The Western Prospector

Dating back to the earliest days of the California Gold Rush, prospectors were looked upon by the general public as the solitary heroes of the western frontier. They were responsible for the rapid discovery of California’s seemingly endless placer gold mines, and soon were tracing those placers back to their sources in what became the region’s great underground mines. “The Western Prospector” details the history of prospectors in the West, including numerous historical photos. Continue Reading

Shorty Harris and the Bullfrog Claim

Shorty Harris was the Death Valley region’s most famous prospector. He discovered the Bullfrog mine that started the great rush to Rhyolite around 1905. Despite his success as a prospector, he never became wealthy, and preferred the simple life of a desert prospector. Continue Reading

Home Sweet Home: Miner’s Cabins of the Frontier West

The rugged individuals that opened the frontier West were prospecting, mining, and attempting to survive in what was a vast wilderness at the time. Many of the basics of survival had to be sourced directly from the miner’s immediate surroundings, and shelter was one of the first necessities of life that had to be addressed. Continue Reading

The Stagecoach: A Photo Essay on Western Travel

Text By Gary Carter. Photos sourced by Western Mining History from various archives. Author’s note: this is a short synopsis of early stagecoach activity in the far west. Please note that different sources may provide slightly varying numbers when describing coaches, men, way stations and animals used. The readers are directed to the bibliography for Continue Reading

Incredible Colorado Mining Scenes

Colorado is characterized by the most rugged and mountainous terrain of any state in the US, and those mountains were rich in minerals waiting to be discovered by prospectors as far back as 1858. Development of mines in Colorado was slow at first due to the extremes of terrain and weather, and the remoteness of Continue Reading

The Colorado Gold Rush

The Colorado Gold Rush, originally known as the Pikes Peak Gold Rush, started in 1858 and was the second largest mining excitement in United States history after the great California Gold Rush a decade earlier. Continue Reading

Where to Find Gold in Idaho

WMH Gold Maps for Google Earth Pro are designed to locate areas with high potential for finding placer gold. A core feature of these maps is the highlighting of townships that contain both active placer mining claims and historical gold mines. The screenshot below uses data from the Idaho Gold Map and shows gold-bearing PLSS Continue Reading

A Collection of Arizona Mining Photos

Arizona of the 1800’s was a state defined by harsh desert topography, extreme isolation, fierce native tribes determined to defend their homes from outsiders, and a certain degree of frontier lawlessness. These factors contributed to Arizona getting a later start in the Western mining booms than some of the other states. Arizona remained a territory Continue Reading

Winning the Metal: Ore Mills of the West

The ore that came out of western mines usually had to be milled to separate the valuable metals from the waste rock. Mills of many types were built to treat the variety of ores coming out of the mines. “Winning the Metal: Ore Mills of the West” takes a look at some of the more common mill processes and includes numerous photos of the West’s great mills. Continue Reading

Arrastras Illustrated in These Historical Photos

The remains of mining-era arrastras are fairly common in the West, but what exactly are they? The short answer is that the arrastra was the most primitive method used to crush ore into a fine enough powder that the precious metals could be separated from the host rock. While many people are familiar with the Continue Reading

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