The Mining Frontier While the United States’ expansion as a country was from the east coast to the west coast, the expansion of the US’s mining frontier was from the west coast to the eastern part of the west. The first major gold find in US history was in California in 1848 and then moving east to the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1876.

Where did it all start? The American River was named by John Sutter in 1839 when he selected the point at which it flows into the Sacramento River as the site for his headquarters, Fort Sutter. In 1848, gold was discovered on the South Fork of the American River at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma, bringing a rush of fortune seekers from around the world, who would destroy Sutter's estate and drive him to ruin.

How did it happen? On the morning on January 24th, 1848, a man named James Marshall walked along the banks of the American River in California, to check on the progress of a lumber mill he was building. He saw a sparkle among the river rocks laid bare by the diversion of the river for the mill. He reached down picked it up, and sure enough it was gold.

What is the effect of the discovery? By the beginning of 1849, over 50,000 American gold seekers had decided to head for California. They did so either overland in wagons or by sea. For the most part they were convinced by the State of the Union address of President James K. Polk in December of 1848.

Forty-niners So many people streamed into California in 1849 that by the following year, 1850, California was admitted as the 31st state. Although California was an extreme case the subsequent precious metal finds would have a similar effect in populating the American West.

Other Precious Metal Finds In the late 1850s and 1860s, gold and silver strikes brought thousands of miners to Nevada and Colorado. The richest find, ironically, was a mistaken silver find known as the Comstock Lode near Carson City, Nevada. The find netted some $400 million in 1860 era dollars ($11 Billion in today’s money).

Pikes Peak or Bust The discovery of gold in Colorado in 1858 brought more than 100,000 to the area. On land that was promised to Arapahoe and Cheyenne Indians in an 1851 treaty. Denver was founded in November 1858. Known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, it was one of the most publicized, but very disappointing to the 59ers. However the Colorado (Jefferson) Territory was created in 1862 as a direct result of the population resulting from the rush.

The Resulting Settlement Pattern The settlement pattern of the American West is originally created by the accidental location of mineral wealth. The pattern that resulted was settlements separated by hundreds of miles of open unsettled space. For the first time in history substantial settlements were not located near navigatable bodies of water. Nor were they really located near anything. Because of this an early necessity was created for transportation and communication links.

Communication and Transportation The first solution took the form of the stagecoach industry. The earliest stage companies made profits based on government subsidies to deliver the mail and army supplies. Passengers got to ride along, but the service could never have survived without the government subsidies.

Communication and Transportation The Butterfield Overland Mail created a better way to deliver the mail and passengers. A series of relay stations replacing drivers and horses reduced the time connecting the east and west to 24 days.

The Pony Express Russell, Majors, Waddell’s Pony Express reduced the time from St. Joseph, MO to San Francisco, CA to 10 days.

Communication and Transportation By the 1860s the telegraph would solve the communication problem and by the 1870s railroads would be the answer to both transportation and communication. During the 20th century highways and airplanes replace railroads for the most part.