GOLD MINING IN THE UNITED STATES 187 



ery of gold^ brought many adventurous people there who did much to 

 develop the gold resources when found; in fact, the very discovery of 

 gold was made in the building of a mill to supply the wants of the 

 increasing population of California. 



After our Civil War had ended, in 1865, many men who had served 

 in both armies had become too much accustomed to constant excite- 

 ment and action to settle down to the ordinary monotonous callings of 

 life, and thousands of them started for the west as a country offering 

 the life of adventure that they sought. Such men were thrift}^, intelli- 

 gent, brave and used to hardships. No pioneers of a new country were 

 ever more suited to their task than they, and the result was soon seen 

 in many new mining discoveries, made in the years immediately fol- 

 lowing the war. 



Again, after the price of silver began to fall, many men were thrown 

 out of work by the closing of the mines, and the search for gold at- 

 tracted them as offering a more stable pursuit: with the result that in 

 the years from 1890 to 1905 some of the great gold discoveries of the 

 world were made, including the Cripple Creek, Klondike, Goldfield and 

 other regions. 



Financial panics and times of business depression have also marked 

 epochs in the development of mining, especially gold mining. When 

 manufacturing and other commercial pursuits are- not prosperous, when 

 men are thrown out of work, speculators financially ruined, banks 

 closed and the whole world seems gloomy, then gold mining has often 

 been most prosperous; for the unemployed and the unfortunate have 

 taken to it as a means of earning a livelihood or of recuperating their 

 shattered fortunes, and in doing so have often made rich discoveries. 

 Many of the pioneers who came to Colorado in the 1859 rush were men 

 who had suffered in the financial panic of 1857; and many of the early 

 prospectors in the Cripple Creek region were people who had been simi- 

 larly injured in the panic of 1893, while many a Klondike explorer had 

 been a prosperous business man before the latter sad era. In the same 

 way a marked increase in the production of gold in 1908 followed the 

 financial panic of 1907. This feature of gold mining as a last help to 

 the unfortunate has been observed not only in the United States, but 

 in many other parts of the world. When all else fails, the people take 

 to gold mining, especially placer mining, which requires but little 

 equipment, is easily learned, and in some places is sure to afford a cer- 

 tain, though often meager, profit. 



An important factor in the progress of gold mining has been the 

 increased respect for the industry on the part of the public at large. 

 Not many years ago, many people, especially in the east, looked on gold 

 mining as a gamble and a calling of questionable character; and the 

 numerous fraudulent schemes that had been floated gave them some 



