The Pike's Peak gold rush (later known as the Colorado gold rush ) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history.
24-757: Central City Historic District may refer to: Central City-Black Hawk Historic District , Central City, CO, listed on the NRHP in Colorado Central City Commercial Historic District , Central City, IA, listed on the NRHP in Iowa Central City, New Orleans , which includes a Central City Historic District listed on the NRHP in Louisiana Saginaw Central City Expansion District , Saginaw, MI, listed on
48-580: A Cherokee woman, and through his connections to the tribe, he heard about Ralston's 1850 discovery of gold along the South Platte River. Green Russell organized a party to prospect along the South Platte River, setting off with his two brothers and six companions in February 1858. They rendezvoused with Cherokee tribe members along the Arkansas River in present-day Oklahoma and continued westward along
72-606: A ghost town within the Central City limits. Although the area was settled on the basis of placer mining claims, these played out quickly, and underground mining came to dominate. Between 1859 and 1893, Gilpin County produced more gold than any other area in the American West. The mines were largely played out by the end of the 19th century, and the population of the area crashed in the years before World War I , during which mining
96-570: A party of Spanish-speaking gold seekers from Taos, New Mexico , worked a placer deposit along the South Platte River about 3 miles (4.8 km) above Cherry Creek at a location later known as Mexican Diggings near the Overland Park Golf Course in Denver . William Greeneberry "Green" Russell was a Georgian who worked in the California gold fields in the 1850s. Russell was married to
120-650: A rich deposit of gold in hard rock, the first such discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. Thousands of miners flooded into Gregory Gulch in the next few months in the Pike's Peak Gold Rush . Several mining camps were thrown up near the Gregory Lode, and these camps eventually coalesced into Central City and Black Hawk. The area around the Gregory Lode quickly came to be known as the Richest Square Mile on Earth . By
144-515: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Central City-Black Hawk Historic District The Central City/Black Hawk Historic District (formerly just the Central City Historic District ) is a National Historic Landmark District that encompasses the developed areas of Central City and Black Hawk, Colorado , United States. They are adjacent former gold mining camps in
168-675: The California gold rush by approximately a decade, produced a dramatic but temporary influx of migrants and immigrants into the Pike's Peak Country of the Southern Rocky Mountains . The rush was exemplified by the slogan "Pike's Peak or Bust!", a reference to the prominent mountain at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the Great Plains . The prospectors provided
192-706: The Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Gilpin County , Colorado . For a time, the area was known as the Richest Square Mile on Earth , and was the largest urban area of the Colorado Territory in the 1870s. The district was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 4, 1961, for its well-preserved early mining community architecture and history. On May 5, 1859, John H. Gregory discovered
216-737: The Georgia Gold Rush to the California gold fields. The party followed the Trail of Tears west, and on June 22, 1850, they crossed the South Platte River (a few miles north of what is today Denver ) and camped near the confluence of two streams. One of the prospectors, Lewis Ralston panned for gold near the mouth of the smaller stream (in what is now Gold Strike Park in Arvada, Colorado .) He found about ¼ troy ounce (8 g) of gold, then worth about five dollars (about $ 550 USD today.) While Ralston
240-589: The Santa Fe Trail . Others joined the party along the way until their number reached 107. Upon reaching Bent's Fort , they turned to the northwest, reaching the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte on May 23. The site of their initial explorations is in present-day Confluence Park in Denver. They began prospecting in the river beds, exploring Cherry Creek and nearby Ralston Creek but without success. In
264-432: The 1990s, the district was renamed and expanded, to include the built-up parts of Black Hawk, the ghost town of Nevadaville, and the cemetery area of Central City, located up Eureka Gulch from downtown Central City. The landmarked area, covering more than 280 acres (110 ha), excludes much of the former mining infrastructure visible in the hills above the communities. Pike%27s Peak Gold Rush The participants in
SECTION 10
#1733104318086288-780: The NRHP in Michigan Saginaw Central City Historic Residential District , Saginaw, MI, listed on the NRHP in Michigan West Point Central City Historic District , West Point, MS, listed on the NRHP in Mississippi Rocky Mount Central City Historic District , Rocky Mount, NC, listed on the NRHP in North Carolina Central City Historic District (Salt Lake City, Utah) , listed on
