THE NEW WEST (1860-1870)
%488. Discovery of Gold near Pikes Peak.%--In the summer of 1858 news
reached the Missouri that gold had been found on the eastern slope of
the Rockies, and at once a wild rush set in for the foot of Pikes Peak,
in what was then Kansas.
[Illustration: Crossing the plains]
During 1858 a party from the gold mines of Georgia pitched a camp on
Cherry Creek and called the place Aurania. Later, in the winter, they
were joined by General Larimer with a party from Leavenworth, Kan., and
by them the rude camp at Aurania was renamed Denver, in honor of the
governor of Kansas. In another six months emigrants came pouring in from
every point along the frontier. Some, providing themselves with great
white-covered wagons, drawn by horses, oxen, or mules, joined forces for
better protection against the Indians, and set out together, making
long wagon trains or caravans. All were accompanied by men fully armed.
Such as could not afford a "prairie schooner," as the canvas-covered
wagon was called, put their worldly goods into handcarts.
By 1859 Denver was a settlement of 1000 people. They needed supplies,
and, to meet this demand, the firm of Russell, Majors, and Waddell put a
daily line of coaches on the road from Leavenworth to Denver. This means
of communication brought so many settlers that by 1860 Denver was a city
of frame and brick houses, with two theaters, two newspapers, and a mint
for coining gold.
%489. The Pony Express; the Overland Stage.%--By that time, too, the
first locomotive had reached the frontier of Kansas. But between the
Missouri and the Pacific there was still a gap of 2000 miles which the
settlers demanded should be spanned at once, and it was. In 1860 the
same firm that sent the first stagecoach over the prairie from
Leavenworth to Denver, ran a pony express from the Missouri to the
Pacific. Their plan was to start at St. Joseph, Mo., and send the mail
on horseback across the continent to San Francisco. As the speed must be
rapid, there must be frequent relays. Stations were therefore
established every twenty-five miles, and at them fresh horses and riders
were kept. Mounted on a spirited Indian pony, the mail carrier would set
out from St. Joseph and gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay
station, swing himself from his pony, vault into the saddle of another
standing ready, and dash on toward the next station. At every third
relay a fresh rider took the mail. Day and night, in sunshine and storm,
over prairie and mountain, the mail carrier pursued his journey alone.
The cost in human life was immense. The first riders made the journey of
1996 miles in ten days. Next came the Wells and Fargo Express, and then
the Butterfield Overland Stage Company.
%490. The Union Pacific Railroad; the Land Grant Roads.%--Meantime
the war opened, and an idea often talked of took definite shape.
California had scarcely been admitted, in 1850, when the plan to bind
her firmly to the Union by a great railroad, built at national cost, was
urged vigorously. By 1856 the people began to demand it, and in that
year the Republican party, and in 1860 both the Republican and
Democratic parties, pledged themselves to build one. The secession of
the South, and the presence at Denver of a growing population, made the
need imperative, and in 1862 Congress began the work.
Two companies were chartered. One, the Union Pacific, was to begin at
Omaha and build westward. The other, the Central Pacific, was to begin
at Sacramento and build eastward till the two met. The Union Pacific was
to receive from the government a subsidy in bonds of $16,000 for each
mile built across the plains, $48,000 for each of 150 miles across the
Rocky Mountains, and $32,000 a mile for the rest of the way. It received
all told on its 1033 miles $27,226,000. The Central Pacific, under like
conditions, received for its 883 miles from San Francisco to Ogden
$27,850,000. But the liberality of Congress did not end here. Each road
was also given every odd-numbered section in a strip of public land
twenty miles wide along its entire length.
%491. Land Grants for Railroads and Canals.%--Grants of land in aid
of such improvements were not new. Between 1827 and 1860 Congress gave
away to canals, roads, and railroads 215,000,000 acres. This magnificent
expanse would make seven states as large as Pennsylvania, or three and a
half as large as Oregon, and is only 6000 acres less than the total area
of the thirteen original states with their present boundaries.
Although the roads were chartered in 1862, the work of construction was
slow at first, and the last rail was not laid till May 10, 1869.
%492. The Silver Mines; New States and Territories.%--What the
discovery of gold did for California and Denver, silver and the railroad
did for the country east of the Sierras. In 1859 some gold seekers in
what was then Utah discovered the rich silver mines on Mt. Davidson.
Population rushed in, Virginia City sprang into existence, the territory
of Nevada was formed in 1861, and in 1864 entered the Union as a state.
In 1861 Colorado was made a territory, and what is now North and South
Dakota and the land west of them to the Rocky Mountain divide became the
territory of Dakota. Hardly was this done when gold was found in a gulch
on the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri River. Bannock City, Virginia
City, and Helena were laid out almost immediately, and in 1864 Montana
was made a territory. In 1860 and 1862 precious metals were found in
what was then eastern Washington; Lewiston, Idaho City, and the old
Hudson Bay Company's post of Fort Boise became thriving towns, and in
1863 the territory of Idaho was formed, with limits including what is
now Montana and part of Wyoming. In 1863 Arizona was cut off from New
Mexico, and in 1868 Wyoming was made a territory.
%493. Population in 1870.%--Thus in the decade from 1860 to 1870
gold, silver, and the Pacific Railroad gave value to the American
Desert, brought two states (Nevada and Nebraska) into the Union, and
caused the organization of six new territories. More than 1,000,000
people then lived along the line of the Union Pacific. Our total
population in 1870 was 38,000,000.
SUMMARY
1. What the discovery of gold did for California in 1849, it did for the
"Great American Desert" in 1858.
2. The consequences were the founding of Denver, the establishment of a
stagecoach line from the Missouri to Denver, the pony express to the
Pacific; the overland coach; and the Pacific Railroad.
3. Gold, the railroad, and the silver mines led to the organization of
Colorado, Nevada, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, and the admission of
Nebraska and Nevada into the Union.
4. Other causes led to the organization of Arizona and Dakota.
New States (1860-1870).
Kansas, 1861.
West Virginia, 1863.
Nevada, 1864.
Nebraska, 1867.
Total number of states in 1870, 37.
New Territories (1860-1870).
Colorado, 1861.
Dakota, 1861.
Idaho, 1863.
Arizona, 1863.
Montana, 1864.
Wyoming, 1868.
_THE ECONOMIC STRUGGLE_