The Mining Boom

The pattern was the same almost everywhere. With the discovery of gold or silver, prospectors rushed into an area to stake their claims, and small archeological site camps off-key into boomtowns overnight, complete with dance halls, saloons, prostitutes, and astronomical prices for food and equipment. Those who really potty it rich were, more often than not, those who supplied the prospectors with what they needed, and not the prospectors themselves. Most of the mines contend out rapidly, and as people moved on to newer strikes, erstwhile bustling mining communities turned into ghost towns. If the deposits were rich, the mines were soon interpreted over by well-financed corporate mining operations.
Surface deposits were quickly removed through placer mining in which a lone(prenominal) prospector panned for gold by a stream or a small group of men used a purge to wash off larger amounts of dirt and sand. To get at the ore buried deep inside rock or veins of quartz, shafts had to be dug and shored up with timber, pumps installed to keep the tunnels dry, and mills set up to crush the rock and separate the precious metals. All this compulsory heavy machinery, capital, and technical expertise provided by investors and large mining companies. Gold and silver were not the only sources of wealth on the mining frontier.



Lead, zinc, and particularly copper were important as well. The anaconda Mine in Montana, where copper ore was extracted, smelted, and refined, helped make the United States the worlds track producer of copper in the 1880s.
Labor on the mining frontier The shift from placer to trying-rock mining meant that independent prospectors became laborers, paid any by the day or the week. Work in the mines was hard and dangerous, and the pay was usually low. Miners of the Comstock Lode went on strike as early as 1864 for higher wages, shorter hours, and better working conditions, and although unions much(prenominal) as the Miners Protective Association had wide support passim the mining frontier,...If you want to get a full essay, cast it on our website: Orderessay



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