Colorado Silver Boom

Over 82 million dollars worth of silver was mined during the period, making it the second great mineral boom in the state, and coming 20 years after the earlier and shorter Colorado Gold Rush of 1859.

In 1878, responding to pressure from western interests, the United States Congress passed the Bland–Allison Act authorizing the free coinage of silver.

The discovery of the Leadville district the following year resulted in a flood of new immigrant prospectors to many of the same mountain gullies that had been the site of the gold rush.

The repeal of the Sherman Act in 1893 conversely led to a collapse of silver prices, bringing an end to the boom as.

The accompanying collapse in statewide economic activity was ameliorated somewhat by the simultaneous emergence of agriculture, previously derided as not feasible, as a large component of the state economy.

Miners at the time were also subject to the threat of tunnel collapse, flooding, and the lack of oxygen in the deeper areas of the mines.

Mines were commonly very small and tightly spaced to save on the cost, effort, and time it would take to expand the tunnels, and so resulted in the use of people of smaller stature and even children.

Silver mining regions of Colorado With some account of the different processes now being introduced for working the gold ores of that territory.. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1865.