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506-510 - Analyze Primary Source Documents. - Describe the mining……. 506-510 - Analyze Primary Source Documents. - Describe the chief characteristics of the western mining frontier. Directions :
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506-510 - Analyze Primary Source Documents. - Describe the mining…… 506-510 - Analyze Primary Source Documents. - Describe the chief characteristics of the western mining frontier.
Directions: • What conclusions can we draw about these western mining operations and towns of the nineteenth century? • Study each original photograph carefully and note: • What is shown and what is not shown. • Pay special attention to the details in each • photograph. • Consider what actions are shown.
Directions: • What conclusions can we draw about these western mining operations and towns of the nineteenth century? • Study each original photograph carefully and note: • What is shown and what is not shown. • Pay special attention to the details in each • photograph. • Consider what actions are shown. • Discuss the conclusions:
The Mining Frontier • Major gold and silver “rushes” drew prospectors • westward (acted as a pull factor): • 1859 Rocky Mountains near Denver and the Comstock • Lode near Virginia City, Nevada drew over 100k miners. • 1860s strikes in Boise, Idaho and Helena, Montana drew • even more prospectors.
The Mining Frontier • Major “rushes” drew prospectors westward • 1859 Rocky Mountains near Denver and the Comstock • Lode near Virginia City, Nevada drew over 100k miners. • 1860s strikes in Boise, Idaho and Helena, Montana drew • even more prospectors. • Characteristics of mining towns: • Isolated due to geography and distance. • Temporary structures, very transient population, yet they did • contribute to permanent settlement of surrounding areas. • Population was overwhelmingly male with few women. • 1860 mining camps of Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada • only 30 women resided out of a total population of 2,300. • Women also had limited economic opportunities as hotel • owners, seamstresses, cooks or prostitutes.
The Mining Frontier • Characteristics of mining towns: • Population was overwhelmingly male with few women. • 1860 mining camps of Virginia City and Gold Hill, Nevada • only 30 women resided out of a total population of 2,300. • Women also had limited economic opportunities as hotel • owners, seamstresses, cooks or prostitutes. • Saloons were the most common business establishment and • predominant social centers. • 1879 Leadville, Colorado had four churches but 120 saloons. • Mark Twain describes Virginia City in his book Roughing • It(1872).
In his book, (really a memoir), Mark Twain describes his experiences traveling west. • …”The cheapest & easiest way to be an influential man and be looked up to by the community at large, was to stand behind a bar, wear as cluster-diamond pin, and sell whiskey”. • During his journey he: • meets bandits, Pony Express riders, • Indians and Mormons; • tries his hand and fails at dozens • of occupations; • becomes editor of a newspaper, • is nearly drowned, crushed, and • frozen to death; • throws himself into mining and even • becomes a millionaire, though only for • two weeks
The Mining Frontier Characteristics • Characteristics of mining towns: • Saloons were the most common business establishment and • predominant social centers. • 1879 Leadville, Colorado had four churches but 120 saloons. • Mark Twain describes Virginia City in his book Roughing • It(1872). • Towns had the potential for personal and criminal violence, • however, was not as common as legend would have it. • Between 1877-1883 Bodie, California experienced 29 killings, • but usually only occurred within small groups of young men. • Daily life for most people was safe. • Racism also sparked violence over economic competition • In 1885 in Rock Springs, Wyoming white miners killed 28 • Chinese miners and drove away the other 700 residents!
Changes in Mining in the West: Technological Advances : • Placer (pan) mining by prospectors was replaced with: • Hydraulic Mining (used high pressure water cannon) • Hard Rock Mining (Lode or Quartz Mining involved digging shafts into the ground with timber bracing to prevent cave-ins) • Pumps were necessary to remove underground water. Effects: • Corporate control of mining by Eastern and British capital ($) replaced the individual prospector due to increased expense. • Damaged environment.
Changes in Mining in the West: Effects: • Corporate control of mining by Eastern and British capital ($) replaced the individual prospector due to increased expense. • Damaged environment. • Transformed miners into wage earners (deskilled). • Mining corporations did little to protect health and safety of miners. • Cave-ins, explosions, poisonous gas and fires in the mines killed or injured many. • Hoisting mechanisms used to raise and lower men into the mines oftentimes malfunctioned maiming and dismembering miners.
Changes in Mining in the West: Effects: • Miners organized unions • Established to assist injured miners, act as social and educational centers (libraries) and acted to safeguard miners jobs and working conditions. • The Western Federation of Miners strike in 1892 at Coeur d’Alene district in Idaho. • Owners of the mine locked out miners, brought in a private “army” and asked the governor and President Cleveland to send in troops to end the strike! • Unions often responded with violence when companies tried to blacklist union members, use the lock-out, court injunctions and soldiers to force miners back to work. • So, most attempts at unionization met with little success.
Virginia City, Nevada ca. 1870
Virginia City, Nevada – (c.1920) Long after it’s zenith in the 1880s
