210 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO STUDIES 
The decade from 1890 to 1900 is marked by a decline in the number 
of foreign born from Canada, Ireland, England, Scotland, France and 
Germany. The chief nationalities which increased during this period 
are Italy, from 3,882 to 6,818; Sweden, from 9,659 to 10,765; Russia, 
from 1,306; to 2,938; and Austria, from 2,700 to6,024. The increase of 
these peoples, except perhaps that of Sweden, is in part due to their having 
gone so largely into coal mining. They seem to have become a large 
proportion of the laborers in this industry. 
MINING 
The table on the opposite page shows clearly the progress of the state 
from a collection of mining camps to a great commonwealth of many and 
varied interests. ‘The column for 1860 exhibits the intensity of the gold 
fever which had come on the year before and was then at its height, 22,086 
persons were engagedin mining. But the surface workings were soon ex- 
hausted and at the time the next census was taken, 1870, but 2,200 men 
were engaged in this industry. The number actually working was much 
smaller than 2,200. The figures given in the table are those taken from 
the population schedules of the census and these schedules are made up 
from the testimony of the individual about whom the information is sought. 
While, therefore, 2,200 persons told the enumerator in 1870 that they 
were miners, the census schedule showing the condition of industry 
and wealth in the territory during that year, which was compiled from 
data obtained by investigation of the factories and mines, shows but 575 
miners employed in the entire territory.‘ This, however, does not 
include prospectors. It is probable that a large number of miners were 
at that time out of employment. 
A great emigration from the territory had taken place between 1860 
and 1870. Some writers have estimated that 100,000 persons were in 
Colorado shortly after 1860. However, it was soon found that mining 
required capital, patience and industry, and hence it was that the ad- 
venturers, equipped with none of these essentials, turned their faces 
homeward. 
Some account of the characteristics of these early adventurers is 
found in the descriptions of Colorado in the decade following 1860. In 
* Census, 1870, Industry and Wealth, p. 760. 
