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Fairbanks Gold Rush

2019-06-28T22:23:20Z

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[[File:Geologic Map Fairbanks District.png|thumb|400px|[[Geologic map]] of the Fairbanks District indicating [[placer mining]] along Pedro Creek]]
The '''Fairbanks Gold Rush''' was a [[gold rush]] that took place in [[Fairbanks, Alaska]] in the early 1900s.<ref name=gold-rush-history>{{cite web|url=http://fairbanks-alaska.com/gold-rush-history.htm|title=Gold Rush History of Fairbanks|publisher=fairbanks-alaska.com|accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref> Fairbanks was a city largely built on Gold Rush [[wikt:fervor|fervor]] at the beginning of the 20th century. Discovery and exploration continue to thrive in and around modern-day Fairbanks.<ref name=alaska.com>{{cite web|url=http://www.alaska.com/plan/visitors_guide/places/story/2625.html|publisher=[[Alaska]].com|title=Fairbanks: Gold Rush history, weather extremes are part of the culture|author=Sonya Senkowsky|accessdate=2008-11-18}}</ref>

== History ==
[[Image:Felix Pedro.jpg|thumb|Felix Pedro]]
[[Felix Pedro]] spent years searching for gold. He tried to find gold in the [[Stream|creeks]] and [[valley]]s of the [[Tanana Valley]] where Fairbanks would begin before he found the "American [[Klondike Gold Rush|Klondike]]". A trader named [[E.T. Barnette]] and his wife, Isabelle, were aboard the riverboat [[Lavelle Young]] in August 1901, trying to establish a trading post at Tanacross on the [[Tanana River]]. Low water conditions stopped the journey before Barnette could reach his destination. Co-owner of the Lavelle Young, Captain Charles Adams, turned into the [[Chena River]], a [[tributary]] of the [[Tanana River|Tanana]], instead. Shallow water stopped the Lavelle Young, and Adams refused to go further, so the Barnettes set up shop there.<ref name=gold-rush-history/>

Barnette opened a trading post on the Chena River after Pedro had told him he had made some good "prospects." On July 22, 1902, Pedro discovered gold north of Fairbanks in [[Interior Alaska]] which triggered the beginning of the Fairbanks Gold Rush,<ref name=explore>{{cite web|url=http://www.explorefairbanks.com/gold-rush-history/|title=Fairbanks Hotels, Alaska Vacations & Group Tours : Fairbanks Alaska CVB|publisher=explorefairbanks.com|accessdate=2008-11-18|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224001618/http://www.explorefairbanks.com/gold-rush-history/|archivedate=2008-12-24|df=}}</ref> which set off a stampede that transformed the town.<ref name="schwartzman">{{cite news | url = http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCQ/is_/ai_83552491 | title = Tourist gold mines: Fairbanks, Juneau – tales of Alaska, gold and history | first = M.T. | last = Schwartzman | work = [[Travel America]] | date = March 2002 | accessdate = 2008-11-17}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> Barnette dispatched [[Jujiro Wada]], a [[Japan]]ese immigrant from [[Ehime]] on [[Shikoku Island]], to [[Dawson City]] to spread the word that gold had been found in order for Barnette to create a market for his goods.<ref name=gold-rush-history/> After Wada spread the word about the gold being discovered, many miners who had not already left for the [[Nome Gold Rush]] traveled to Fairbanks. The prospectors soon found jobs working for Barnette—prospecting for him by panning and [[sluicing]] for gold in Fairbanks.<ref name=explore/>

The Fairbanks Exploration Company bought up claims within a 30 by 50 mile area and brought in [[gold dredge]]s on the [[Alaska Railroad]]. The population of Fairbanks increased from 1,155 in 1920 to 2,101 in 1930. As [[Ira Harkey]] pointed out, "When the dredges finished their work, Fairbanks again shriveled. The dredges remain in the spots where they chewed their last bites, perfectly preserved in the dry arctic air, wooly mammoths for later ages."<ref name="Ira">{{cite book |last1=Harkey |first1=Ira |title=Pioneer Bush Pilot |date=1991 |publisher=Bantam Books |isbn=0553289195 |page=99-101}}</ref>

