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The Ecstasy of Gold
The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush & the cultural transformation of Denver
By John Parker Roe
For Professor Matt Hill
WRIT 1133-37
The University of Denver
April 8, 2011
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The year of 1859 marked a time of incredible change for The West, and most
notably the areas and towns associated with Pike’s Peak Gold Rush. By late spring news
of the golden veins that ran through the Rockies had made its way to Denver, thus giving
birth to the gold rush of what is now Colorado. The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush of 1859
transformed the area drastically, and was in fact, although some say the gold rush was a
bust, the driving force behind Denver’s future as a shining metropolis aside the foothills
of the Rockies.
At this time Denver maintained an image of a, “ragtag society of vagabonds and
miscreants and a slapdash collection of tents and log cabins,” which was soon to change
in the quickly coming years (Brosnan). At Pike’s Peak, newspaper writer Horace
Greeley, after visiting various mining camps, and even giving a try at panning for some
gold himself, proclaimed that it is his, “belief that gold is scarcely less abundant in the
Rocky Mountains than in California,” and that while some, “will realize their dreams of
wealth here, a far greater number will expand their scanty means, tax their power of
endurance, and then leave, soured, heartsick, spirit-broken (Smith).” People came to
Colorado with dreams of staying, and others with dreams of growing wealthy and then
returning home. Some of these men never found their fortunes and refused to return home
in fear of embarrassment. Many argue that the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush was solely
responsible for ruining lives—people flocking to the area from around the country spent
their fortunes to get a stab at the mining business and ultimately lost everything. As days
passed and people from the east and west began to arrive the warped, rough logs, mud
walls and roofs, dirt floors, and windows of cotton sheeting, which ultimately
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characterized the Denver’s architecture, began to make way for the clean-cut, milled lines
of the big cities; however, this process did not happen overnight (Brosnan). 1859 Denver
is easily characterized as a, “bastion of bedlam and instability,” plagued by the
externalities of crime, gambling, drinking, and outright lacking of enforced law, but it’s
future as a gleaming metropolis was far from distant, and in fact was right around the
corner (Brosnan).
Denver in the summer of 1859 was your textbook definition of a town of The
Wild West. Fresh food was tremendously difficult to come by, most notably fresh
vegetables. Alcohol served as the primary source of nutrition for most of the male
population…
“Buildings went up haphazardly. Law, in nearly every form, remained
largely absent. For many, particularly visitors from long-established
eastern cities, Denver, with its impermanent built environment,
transient population, and a culture of violence, constituted chaos
(Brosnan).”
There was in fact a light at the end of this gloomy, dusty, arid, and sometimes chaotic
tunnel. That light was Pike’s Peak, the place where it all began. The gold rush served to
present order to Denver and its inhabitants—an order that assured progress and
development far beyond the simple delivery of fresh veggies. In 1859, less than a year
after the first discovery of gold in the area, William Russel, of Russel, Majors, and
Waddell, the west’s most prominent transportation company, formed the Leavenworth
and Pike’s Peak Express which transported passengers, most notably journalist Horace
Greeley of the Chicago Tribune, and launched the regions first freight and stage service
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(Brosnan). The pace at which Denver began to transform was so rapid that within
months, on October 3, 1959, The Apollo Theater put on its first-ever show. The people of
Denver and the miners in the nearby mountains flocked to Larimer Street and paid the
one dollar admission fee in gold dust, which was then measured out on the box office
scale upon entry (Noel). At this time Denver saw its first glimpse of the future, whether
anyone knew it or not, it began to transform.
As Denver began to develop a sense of culture, the miners in the foothills and
mountains were hard at work. It was not a quick and easy process, and in fact many
doubted the profitable future of the area. “Gold mining,” as Horace Greeley writes during
his 1859 Pike’s Peak excursion, “is a business which eminently requires of its rotaries
capital, experience, energy, endurance, and in which the highest qualities do not always
command success,” offering a perfect summation of the risk and reward factor that faces
the lives of the Rocky Mountain miners (Greeley). The early days of Denver were
gloomy and, “are spoken of with a shrug of the shoulder and an indicative point toward
the graveyard on the hill,” notes a New York Times correspondent in 1866 by the name
of Croquis. By this time few of the early adventurers remained in the area, “hundreds
returned East, selling what of their personal property they could and giving away the
rest,” leaving the city of Denver in hope of forgetting their exhausting trials and
tribulations in the mines (Croquis). For these many unfortunate families, the Gold Rush
was a complete bust, and in their eyes, it could not have played any part in the growth
and development of Denver as a metropolitan cultural stronghold. However, as time tells,
and as Croquis elaborates, “The next settlers were more generally men of commercial
pursuits, and it is to these men Colorado is indebted for its present prospect (Croquis).”
