Historic Photos of Colorado Mining
In 1859, 100,000 folks started the journey to the Pikes Peak goldfields, but only 50,000 completed the trip. An additional 25,000 soon gave up and went back home. The remainder not only brought statehood to the central Rocky Mountains, but they also brought the industrial world to isolated areas in the high mountains, where they mined mineral deposits for gold, silver, lead, zinc, and copper, among others.
This book, Historic Photos of Colorado Mining, provides an introduction to Colorado's mining history through photographs from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Accompanying captions provide specific contexts for the photos and tell the story of the prospectors, miners, engineers, teamsters, railroaders, and townspeople who served as entrepreneurs and workers in industrializing the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Many ruins from the mining days are now recognized as historic landmarks. But the stories behind the ruins are often as fascinating as the ruins themselves—the struggle to survive and thrive in the wilderness is always a compelling tale.
We earn a commission for purchases made through the following links.
Book details
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- History › United States › State & Local › West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
Technology & Engineering › Mining - Topics
- Colorado history · mining history · historical photography · gold and silver mining · Rocky Mountains · 19th century America · prospectors and miners · pictorial history
- ISBN-13
- 9781620453827
About the author
ED RAINES is a consulting geologist, mineralogist, and mining historian who has written numerous papers on the mining history, geology, and mineralogy of various mining districts and mineral deposits.
Raines has three times been recognized by the Friends of Mineralogy for Author of the Year’s Outstanding Paper in the journal Rocks and Minerals. He served as consulting Collections Manager for the Geology Museum at the Colorado School of Mines and served on the Boulder County Historic Preservation Advisory Board for nine years, chairing the board for two years.
When not writing, Raines coordinates conferences for the Mining History Association, leading field trips and presenting papers at Leadville, Creede, and Gold Hill. In 2000 he received an award for his historic preservation work at Leadville.