On July 22, 1910, approximately eight years after he had discovered gold north of Fairbanks, Felix Pedro died at [[St. Joseph's Hospital (Fairbanks, Alaska)|St. Joseph's Hospital]] in Fairbanks of an apparent [[heart attack]].<ref name=gold-rush-history/><ref name="igrbnet">{{cite web | url = http://fuzzy.phpwebhosting.com/~igrbnet/igr/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=288 | title = Italians in the Gold Rush and beyond: Felice Pedroni | year = 2001 | accessdate = 2008-11-16 | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20050313151920/http://fuzzy.phpwebhosting.com/~igrbnet/igr/modules.php?name=News | archivedate = 2005-03-13 | df = }}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==See also==
*[[Fairbanks mining district]]
*[[Fairbanks Exploration Company Gold Dredge No. 5]]
*[[Fairbanks Exploration Company Dredge No. 2]]
*[[Fairbanks Exploration Company Manager's House]]
*[[Fairbanks Exploration Company Machine Shop]]
*[[Fairbanks Exploration Company Housing]]

==External links==
* [http://www.felicepedroni.it Felice Pedroni (Felix Pedro), an Italian immigrant into the Alaska Gold Rush (Italian language, some sections in English language)]

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[[Category:1902 in Alaska]]
[[Category:Alaskan gold rushes]]
[[Category:Fairbanks, Alaska]]
[[Category:Gold mining in Alaska]]
[[Category:Histories of cities in Alaska]]

Pikes Peak Goldrausch

2019-06-28T22:14:00Z

CommonKnowledgeCreator: /* External links */ Added financial bubbles navbox

[[File:Pikes Peak miners.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|Gold prospectors in the [[Rocky Mountains]] of western [[Kansas Territory]]]]
The '''Pike's Peak Gold Rush''' (later known as the '''Colorado Gold Rush''') was the boom in [[gold]] prospecting and mining in the [[Pike's Peak Country]] of western [[Kansas Territory]] and southwestern [[Nebraska Territory]] of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the [[Colorado Territory]] on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest [[gold rushes]] in [[North America]]n history.<ref name=ArapahoCamp>{{cite web | date = December 19, 2006 | url = http://www.denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_1.asp | title = Denver History – The Arapaho Camp | format = [[Active Server Pages|ASP]]/[[HTML]] | work = Mile High City | author = Thomas J. Noel | publisher = City and County of Denver | accessdate = December 19, 2006 | authorlink = Thomas Noel (historian) | deadurl = yes | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20071013125031/http://denvergov.org/AboutDenver/history_narrative_1.asp | archivedate = October 13, 2007 | df = }}</ref>

The participants in the gold rush were known as "[[Fifty-Niner]]s" after 1859, the peak year of the rush and often used the motto '''Pike's Peak or Bust!''' In fact, the location of the Pike's Peak Gold Rush was centered {{convert|85|mi}} north of Pike's Peak. The name Pike's Peak Gold Rush was used mainly because of how well known and important Pike's Peak was at the time.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Robert|title=The Great Pikes Peak Gold Rush|year=1985|publisher=Caxton Press|location=Caldwell, Idaho|isbn=0-87004-412-5}}</ref>

==Overview==
[[File:Prospector in Pikes Peak, CO 4a09164a original.jpg|thumb|Prospector in Pikes Peak]]
The Pike's Peak Gold Rush, which followed the [[California Gold Rush]] by approximately one decade, produced a dramatic but temporary influx of [[immigrant]]s into the [[Pike's Peak Country]] of the [[Rocky Mountains|Southern Rocky Mountains]]. The rush was exemplified by the slogan "Pike's Peak or Bust!", a reference to the prominent mountain at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the [[Great Plains]]. The [[Prospecting|prospector]]s provided the first major [[White American|European-American]] population in the region.

