Transcript Mining - Waverly-Shell Rock Senior High School

Mining
It Rocks!
Mining Culture
After the California gold rush, each new strike inspired more settlers
westward in hopes of finding the next Comstock Lode or Klondike River.
Mining Communities
Mining as a Business
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Most miners were men, but some families
and single women also came.
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At first individual prospectors worked
mines with hand tools.
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Mining camps were usually just groups of
tents and shacks.
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Some camps grew into towns with stores
and businesses.
When surface deposits ran out, large
companies moved in to prospect with
machinery.
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At that point, most miners went to work
for large companies giving up on striking it
rich.
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It was dangerous work, and some miners
tried to organize unions for better working
conditions, but mining companies resisted.
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As more families arrived, churches,
schools, and newspapers sprang up.
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Some camps grew into major cities such as
Denver, Colorado.
Discovery of Gold
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John Sutter -- an affable Swiss immigrant to California in 1839.
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Wanted to build a private empire
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Built a fort, amassed 12,000 head of cattle, and took on hundreds of workers.
James Marshall and about 20 men were sent to the river by Sutter to build a
sawmill
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The sawmill was nearly complete when a glint of something caught Marshall's
eye. It was January 24th, 1848.
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"I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was
certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then
I saw another."
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But it wasn't long before stories of gold filtered into the surrounding
countryside. Yet there was no race to the American River. The news of
Marshall's gold was just another fantastic tale -- too unlikely to be believed.
Sam Brannan- a San Francisco merchant,
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a skilled craftsman of hype. Eventually, the Gold Rush would make him the
richest person in California -- but Sam Brannan never mined for gold.
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running through the streets of San Francisco shouting about Marshall's
discovery
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he wasn't planning on digging for it. He was planning on selling shovels. And
the first person who sold shovels got a lot more gold that the person who had
to dig for it."
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Brannan keenly understood the laws of supply and demand.
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His wild run through San Francisco came just after he had purchased every
pick axe, pan and shovel in the region. A metal pan that sold for twenty cents a
few days earlier, was now available from Brannan for fifteen dollars. In just
nine weeks he made thirty-six thousand dollars.
California Gold Rush- 3:53
The Pattern
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Gold found- or at least reported as found
Population Boom- Boom Town
Gold either not found in abundance or it all
gets mined out- Ghost Town
< Nome, Alaska
Goldfield, AZ >
Gold Fever
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Farmers left their fields; merchants closed their shops; soldiers left
their posts -- and made plans for California. Newspapers fanned
the fires.
Horace Greeley the of New York Tribune:
"Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as plentiful as the mud
in our streets. We look for an addition within the next four years
equal to at least One Thousand Million of Dollars to the gold in
circulation."
By early 1849, gold fever was an epidemic.
"In the Richmond, Indiana paper (in 1849) for example, there was
a big ad. This guy was selling salve you got it in a bottle -- and for
$2.50 or $5.00 you could get this bottle of salve. And all you did
was rub it all over your body, get up on the top of the mountain
and roll down and all the gold stuck to you; and guaranteed you
by the time you got to bottom with one roll you'd have enough
gold, when you scraped it off, to live happily ever after. That was
all you needed. And he sold two types of salve, one for gold and one
for silver. “
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No expression characterized the California gold rush more than the words
"seeing the elephant." Those planning to travel west announced they were
"going to see the elephant." Those turning back claimed they had seen the
"elephant’s tracks" or the "elephant’s tail," and admitted that view was
sufficient.
The expression predated the gold rush, arising from a tale current when
circus parades first featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went,
hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his wagon with vegetables for
the market there. He had never seen an elephant and very much wished
to. On the way to town he encountered the circus parade, led by an
elephant. The farmer was thrilled, but his horses were not. Terrified, they
bolted, overturning the wagon and ruining the vegetables. "I don’t give a
hang," the farmer said, "for I have seen the elephant."
For gold rushers, the elephant symbolized both the high cost of their
endeavor—the myriad possibilities for misfortune on the journey or in
California—and like the farmer’s circus elephant, an exotic sight, an
unequaled experience, the adventure of a lifetime.
Weird Ways West
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Rufus Porter, founder of Scientific American, planned to fly 49ers
west on propeller-driven balloons powered by steam engines. He
went to far as to advertise the expedition, and 200 brave souls
signed up for the trip. But the "airline" never got off the ground.
