i8o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



000,000 and $500,000,000, while some estimates are even higher. So 

 great was the quantity of silver produced that the monetary ratio be- 

 tween gold and silver was disturbed, and the curtailment of the coinage 

 of silver in several countries of America and Europe was brought on 

 partly by the immense quantity of the metal suddenly thrown on the 

 world from the Comstock mines. 



In the meantime the Eocky Mountains had been receiving the long- 

 delayed attention of the prospector, and in 1858 gold was found in 

 Colorado, in the sands of Cherry Creek, a tributary of the South Platte 

 Eiver, where the present city of Denver soon grew up. Pioneers poured 

 in from the east, and discoveries followed in rapid succession. In the 

 following few years the mines of the Blackhawk, Central City, Golden, 

 Breckenridge, Boulder and other districts were discovered. In 1859 

 the placer gold of California Gulch, near where Leadville now stands, 

 was discovered, and the town of Oro City sprang up. The diggings 

 were soon exhausted, however, and Oro City vanished, to be replaced a 

 few years later by Leadville, which grew up after valuable silver ores 

 were discovered in the same locality. Many of the early gold districts 

 of Colorado continue to produce gold, and though some of them are not 

 so much heard of now as are the later discoveries like Cripple Creek, 

 yet they have added largely to the prosperity of the state. 



In the meantime the report of the discovery of gold on Pikes Peak 

 drew a vast multitude of people there in 1859, only to be disappointed 

 in their search. Their numbers were greatly increased by many of those 

 who suffered in the financial panic of 1857, and about 100,000 people 

 are said to have sought the new region in the first year. Nothing of 

 value was found on Pikes Peak, and many of the enthusiastic explorers, 

 who had traveled thither in the wagons known as prairie schooners, 

 bearing the inscription " Pikes Peak or Bust," went away with this 

 changed to " Busted." Little did they dream in their disappointment 

 that just west of Pikes Peak, on the small stream of Cripple Creek, 

 were immensely rich gold deposits, that were to be discovered thirty-odd 

 years later. Though the Pikes Peak episode was a failure, it had the 

 effect of bringing a large number of people to Colorado, many of whom, 

 instead of going home, started into the mountains and were the early 

 explorers of mining camps throughout the west. The high and rugged 

 character of the Eocky Mountains in Colorado impeded, though it 

 could not altogether stop, the direct passage westward; in fact, so 

 dangerous were some of the mountain trails that the expression that a 

 man had " gone over the range " came to be applied to any one who had 

 died, and is still heard among " old timers " in many parts of the Colo- 

 rado Eockies. Hence the Colorado miner tended to spread to the south 

 and north, while the Californians continued to spread along the Pacific 

 coast and eastward into the desert. The two tides of exploration 



