What Are the Prospects The North American West has many natural resources By the mid-1800s waves of settlers had moved there to seek their fortune in lumber and precious metals µ Wealth in West Coast forests µ Mining towns need building material In the early 1800s the lumber industry boomed in the forests around the Great Lakes So much wood was cut that the forests became thin Meanwhile demand for lumber in the West rose after the California Gold Rush of 1849 Settlers in the West needed to build homes and stores Oregon Washington and British Columbia had thick forests Soon logging camps and mill towns sprang up along the coast Right Giant redwood and Douglas fir trees grew widely along the Pacific Coast Heavy Metal µ Not all that glitters is gold Gold was not the only valuable metal in the West A silver rush began in the 1870s with discoveries in Arizona Colorado and Nevada In addition miners found metals used in construction and manufacturing such as iron zinc and copper These metals brought wealth to many states did you know A prospector is someone who looks for useful or valuable minerals A miner is someone who digs minerals out of the ground In the 1800s the two roles were closely related If a prospector found gold or silver he started digging 4
Prospectors mine and pan for gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in California µ Latecomers miss out µ Big business gets involved The first prospectors and miners arrived in California in the summer of 1848 Many of these Forty Eighters successfully found gold in streams or near the surface of the ground About 70,000 Forty-Niners arrived the following year They found that most of the easily accessible gold was gone Only a few of these latecomers made a fortune Instead most ended up working for large mining companies From the mid-1850s these corporations used hydraulic mining to extract gold µ California business booms µ Miners have money to spend 5
Lure of Gold The United States acquired California from Mexico on February 2 1848 At that time no one knew that gold had been discovered in California just nine days earlier James Marshall stands where he found gold next to his new sawmill µ Carpenter strikes it lucky µ Discovery kept under wraps In January 1848 an accidental discovery led to an international frenzy John Sutter a landowner in California had hired James Marshall to build a sawmill on the American River near present-day Sacramento While inspecting the site Marshall spotted some shining flakes in the water Tests confirmed it was gold Sutter and Marshall agreed to keep the discovery secret but word soon spread The California Gold Rush had begun Both Sutter and Marshall later lost their rights to the land They both died penniless µ Rockies gold discoveries ignite new fever µ Miners brave rugged landscape In 1858 prospectors found gold along Cherry Creek in the Rocky Mountains near what is now Denver Colorado Other mineral discoveries in Montana and Idaho followed Thousands of miners set up camps in the mountain valleys slopes and surrounding plateaus Early settlers endured harsh winters and often found little gold When they gave up their mining camps became ghost towns Other camps such as Denver Colorado Springs and Boulder became cities 6
µ Custer reports gold µ Miners flock to Dakota Since the 1850s rumors had circulated about gold in the Black Hills in Dakota Territory When General George Custer led a US Army expedition into the region in 1874 he took two prospectors who soon found gold The New York Times published news of the finding in August By the following fall 15,000 miners had arrived in Sioux Territory Right The Black Hills were sacred to the Sioux The US government had given them ownership of the region but did not prevent miners from moving in Battle for the Black Hills µ Great Sioux War did you know The Sioux still claim possession of the Black Hills In the early 1920s they began a legal case to get the land back The case is still being argued in the law courts µ Custer’s Last Stand When news of Custer’s discovery spread the US government tried to gain control of the Black Hills The Sioux refused to sell their sacred land In 1876 tensions between the US and the Sioux led to the Great Sioux War In the most violent clash Custer right and his entire cavalry unit were killed by Lakota Sioux warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana In 1877 the United States seized control of the Black Hills 7