The rush created a few mining camps such as [[Denver, Colorado|Denver City]] and [[Boulder, Colorado|Boulder City]] that would develop into cities. Many smaller camps such as [[Auraria, Colorado|Auraria]] and [[Denver, Colorado#History|Saint Charles City]] were absorbed by larger camps and towns. Scores of other mining camps have faded into [[ghost town]]s, but quite a few camps such as [[Central City, Colorado|Central City]], [[Black Hawk, Colorado|Black Hawk]], [[Georgetown, Colorado|Georgetown]], and [[Idaho Springs, Colorado|Idaho Springs]] survive.

==Discovery==
[[File:At timber line, Pike's Peak trail. Colo, by Martin, Alexander, d. 1929.jpg|thumb|left|"At timber line, Pike's Peak trail" ~ circa unknown]]

For many years, people had suspected the mountains in present-day Colorado contained numerous rich gold deposits. In 1835, French trapper Eustace Carriere lost his party and ended up wandering through the mountains for many weeks. During those weeks he found many gold specimens which he later took back to New Mexico for examination. Upon examination, they turned out to be "pure gold". But when he tried to lead an expedition back to the location of where he found the gold, they came up short because he could not quite remember the location.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Hafen|first1=Le Roy Reuben|title=The Illustrated Miners' Hand-book and Guide to Pike's Peak: With a New and Reliable Map, Showing All the Routes and the Gold Regions of Western Kansas and Nebraska|year=1859|publisher=Parker and Huyett|location=Saint Louis}}</ref>

In 1849 and 1850, several parties of gold seekers bound for the [[California Gold Rush]] [[placer mining|panned]] small amounts of gold from various streams in the [[South Platte River]] valley at the foot of the [[Rocky Mountains]]. The Rocky Mountain gold failed to impress or delay men with visions of unlimited wealth in California, and the discoveries were not reported for several years.<ref name=PikesPeakGold>{{cite web | year = 2006 | url = http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Falls/2000/index.html | title = The Pike's Peak Gold Rush | work = The Pike's Peak Gold Rush | author = Gehling, Richard | publisher = Richard Gehling | accessdate = December 19, 2006|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060215083309/http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Falls/2000/index.html|archivedate=2006-02-15}}</ref>

As the hysteria of the California Gold Rush faded, many discouraged gold seekers returned home. Rumors of gold in the Rocky Mountains persisted and several small parties explored the region. In the summer of 1857, a party of [[Spanish language|Spanish-speaking]] gold seekers from [[New Mexico]] worked a [[placer mining|placer deposit]] along the South Platte River about 5 miles (8 kilometers) above [[Cherry Creek (Colorado)|Cherry Creek]], now part of metropolitan [[Denver, Colorado|Denver]].<ref name=ArapahoCamp/>
[[File:Gold mining in Boren's Gulch. La Plata County, Colorado - NARA - 517143.jpg|thumb|Sluicing for gold, photo by the U.S. Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories. (1874–1879) Photographer: [[William Henry Jackson]]]]
[[William Greeneberry Russell|William Greeneberry "Green" Russell]] was a [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgian]] who worked in the California gold fields in the 1850s. Russell was married to a [[Cherokee]] woman, and through his connections to the tribe, he heard about an 1849 discovery of gold along the South Platte River. Green Russell organized a party to prospect along the South Platte River, 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 their number reached 107.<ref name=PikesPeakGold/>