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These inventive men invested their time, effort, and most importantly, money into the
development of the rich gold beds of the Rockies. As mining technology and strategy
began to grow rapidly more and more resources from the earth became extractable. The
processes transitioned from sluicing and Placer mining to Boom mining and hydraulic
mining, both processes brought in from California. These practices were simply the first
of the time and era, and while many others followed, these were responsible for the early
boom which triggered Denver’s growth and development. Mining teams found vastly rich
deposits of Iron, Coal, Silver, Copper, and of course Gold. The Clear Creak Railroad was
completed shortly after this time, providing for cheap transportation of goods and
services which helped to make the mining process much less expensive and demanding.
Such a gross influx in technology brought many other provisions and services to
the city of Denver that increased quality of life tenfold. Fresh fruits and vegetables were,
amongst many other items, for the first time ever, readily available at the marketplace on
a daily basis. The Union Pacific Railroad lines were completed in July of 1867, and The
Overland Dispatch Company offered transportation and telegraph services fifty percent
cheaper than the previous, small-level companies (Croquis). For the first time ever, a
decade after the first discoveries of gold, life in Denver was ebullient and gushing with
enthusiasm. During his famous 1859 visit to the mining camps, Horace Greeley stated
that,
“Within ten years the tourists of the continent will be whirled up to
these diggings over a long but far easier road winding around the
mountain tops rather than passing over them, and will sip his hot
chocolate and read his New York paper.”
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Greeley could not have been more spot on. He witnessed the masses, flocking in, some
succeeding and some withering away into poverty and despair. The Colorado gold rush
took lives, ruined lives, and also started new ones. For the few men who prevailed, gold
was their best friend. Gold gave birth to a new cultural hotspot where the plains meet the
mountains, and thus the city of Denver took shape and grew.
The number of cultural events in Denver in the 1860’s began to skyrocket as
mining technology expanded, and much of it was due to the hard working women who
were, for the most part, dragged to Colorado by their husbands with dreams of making it
big. The women of early Denver were in large entirely responsible for the major rush to
culture; “they worked to build schools, churches, libraries, theaters, and other assurances
that civilization had arrived on the mining frontier,” and without their consistent
dedication Denver would not have been able to change so rapidly (Noel). In the early
days the first step taken by the women of the tattered mining towns was to build
churches. Women strived to recreate the lives that they left behind after moving to
Colorado, and logically the Church was a good start. The rough lives which were being
led in 1859 gold mining Colorado were not what the Women were used to. They
struggled and fought on a daily basis to maintain some sense of order, but it was all but
easy. Men and their sons were lured away from the home to the gambling and drinking
that maintained an overarching demonic presence in the area. At first, when permanent
residence in the area was not certain, women did not know how to handle their dire
situations, but after a year passed, and gold was being found more rapidly, they began to
take steps forward in civilizing this barbaric frontier—it was time to plan for the future.
The women, while their husbands were at work in the mines, built schools for their
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children, made plans for better roads, and even helped establish the first form of
government in the area, The Gregory District (Smith). One of Denver’s most important
women, the first white woman to settle in the city of Denver and make it her home,
Countess Katrina Murat, played an exemplary role by bringing hospitality and culinary
skills to her community. The Countess, along with her husband, Count Henri Murat,
opened the El Dorado, Denver’s first tavern and inn, as promoted by the Count. The
couple sold the El Dorado in the mid 1860’s and bought the Criterion Saloon on Larimer
Street. They changed the name to Mozart Hall and introduced the city to Mozart’s music
which was performed by Mrs. Murat and the bar’s band. Countess Murat is a shining
example of how Denver was established and took shape from the Gold Rush, fully
epitomizing, “the pioneer women who brought civility and culture to the mining frontier
(Noel).”
