Pikes Peak Or Bust
Searching for gold from Lawrence, Kansas, to Breckenridge, Colorado.
By: Johnny D. Boggs 01/01/2009
There’s gold right here, and it’s delicious, as I hoist a Copperhead Pale Ale at the Free State Brewing Company.
Then again, the lure of a fortune, the coolness of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains and the opportunity to get away from obnoxious Kansas Jayhawks fans could pull anyone westward.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of one of America’s major gold rushes. Alas, people tend to forget all about the Pikes Peakers. They remember instead those hardy 49ers of the decade before and the Klondikers at the close of the 19th century.
The rush to Pikes Peak started in January 1859, when prospector George Jackson found gold near present-day Idaho Springs. The financial crash of 1857 had left many in the East and Midwest without jobs, so prospectors and wannabe prospectors flocked to the Rockies, heralding “Pikes Peak or Bust.” Many returned heralding, “Busted, By God,” but not before they helped establish mining camps like Denver City and Boulder City. Other burgs boomed and died. Some boomed, died, then rose again.
Gold seekers had been exploring Colorado’s mountain streams for a couple of years, but Jackson’s discovery proved primarily responsible for the thousands of men and women who raced to the Rockies. The rush didn’t last long, but there’s still gold in them hills—if you know where to look for it.
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