Upon reaching [[Bent's Fort]], they turned to the northwest, reaching the confluence of [[Cherry Creek (Colorado)|Cherry Creek]] and the South Platte on 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 (Colorado)|Ralston Creek]] but without success. In the first week of July 1858, Green Russell and Sam Bates found a small placer deposit near the mouth of [[Little Dry Creek (Englewood, Colorado)|Little Dry Creek]] that yielded about 20 [[troy ounce]]s (622 grams) of gold, the first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. The site of the discovery is in the present-day Denver suburb of [[Englewood, Colorado|Englewood]], just north of the junction of [[U.S. Highway 285]] and [[U.S. Highway 85]].<ref name=PikesPeakGold/>

==Initial boom==
[[File:Pikes peak-gold rush-map01.jpg|360px|thumb|A map from the late 1850s showing prominent routes to the gold regions]]

The first decade of the boom was largely concentrated along the South Platte River at the base of the Rocky Mountains, in the canyon of [[Clear Creek (Colorado)|Clear Creek]] in the mountains west of Golden City, at [[Breckenridge, Colorado|Breckenridge]] and in [[South Park (Park County, Colorado)|South Park]] at [[Como, Colorado|Como]], [[Fairplay, Colorado|Fairplay]], and [[Alma, Colorado|Alma]]. By 1860, Denver City, [[Golden, Colorado|Golden City]], and Boulder City were substantial towns that served the mines. Rapid population growth led to the creation of the [[Colorado Territory]] in 1861.

The Pike's Peak Gold Rush sent many Americans into a frenzy, prompting them to pack up their belongings and head to Colorado. This initial boom influenced people to begin falsifying information, often sending people out to the west without any proof of a true presence of gold.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-gold-rush|title=Colorado Gold Rush|date=May 6, 2016|publisher=Colorado Encyclopedia|accessdate=November 16, 2017}}</ref> As early as the spring of 1859, people raced to the Pike's Peak country. Some even dared to go out in the winter of 1858 to try to get a head start, only to realize that they would have to wait until the snow melted to even begin their mining for gold.<ref>{{cite web|title=Pike's Peak Gold Rush|url=http://www.explore-old-west-colorado.com/pikes-peak-gold-rush.html|website=Explore Old West Colorado|accessdate=July 29, 2014}}</ref>

===Free gold===
{{Main|Gold mining in Colorado}}
Hardrock mining boomed for a few years, but then declined in the mid-1860s as the miners exhausted the shallow parts of the veins that contained free gold, and found that their [[Patio process|amalgamation]] mills could not recover gold from the deeper sulfide ores.<ref>A. H. Koschman and M. H. Bergendahl (1968) ''Principal Gold-Producing Districts of the United States'', US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 610, p.86.</ref> This problem was eventually solved and gold and silver mining in Colorado became a major industry.

Colorado produced 150,000 ounces of gold in 1861 and 225,000 troy ounces in 1862. This led Congress to establish the [[Denver Mint]]. Cumulative Colorado production by 1865 was 1.25 million ounces, of which sixty percent was placer gold.<ref name=Voynick>Voynick, S.M., 1992, Colorado Gold, Missoula: Mountain Press Publishing Company, {{ISBN|0878424555}}</ref>{{rp|28–30}}

==See also==
*[[Australian gold rushes]]
*[[Colorado Silver Boom]]
*[[Horace Greeley]], namesake of [[Greeley, Colorado|Greeley]], [[Colorado]], who mined for gold in the rush
*[[Klondike Gold Rush]]
*[[Silver mining in Colorado]]
*[[Ute people]]
*[[Witwatersrand Gold Rush]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{sister project links}}

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[[Category:American gold rushes]]
[[Category:Gold mining in Colorado]]
[[Category:Colorado Mining Boom]]
[[Category:Pikes Peak]]
[[Category:1858 in Kansas Territory]]
[[Category:American frontier]]
[[Category:Kansas Territory]]
[[Category:Jefferson Territory]]
[[Category:Economy of Colorado]]
[[Category:Mining in Colorado]]
[[Category:Pre-statehood history of Colorado]]
[[Category:1858 in the United States]]
[[Category:19th century in Colorado]]