Fifty-Niner

The Fifty-Niners trace to 1859 and the Colorado Gold Rush. In that year, miners streamed into Pike's Peak Country, in western Kansas Territory (which later become the American state of Colorado), in search of gold.

The route followed by most Fifty-Niners took them west through Kansas Territory, up the Kansas River valley. The last significant civilian settlement along the route was Manhattan, Kansas, several hundred miles short of the mountains. Between there and the mountains the Fifty-Niners had to cross the untamed plains, sometimes confronting Plains Indians. There is no count of how many prospective miners died en route to Pike's Peak, but the casualties were appalling.

The most famous of the Fifty-Niners is probably Horace A. W. Tabor, even though he didn't make his fortune until the subsequent "Colorado Silver Boom."

No gold was anywhere close to Pike's Peak, but it was the first visible landmark. This gave rise to the slogan, "Pikes Peak or Bust."

See also: Forty-Niner