from the veins Required expensive equipment (brought from east) Shafts, tunnels