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COLORADO GOLD
RUSH
1859
Rumors
1776-77 Franciscan Priests Dominguez
and Escalante traveled through S.W.
Colorado.
When they returned to Santé Fe, their
journals were filled with information
about the region including references to
“precious metals” in the rivers.
In 1807, Pike met trapper James
Purcell in Santé Fe.
Purcell told Pike that he had found
gold in the region North of where he
was captured.
The unorganized territory became
known as the Pike’s Peak Territory
after Stephen Long returned to the
East.
1849-1853 California
Gold Rush
Gold was discovered in
California after the Mexican
American War.
300,000 people flocked to
the California territory.
1850 California Statehood.
By 1855 The California Gold
Rush had largely ended.
1857 Economic Recession in
U.S. due to slowing demand
for U.S. goods in Europe.
Ralston Creek
In 1850 Lewis Ralston, a prospector
in route to California dipped his
sluice pan into a Creek in modern
Arvada.
There he found about $5 worth of Gold.
His company named the Creek after
him, but they left the next morning
for California.
In 1857 Cherokee Indians returning
to Oklahoma from California found
some gold near modern Denver.
Russell Party
In late 1857 early 1858,
William Green Russell a
former prospector from
Georgia met up with some
Cherokee Indians in
Oklahoma.
Rumors of Gold on the South
Platte River led them to
head for the “Pikes Peak
Territory.”
They gathered supplies at
Bent’s Fort and went
Northwest, reaching the
confluence of the Platte
River and Cherry Creek on
May 29.
Early Prospecting
The Russell party initially found
very little gold.
Of the original 100 members all
but 13 left by July.
On July 8, the Russell party
found several small pockets of
gold on the “Little Dry Creek”
Pikes Peak or Bust
When word reached the
Missouri Valley towns,
thousands began flocking
to Pikes Peak territory
in search of Gold.
“Pikes Peak or Bust”
became the slogan that
was painted on
prospectors wagons in
1859.
Following the
prospectors, were
businessmen anxious to
make a living off of the
gold rush.
The First “Claim Jump”
Having failed to make
Larimer City the great
metropolis of
Nebraska, politician
and hotel keeper
William H. Larimer set
out to try his luck in
Colorado
Seeing a town site
marked out but
virtually undeveloped,
Larimer gets the town
caretaker drunk and
convinces him to sign
over the town to his
ownership
The First “Claim Jump”
The next day Larimer
forms the Denver City
Town Company after
James W. Denver,
former governor of
Kansas Territory
Town promoters then
devoted long evenings
to writing tantalizing
accounts of gold
strikes, fame, and
fortune for eastern
newspapers to attract
additional settlers
Who Got Rich?
Seeing opportunity, every
Kansas town on the
Missouri River promoted
their location as the best,
cheapest, most expedient
point of demarcation for
gold seekers
Urging local merchants to
sell, sell, sell, several towns
employed agents to frequent
the train depots and
steamboats of western
states in search of
customers
In February and March
of 1859, 1,000’s of gold
seekers sat in Missouri
River towns waiting for
the Spring thaw and
spending more and more
of their hard-earned
savings
Ironically up to 40,000
“go-backers” were
stampeding back east at
the same time when rich
ores were being found in
the mountains just 40
miles from Denver.
Push Pull Factors
Despite the low probability of
finding riches, thousands
flocked to Denver in 1859.
Push Factors:
Poor Crop yields in Missouri
Valley.
Heavy pressure from debt
collectors
Pull Factors
Everybody believed they were the
exception that would make it rich.
Outlandish reports of the
abundance of Gold.
The chance to make a new life as
either a miner or a town
proprietor.
The Great Bamboozle
Nobody knows exactly how
many people came to
Colorado.
By mid-May as many as
40,000 prospectors that had
arrived a month earlier were
on their way back to the
Missouri Valley.
Many thought that they would
find gold immediately and were
disappointed to find that the
situation was much different than
they had been led to believe.
Stories in the newspapers
called the Pikes Peak Gold
Rush “The Great
Bamboozle.”
Gregory Gulch
In May 1859 the Colorado Gold Rush
was given a major boost.
John H. Gregory brought back a vile
containing $80 worth of Gold.
He had discovered a major vein of
Gold only 40 miles from Denver up
Clear Creek.
The area became known as Gregory
Gulch and the town that formed from
it eventually became known as
“Central City.”