312-552: The NRHP in Utah Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Central City Historic District . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Central_City_Historic_District&oldid=545463587 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
336-460: The Pike's Peak country. Some even dared to go out in the winter of 1858 to try to get a head start, only to realize that they would have to wait until the snow melted to begin mining. Hardrock mining boomed for a few years, but then declined in the mid-1860s as the miners exhausted the shallow parts of the veins that contained free gold, and found that their amalgamation mills could not recover gold from
360-481: The first major European-American population in the region. The rush created a few gold rush towns such as Denver City and Boulder City that would develop into cities. Many smaller camps such as Auraria and Saint Charles City were absorbed by larger camps and towns. Scores of other mining camps have faded into ghost towns , but quite a few camps such as Central City , Black Hawk , Georgetown , and Idaho Springs survived. For many years, people had suspected
384-406: The first week of July 1858, Green Russell and Sam Bates found a small placer deposit near the mouth of Little Dry Creek that yielded about 20 troy ounces (620 g) of gold, then worth about 380 dollars (about $ 44,000 USD today.) This was the first significant gold discovery in the Rocky Mountain region. The site of the discovery is in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood , just north of
408-494: The gold rush were known as " Fifty-Niners " after 1859, the peak year of the rush and often used the motto Pike's Peak or Bust! In fact, the location of the Pike's Peak gold rush was centered 85 miles (137 km) north of Pikes Peak . The name Pike's Peak gold rush was used mainly because of how well known and important Pike's Peak was at the time. The rush created a few towns such as Denver and Boulder that would develop into cities. The Pike's Peak gold rush, which followed
432-548: The gold, they came up short because he could not quite remember the location. On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall found placer gold near Coloma, California , and unbeknownst nine days later, Mexico ceded California and the rest of northern Mexico to the United States with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo . The California Gold Rush ensued. In the spring of 1850, John Beck led a party of predominately Cherokee veterans of
456-691: The junction of U.S. Highway 285 and U.S. Highway 85 . This discovery was announced with great excitement by the Kansas City Journal of Commerce on 26 August 1858 with the headline, "THE NEW ELDORADO!! GOLD IN KANSAS!!" The first decade of the boom was largely concentrated along the South Platte River at the base of the Rocky Mountains, in the canyon of Clear Creek in the mountains west of Golden City, at Breckenridge and in South Park at Como , Fairplay , and Alma . By 1860, Denver City, Golden City , and Boulder City were substantial towns that served
480-420: The mines. Rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861. The Pike's Peak gold rush sent many Americans into a frenzy, prompting them to pack up their belongings and head to Colorado. This initial boom influenced people to begin falsifying information, often sending people out to the west without any proof of a true presence of gold. As early as the spring of 1859, people raced to
504-429: The mountains in present-day Colorado contained numerous rich gold deposits. In 1835, French trapper Eustace Carriere lost his party and ended up wandering through the mountains for many weeks. During those weeks he found many gold specimens which he later took back to New Mexico for examination. Upon examination, they turned out to be "pure gold". But when he tried to lead an expedition back to the location of where he found
SECTION 20
#1733104318086528-453: The time the Territory of Colorado was formed on February 28, 1861, Central City was already the largest city in the entire territory, though Denver was made the state capital. The Central City/Black Hawk area was a basically continuous arc of mining camps and urban development, with a population of more than 3,000 at its height in 1870. Development extended all the way up to Nevadaville , now
552-572: Was completely suspended. The area's population has never returned to the level of its heyday. In the 1990s, casinos were developed in both Central City and Black Hawk, and they have seen a resurgence in attention and funds as a result. Central City's built-up area was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961 (as the Central City Historic District), and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. In
576-476: Was elated, the rest of the party was unimpressed and continued on to California the next morning. Ralston continued panning for gold, but gave up after a few days and caught up with his party. As the hysteria of the California Gold Rush faded, many discouraged gold seekers returned home. Rumors of gold in the Rocky Mountains persisted and several small parties explored the region. In the summer of 1857,
#85914