GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES i8i 



rapidly invaded the interior country, and between 1860 and 1885 made 

 many discoveries, the mining camps to the eastward becoming affili- 

 ated with Denver as a center, those to the westward having closer rela- 

 tions with San Francisco. Even to-day this distinction is observable. 

 After the discovery of the Comstock lode, Californians began to 

 appreciate the possibilities of the desert and they rapidly overran that 

 region, but even before the discovery of the Comstock they had begun 

 to explore the region east of the Colorado Kiver, then known as New 

 Mexico, but later divided into New Mexico and Arizona. Here gold 

 had been mined by the Mexicans long before the American conquest, 

 and many of the old mines were reopened and new ones discovered by 

 the American miners. As early as 1853, the old town of Tucson be- 

 came an active mining center, and somewhat later the gold mines near 

 Prescott, Phoenix, Santa Fe and many other places were developed. 

 Between 1860 and 1864 the gold of the region now included in Idaho 

 and Montana was discovered, and the Snake, Clearwater and Salmon 

 Eiver regions, the Boise Basin, the Owyhee region. Deer Lodge, Ban- 

 nack City, Alder Gulch, Helena and many other districts became im- 

 portant gold producers. 



Though all these discoveries were of much local importance, no one 

 of them was great enough to mark an epoch in the gold mining industry 

 of the country, as was the case in the discovery of the gold of Cali- 

 fornia and the Comstock. An exception to this, however, should be 

 made in the case of the Boise Basin and the surrounding country, 

 from which many millions in gold were taken in a short time. Most of 

 this gold, however, was sent to San Francisco, and in those early days, 

 when people were too busy to keep very accurate records, a large part of 

 it was credited to California mines; but those who know the Boise 

 region and the prosperous city of Boise are familiar with the immense 

 production that once came from there. 



We now come to the discovery of gold in the Black Hills of South 

 Dakota, a region somewhat removed from those we have been discussing. 

 In 1874 General G. A. Custer, while on an exploring expedition there, 

 reported gold in some of the stream beds. The following year miners 

 began to come into the region and very soon a general rush for the new 

 gold fields occurred. The Black Hills, however, were then a part of the 

 Sioux Indian reservation, which was not open to settlers, and the various 

 United States military posts were instructed to keep the people out; 

 but in spite of this and the fierce opposition of the Indians, numerous 

 exploring parties managed to reach there; and finally, in 1876, this 

 mountainous region, which had long been looked on by the Indians as 

 their last resort for safety, was thrown open to settlers. From that 

 time until the present the Black Hills region has been a steady pro- 

 ducer of much gold and some silver, the production of gold usually 