Mountain Discoveries and More Rushes
The Gregory discovery
convinced Denverites to
make another run for
the hills. But skeptics
back east required
more evidence
Albert Richardson of
the Boston Journal
and Horace Greeley of
the New York Tribune
set out on the 40 mile
trip to Central City to
see for themselves
Their report in the
Rocky Mt. News
confirmed a sluice
might yield between
$21 and $500 a day
and was widely copied
in eastern newspapers
Greeley’s name gave the
article legitimacy.
One paper stated, “We
never cared for him as a
politician, but as a
businessman, his opinions
are as good as the gold”
Methods of Mining
Placer Mining: Mining from
streams
• Tiny bits of gold settled
in the dirt along the
banks of creeks.
• Miners recovered this
gold by shoveling the dirt
into pans and washing it
with water from the
creek.
• This kind of placer
mining worked best with
two men.
• One man shoveled while
the other used the pan, like
the men in the photo.
Sluice Box
• The pioneer prospectors
found that a rough
wooden sluice with
raised wooden slats
worked best and was
easy to build.
• The principal behind the
sluice box is the same
no matter what design is
used.
• Water carries gold laden
gravels down the box and
gravity ultimately separates
the gold from the lighter
rock and sand.
• In theory, it sounds
simple, in practice, there
is a little more to it.
Changes to the Landscape
• The amount of dirt that
could be washed in a
sluice box depended
on the number of men
operating it.
• The photo shows at
least seven men
working at this sluice
box.
• Longer sluice boxes
had even larger work
crews.
Cradle or Rocker
• Like a sluice box, the
rocker box has riffles and
a carpet in it to trap the
gold.
• It was designed to be used
in areas with less water
than a sluice box.
• The process involves
pouring water out of a
small cup and then rocking
the small sluice box like
a cradle, thus the name
rocker box or cradle.
The Long Tom
• A long tom usually has a
greater capacity than a
rocker and does not
require the labour of
rocking.
• It consists essentially of
a short receiving
launder, an open
washing box 6 to 12 feet
long with the lower end a
perforated plate or a
screen set at an angle,
and a short sluice with
riffles
Quartz Mining: Mining Becomes Big
Business
Quartz Mining
Adits
Birth of a Local Government
A boom in civic activity
accompanied the commercial
success.
Elections became an almost
weekly event
As on earlier frontiers, miners,
farmers, and land boomers agreed
to respect and defend each other’s
claims until legal land purchases
became possible.
People’s courts and vigilantes tried
to protect people from murderers
and horse thieves.
Likewise miners used voluntary
compliance and community
pressure to organize elections of
officials, hold courts, and set up a
process for record keeping.
The State of Jefferson?
While these
organizations
safeguarded local affairs,
wider government was
needed to ensure law and
order, secure property
rights, and deal with
non-local issues
In September 1859,
residents of the Pikes
Peak region were offered
the choice between a
state constitution and a
memorial to Congress for
territorial status
• Wanting to avoid the taxes
that come with statehood, the
residents opt instead to
become a territory
Denver City and Auraria Combine
Larimer’s Denver City
had always been an
underdog to the Western
bank Auraria.
In an effort to combine
the town’s under his
“Denver” name, Larimer
offered lots to the Russell
party in hopes of
becoming the dominant
town
In the Spring, stage
coaches began arriving at
a Depot in Denver City
and Auraria agreed to
merge with Denver.
At a midnight ceremony in
the spring of 1860, Denver
City and Auraria united to
form Denver.
COLORADO AND THE
CIVIL WAR
1861-1865
Here at Home
Nathan Coriel, the first man who
attempted to volunteer for the Union
Army in the Civil War, was from
Denver
During the spring of 1861, almost
the whole army was in the West to
protect it from Indians
Most of the garrisons out here
quickly depleted and headed to their
home states to serve in the
Confederacy and Union
Terrified that the South would take over
Washington D.C., the Union orders back
every soldier it can and leaves the West
defenseless
Military Forts in Colorado
At the onset of the Civil War,
Coloradoans and the Native
Americans were at peace.
There were only two forts in the
territory at that time.
In the San Luis Valley there was
the old Spanish Fort Garland.
Fort Wise/ Lyon
Along the Arkansas River east of
Pueblo, was Fort Wise.
Fort Wise was originally a trading
post.
It was named after the Governor of
Virginia (Henry Wise)
in hopes that he would stay with the
Union.
When Virginia joined the South,
they renamed it Fort Lyon, after the
first Union General killed in the war.
