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), following reports of gold. The route followed by most early Fifty-Niners took them west through Kansas Territory, on the "Central Route" up the Kansas River valley. The last significant civilian settlement along this route was Manhattan, Kansas, several hundred miles short of the mountains. Between there and the mountains the Fifty-Niners had to cross the unmarked plains, often getting lost, and 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. Two alternate routes, following parts of the Santa Fe Trail or the Oregon Trail, were longer but proved to be safer.

Among the most famous of the Fifty-Niners were Buffalo Bill Cody and millionaire miner Horace A. W. Tabor (although Tabor 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

External Links

• Article on Central Route

Colorado Mining Boom | History of Colorado | History of Kansas