Cultural venues like the Apollo Theater, Wynkoop, Mozart Hall, and many
others began popping up not only in Denver, but also surrounding, smaller towns;
however, nothing screamed “CULTURE” more than an opera house. In Denver, the
Tabor Grand Opera House opened on September 5, 1881, and astonished everyone who
stood in its splendiferous wake. The building was prominent, strong, and glorious, yet
simultaneously boasted delicate, ornate Victorian architecture. While being grand, it was
also truly elegant in every sense of the word. This exquisite theater, “fulfilled the fantasy
of Colorado’s best known mining mogul, silver tycoon Horace Tabor,” and was unlike
anything seen in Denver before or since (Noel).
As time went on Denver continued to blossom; mining practices evolved and so
did the culture within the city. Denver grew and people from around the country moved
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in and called it their home. The mining industry in the Rocky Mountains gave birth to a
diamond in the rough, a city on the western frontier; and although as time went on and
people began to forget about the first settlers, it is without question that the Pike’s Peak
Gold Rush, despite the many failures and lives ruined by it’s perils, was the sole force
behind Denver’s rapid growth and cultural transformation that will remain at its heart for
years to come.
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Works Cited
Brosnan, Kathleen A., and Stephanie Fuglaar. "Eye of the Beholder: Chaos or Order inEarly Denver?" Journal of the West 49.2 (2010). Print.
Croquis. "THE FAR WEST.; The Early Gold Discoveries-Prices of Provisions, &c.--The Territorial Legislature." The New York Times
[New York] 18 Feb. 1866. Print.
Greeley, Horace. “THE PIKE'S PEAK GOLD.; Flattering Accounts from the Mines--
Statement from Mr. Horace Greeley and others--A Caution.” The New York
Times [New York] 28 Jun. 1859. Print.
Noel, Thomas J. “Colorado’s Rush to Culture: A Gold Rush Legacy” Journal of the West
49.2 (2010). Print.
Smith, Duane A. “The Yeah of the Jubilee” Journal of the West 49.2 (2010). Print.
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Peer Critique for Ali Bland
1. The Intro is good. I can tell where the paper is going and that there will clearly be
opposing viewpoints that will be discussed. The thesis is clear and firmly sets the tone for the rest of the piece.
2. The author does a good job of making her argument clear in the first paragraph. Sheclearly illuminates the question being argued of whether or not, “incarcerating the
mentally ill and treating them as prisoners rather than patients would be socio-
economically beneficial to our country in terms more than dollars and cents.”
3. The author’s ethos is strongly enforced by her adequate use of sources and evidence.
She has six sources cited throughout the piece at different times which all support her
thesis very effectively.
4. Yes, the author is able to provide two sides to the issue at hand—how it is
economically sensible to keep mentally ill prisoners in prisons but simultaneouslyinhumane, and that resources should be more effectively allocated to establishing
programs for these mentally ill criminals.
5. She uses three sources from the academic search engine on the Penrose website andtwo others that are scholarly as well. There is only one source, the one from the Denver
Post, that does not meet the criteria but she has fulfilled the requirement.
6. Yes, the author is able to write fluidly and effectively using sources that fit into her
own style and help persuade her audience and enforce her argument.
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Reverse Outline
I. Conclusion – N/A
II. Alternative methods
- Criminal justice and mental health experts are against the switch from rehab to
punishment- Various programs that have been successful
- Denver
- Jefferson County
- Government spending should be reallocated from individual inmates to theestablishment of programs such as these to prevent re-offenders
III. Lack of Alternative Resources
- it is easier to get an individual into treatment in a prison program than to treathim or her in the community.
- Prisons are less of a financial strain on the American society than mentalinsititutions
- Government knows it is not necessarily the best thing to do but it is better than
having them homeless on the street
IV. Colorado Senate advocating for change
- Senate trying to pass a bill to decrease number of mentally ill inmates in solitary
confinement- General Assembly 1999 task force
- Colorado Senate-
- improving zoning laws- providing local grants
- new examination process
- Bigger issue of balancing punishment ( those who are ill vs. those whoare not)
V. Issue of incarcerating the mentally ill
- the issue first arises when the government begins to deinstitutionalize mentalhospitals in the 1960’s
- lack of federal funding for community programs exacerbates the problem
- punishment vs. treatment- how Colorado is addressing the issue
VI. Intro – - Thesis - It is inhumane to punish those with mental illness, when the finances
used to sustain inmates in prison could go towards alternative programs of
recovery.
- Question: whether incarcerating the mentally ill and treating them as prisoners