314 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



other ways. There were cash sales amounting to one-half of the 

 homestead entries, large gifts to the veterans of the Revolutionary 

 War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War, and gifts to various 

 railroads and to agricultural colleges. 



Two contrary movements, tending to reduce population in the 

 West, must not be overlooked, a further migration to the newly 

 opened mines west of the Missouri River and the formation of 

 armies. In every year of the war there was overland travel across 

 the plains to Colorado, where gold was discovered in 1858; to 

 Nevada, where silver was discovered in 1860 ; and to Idaho, where 

 gold was discovered in 1863. The excitement in 1863 and 1864 in 

 Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, over the discoveries in Idaho may be 

 taken as typical. Maps, suggested routes, and descriptive articles 

 abounded in the newspapers of St. Louis, Chicago, and other 

 cities ; and when the spring of 1 864 opened, hundreds of prairie 

 schooners started overland westward, and scores of boats ascended 

 the Missouri River. On a single day in the early summer 420 

 wagons were observed to cross the Missouri River at four different 

 points in Nebraska. This represented 2000 people. In a letter 

 from Denver the readers of the Boston Journal were informed that 

 10,000 people were on the road between the Missouri River and 

 Denver, all bound for Idaho. A certain judge, journeying from 

 Fort Kearney to St. Joseph, declared that on no day was he out 

 of sight of wagons, on one day he met 400 wagons. It was cer- 

 tainly a strong movement, but there were special reasons for it 

 aside from the gold fever : first, the disturbed conditions in 

 Missouri, torn as the state was by the fierce struggles of radicals 

 and conservatives, and harassed by bushwhackers ; and, second, 

 the approach of the draft. It is significant that the governor of 

 Iowa assumed by proclamation to prohibit any leaving that state 

 until after the draft. The rush to Colorado and Nevada earlier 

 was similar. In 1860, one year after the excitement in Colorado 

 began, the census takers found 32,227 people in the territory. 

 Her estimated population in 1864 was 75,000. Nothing accurate 

 measures the migration to Nevada, although it was roughly esti- 

 mated that 30,000 went there in 1 86 1 . Thus through the war there 

 was a continued migration away from the leading farming sections. 