Then there was the "wind wagon," sort of a cross between a
sailboat and a wagon. It seemed like a good idea on paper; after
all, it can be very windy in the West. A prototype was built and for
a brief moment it barreled across the plains at the advertised 15
miles-per-hour. Then it went out of control and crashed. The
inventor -- Wind-wagon Thomas -- kept trying for years, but never
succeeded.
Others took a more low-tech approach, making the trip with only
a simple wheelbarrow. It's hard to imagine pushing a fully-loaded
wheelbarrow for 2,000 miles, but several dozen attempted the trip.
For a time, they could outpace everything on the Trail, but human
endurance has its limits. No one is quite sure if any of them made it
all the way with their wheelbarrows.
The $100 drink of water
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Would you spend $100 for a glass of water? Some 49ers on the California
Trail did.
Because of poor planning, many western-bound 49ers were unprepared
for the hot, dry deserts of Nevada. A few sharp businessmen in California
knew this and took advantage of the situation. They traveled eastward
with barrels of water. Extremely thirsty, many 49ers paid $1, $5, even
$100 for a glass of precious water.
But water was not the only expensive item on the Oregon-California Trail.
For example, at the start of the journey, flour could be purchased for
$4.00 a barrel, but further along the price rose to a sky-high $1.00 per
pint. Other staples could also be quite expensive:
Sugar $1.50 per pint
Coffee $1.00 per pint
Liquor $4.00 per pint
Surprisingly, there were other staples that were amazingly cheap. For
example, at Ft. Laramie, bacon could be had for a penny per pound.
Those who had excess bacon often considered it worthless and dumped it
by the side of the road. One emigrant reported seeing ten tons on one pile.
Why the wide disparity in prices? The basic laws of supply and demand
were at work. Most wagon trains took too much bacon and so it had little
trading value. Water, on the other hand was in short supply and thus
commanded a high price.
Traffic on the Trail
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Bumper-to-bumper highway congestion isn't just a modern
phenomena. Rush hour traffic on the Oregon-California trail was
just as bad -- probably worse.
The image of a lone wagon on the endless prairie is largely myth;
it's more accurate to imagine a moving city. Many reported seeing
wagons all the way to the horizon day after day.
And just like today's highways, there was quite a bit of jockeying
for position. The goal was to get in front of the pack because
anyone who was behind had to eat the billowing dust kicked up by
the wagons ahead. Competition was fierce; those in the back often
had to put on goggles just to see.
The crowded conditions got even worse in the evening when the
wagons came together to camp. Many 49ers discovered that
previous wagon trains had overgrazed the prairie, and so there
was no remaining grass for the oxen and mules to graze. So it was
not uncommon for 49ers to venture miles off the trail in the
evening in search of grass for their animals.
A more serious consequence of all this crowding was poor
sanitation. Each new wagon train dug their latrines near the
previous group's -- and there was often leakage into the water
supply. The result was illness and death.
To California via Antarctica
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Not every 49er used the Oregon -California Trail. There were other
routes to gold country -- one came perilously close to Antarctica!
Those who did not want to endure a four month walk across the west,
traveled to California by ship. Trouble was, there was no direct water
route to the west coast. So a ship leaving New York had to travel all
the way to the tip of South America -- skirting the edge of the the
Antarctic continent -- before heading north to California. It was a
difficult trip that sometimes took a complete year.
So it was inevitable that several shortcuts were developed for the goldcrazed 49ers who were in a big hurry to get west. The most popular
cutoff involved taking a ship to the Isthmus of Panama, then trekking
overland to the Pacific side (remember, there was no Panama Canal
then) where another ship would pick them up -- hopefully.
When the 49ers got to the Pacific side, they waited and waited for
weeks, or even months. When a ship finally did arrive, passage might
cost $500 or $1000, and sometimes there was no space at any price.
Even worse, many of the Pacific-side ships were unseaworthy and
sank en route. In the end, many regretted not taking the overland
route.
Okay, so who, how, but where?