Territorial Status
Colorado officially becomes
a territory in 1861 and William
Gilpin is appointed its first
governor
He was from Kansas but had the
backing of President Lincoln.
There were some
Confederate sentiments.
However, most early
Coloradoans came from Northern
and Midwestern states and sided
with the North.
The main threat to Colorado
came from the Confederate
state of Texas.
Gilpin Responds to the Confederate Threat
Gilpin was convinced that the
Confederate threat to his territory
was imminent.
Gilpin issued $375,000 in I.O.U.’s
from the Federal government to
supply and pay the 1st Colorado
Regiment.
Gilpin never received permission from
President Lincoln to do so….
The New Mexico Campaign
New Mexico was largely split between
Northern and Southern Sympathizers.
In February 1862, Texas Confederate
General Henry Hopkins Sibley took
command of the Army of New Mexico.
His initial orders were to take the territory
then seize the Gold Fields of Colorado and
the Ports of California.
1st Colorado Regiment
Seeking access to Colorado’s rich
goldfields, Texas troops were already
advancing through New Mexico by
March 1862.
To prevent rebel Texans from invading
Colorado, Gov. Gilpin raises the 1st
Regiment of Colorado Volunteers
Nicknamed “Gilpin’s Pet Lambs,” the 1st
Regiment was anything but.
They had a well-earned reputation for hard
drinking and excessive celebrating
Glorietta Pass
Fought March 26-28 1864
The Army of New Mexico marched
North towards the Colorado Border in an
effort to seize the valuable Gold Fields
for the Confederacy.
John P Slough and the 1st Colorado
Infantry met the Confederates at
Glorietta in Northern New Mexico and
stopped them cold.
John M. Chivington
When war broke out the
Methodist minister was offered a
commission as a military
chaplain.
Chivington declined the
“praying duty” for a “Shootin
duty.”
Gained fame when he cut off
the Confederate supply line and
turned the tide of the battle for
the Union.
Returned to Colorado as a hero
and with political aspirations.
Glorietta Pass: “Gettysburg of the West?”
Glorietta Pass
High water mark for
Confederates in the West
Intended to serve as a
knockout blow for Union
in West.
Union turned the
Confederates back South
and they never came
close to that point again.
Gettysburg
High water mark for
Confederates in the East
Intended to serve as a
knockout blow for the
Union in the East.
Union turned the
Confederates back South
and they never came
close to that point again.
Gilpin’s “Hot Water”
When Lincoln found out about
Gilpin’s unauthorized I.O.U.’s he was
livid.
He responded by removing Gilpin
from office.
He then placed Illinois politician
John Evans as Colorado Territory’s
new Governor.
Evans was popular because of his
toughness on Indians.
He was the father in law of Samuel Elbert.
SAND CREEK
MASSACRE
And the Colorado Indian Wars
Background
1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie:
Gave vast territories to Arapaho
and Cheyenne tribes between
North Platte River and Arkansas
River.
Pikes Peak gold rush sent
thousands of settlers across
Arapahoe and Cheyenne lands.
1861 Treaty of Fort Wise
(Lamar, CO)
Redefined 1851 lines taking cutting
Cheyenne and Arapahoe lands by
1/3.
Civil War
The Civil War left Colorado
defenseless to supply raids in
Cheyenne and Arapaho territories.
Certain factions, including the militant
Dog Soldiers, began to intensify their
supply raids.
The Colorado regiment was raised
to prevent Confederate aggression,
but after Glorietta was charged with
maintaining order between the
settlers and the Indians.
In 1864, the 3rd Colorado was
formed placed under the control of
John Chivington.
Trial of John Chivington
The Massacre
On November 29, 1864 Black Kettle and his tribe of around 800
Indians (mostly women and children) were attacked by the 3rd
Colorado.
163 Native Americans were killed.
110 were women or children.
24 Americans were killed
Most were killed by friendly fire.
The Aftermath
The massacre killed most of the
peaceful Indians and led to a
conflict between the Dog Soldiers
and the pioneers.
Various raids were conducted
throughout the plains region of
Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska.
This would eventually bring more
federal troops west following the
Civil War.
Investigation
Initially the attack was reported as a
victory over a brave opponent.
After a few weeks, though, eye
witnesses began to come forward,
telling the truth about what really
happened.
This led to a federal investigation.
The investigation did not lead to any
charges, but Chivington was forced to
leave Colorado and Evans resigned from
the cover up.
Chivington
Black Kettle
Ned Wynkoop
Silas Soule
Evans
Sand Creek Today: