Beyond California Fever

As soon as reports about gold in California emerged, new reports were already being told of gold in Nevada and Arizona.  Then in Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming...even Washington and British Columbia.  It was gold frenzy!

The stories magnified with each telling, the nuggets growing as big as a man's fist, of shimmering dust just waiting to be scooped into a prospector's pan, transforming him from a pauper to a prince overnight.  All he had to do was to get there.

In southern Arizona  in 1853, along the Gila River, a strike was made and eventually 1200 prospectors and suppliers established the thriving community of Gila City.  It's reported that it began with "a saloon to supply the necessities of life and later added a grocery store and Chinese restaurant for the luxuries."  Gila City could be said to be the model for all mining towns that sprang up throughout the West.  Wickenburg and Tombstone in Arizona, Elk City and Oro Fino in Idaho, Diamond City, Virginia City and Bannock in Montana, Virginia City and Aurora in Nevada.

These cities rose out of the wilderness, boomed for a few years, then lapsed into obscurity and decay when the ore was gone.  Gila City, for instance, held the reputation for the wickedest city in the West, but by 1874 when the $2 million worth of gold was gone, one traveler said it was "three chimneys and a coyote."

These gold rushers formed the beginning of permanent settlement in America's vast interior from Missouri to the Sierras.  Many would spend the rest of their lives wandering the West in search of new gold.  Some did manage to find rich veins of gold or silver, but most never managed to find their El Dorado.

Next time...Some towns became mighty cities
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Today in Pioneer History:   "On July 24, 1911, On July 24, 1911, American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world's top tourist destinations.