Fifty-Niner
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A "Fifty-Niner" is the term used for the gold seekers who streamed into the
Many Fifty-Niners took the "Smoky Hill Trail" west through Kansas Territory up the Kansas River valley. The last significant civilian settlement along this route was Manhattan, Kansas, several hundred miles east of the mountains. Between there and the mountains the Fifty-Niners had to cross the unmarked plains, often getting lost, and sometimes confronting Plains Indians. There is no record of how many prospective miners died en route to Pikes Peak.
The northern, or Platte River, route followed the Platte River through Nebraska along the Oregon Trail, then angled down along the South Platte River to the gold region.
The southern route followed the Santa Fe Trail along the Arkansas River to the vicinity of present-day Pueblo, Colorado, then north up Fountain Creek to the gold fields.
Among the most famous of the Fifty-Niners were
No gold was found near Pikes Peak until after the gold rush, but it was the first visible
See also
- Pike's Peak Gold Rush
- Forty-niners
References
- Larson, Robert W. "Populism in the Mountain West: A Mainstream Movement." The Western Historical Quarterly 13.2 (1982): 143-164.
- Zamonski, Stan, and Teddy Keller. The Fifty-Niners. Sage Books, 1961.
External links