The mechanics of optimism : mining companies, technology, and the Hot Spring Gold Rush, Montana Territory, 1864-1868 / Jeffrey J. Safford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Safford, Jeffrey J., 1934-2021.

Series:

Mining the American West The mechanics of optimism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gold mines and mining--Montana--Madison County--History--19th century.

Gold mines and mining.

Madison County (Mont.)--Gold discoveries.

Madison County (Mont.).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 185 p. :) ill., maps ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Manufacture:

Baltimore, Md. : Project MUSE, 2012

Place of Publication:

Boulder : University Press of Colorado, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For every successful mining district celebrated in history, there were failed dozens whose stories have been largely forgotten. The Mechanics of Optimism documents, in rare detail, the boom-bust cycle of Hot Spring District, a mid-1860s Montana gold camp that did not pay, despite early predictions of a sure thing. Historian Jeffrey J. Safford examines how gold mining ventures were developed and financed during and after the Civil War, and how men, primarily Easterners with scant knowledge of mining, were willing to invest large sums in gold mines that promised quick and lucrative returns. Safford explains how these mining companies were organized and underwritten, and why a little-known district in southwestern Montana was chosen as a center of operations. Relying on extensive primary sources, Safford addresses the mind-set of the businessmen, the expectations and realities of new mining technology, the financial strategies, and the universality of the Hot Spring experience.

Contents:

Patterns of discovery, 1863-1864

Mills to Montana, 1865, I : the Ragland, Cope, and Napton Mining Company of Boonville, Missouri, and the New York and Montana Mining and Discover Company of New York City, New York

Mills to Montana, 1865, II : the Clark and Upson, and the Nelson Mining companies of Hartford, Connecticut

Further development of the district, 1866 : the Herschel Mining Company of Virginia City, Montana, the Golden Ore Mining & Prospecting Company of Montana (Brooklyn, New York), and Hall and Spaulding of Meadow Creek, Montana

Expansion of the district and new investors, 1866 : the Midas Mining Company of Rochester, New York

The Midas Mining Company, 1867

Increased competition and doubt, 1867 : the McAndrew and Wann Mining Company of New York City, New York

The mood in the district, autumn 1867

Decline of the district, 1868.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781607321026

1607321025

OCLC:

626068144