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California- 1849
Cherry Creek, CO- 1858
* William Larimer- “I am Denver City”
Comstock Lode- 1859
Yukon Gold Rush- 1897
Boom Town and Gold Strikes – 1:47
Boom Town- one minute
The Miner
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People, men almost exclusively, from all jobs and locales
Expensive to head west and get started
Many left families at home in towns out West
Most “busted”, some very wealthy in the end
Mining takes a large corporation to be profitable usually
Individual Miners
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John W. Mackay- “Big Bonanza” on silver
Comstock Lode- Henry Comstock, $11,000
Panning for gold
Laws amongst miners
Law and Order
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The gold rush had attracted a less desirable crowd. Crooks,
bandits, claim jumpers, professional gamblers and others came to
take advantage of the wealth.
No Laws
Claims in some camps- only one 10 foot square
Claim Jumping- taking someone else’s claim.
Swindlers would also "salt" the ground, scattering a little gold
around and then sell the land for lots of money.
Punishment for crimes was often fast and simple. Fines or
banishments. Small crimes were punished by flogging with a
whip. For more serious crimes, such as robbery and murder, the
punishment was hanging.
The government could not control the crime. People set up
vigilante groups to track down criminals and ensure justice.
Bull Fighting- brought by Mexicans was changed to “bear v. bull”The Bear would bear-hug the bull and pull it down. The Bull
would charge the bear trying to gore it swinging its head upward.
(Wall Street Jargon: A Bear market is down and the Bull Market
is up.)
Mining Methods- 1:25
Gold Country
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Most of the world's gold is locked deep underground -- embedded
in hard rock. But California gold was different -- easily accessible
to anyone with a few simple tools and a willingness to work hard.
It's free politically. It doesn't belong to anybody. There is no sign
that says keep out. There's no government. There's no wire.
There's no order. There's none of the normal obstacles; political
obstacles. The California Gold Rush is there, open, free. There is
no military force here to impose any rules. There's no taxes
collected, no tax collectors. There's no judicial system. There are
no boundaries, there's no rules. It's there, it's free.
It was free -- and it was plentiful. Soon there was too much money
in California and too little of everything else. The lessons of supply
and demand were often painful. A forty-niner who earned a dollar
a day back home, could make twenty-five dollars in a day of
mining -- but that was often just enough to buy dinner.
Camps sprouted up and evolved into ramshackle boomtowns to
serve the growing population -- places with accurate names like:
Hangtown, Gouge Eye, Rough and Ready, and Whiskeytown.
Places to avoid -- were it not for the gold. Places that were wild,
open, free.
Collision of Cultures
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Many mines, especially in the south, were worked by foreigners who
came solely for the gold. Chinese, Chileans, Mexicans, Irish, Germans,
French, and Turks all sought their fortune in California.
Foreign miners had no intention of staying in California. Their goal
was to get the gold and get home. But hauling gold out of the country
was a difficult operation -- bandits often preyed on foreigners. The
Chinese had a unique solution- melting it down into cooking utensils.
California legislature passed the Foreign Miners Tax in 1850, a $20
per month levy payable by every foreign miner
Yet one ethnic group did not do well -- the original residents of
California's gold country: Native Americans. Uninterested in gold or
in mining -- they were almost immediately annihilated. 300,000. And it
was quickly reduced to only 50,000.
Southerners who brought their slaves to help in the digging quickly
found out that 49ers didn't take kindly to that idea -- but it wasn't
because of an opposition to slavery. The miners had quite a different
reason for objecting.
In 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state
The Gold Rush and Native Americans (06:24)
Women in the Mining Community
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One woman made $18,000 just from a single Dutch oven.
Women relished their first taste of economic independence.
If you could wash clothes, you could make $8 a dozen. If
you could cook a meal, you could sell it for $5- $10, if you
could run a boarding house, you could clear a $200 a week,
if you could get enough boarders. And a number of women
simply put to use their domestic skills which was a very
smart thing to do. Because men didn't want to cook. And
there were all those men with dirty shirts and hungry
bellies waiting for somebody to come and take care of
them."
"A fellow who got married charged $5.00 for people to
come to his wedding so they could see his bride. “
Entrepreneurs
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Sam Brannan- cornered the market on certain
goods and raised the price.
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Levi Straus- pants out of canvas and the use of
metal rivets
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Phillip Armour- opened a meat market and
processing plant
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John Sudebaker- wheelbarrow maker turned
covered wagon maker for the Oregon Trail
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Wells and Fargo make Wells Fargo, a giant in
banking.
Yukon Territory- 3:53
Flock to the Yukon- 3:59