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Large deposites of gold attracted miners from the east who sought to "stike gold." However, most mines were owned by private companies and the miners were just paid labor; it didn't matter how much gold they found.
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The advancement of technology, such as the use of hydraulic jets, changed the entire nature of mining since it became more of a job and less of a hope of getting rich.
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During the early stages of mining in the west many miners found "easy" gold by panning rivers and streams. As time went by, more miners used this method and found all of the profitable gold in rivers and streams leaving nothing. Therefore, many miners turned to work as labor in mines.
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After the California Gold Rush came to a halt, miners began to look elsewhere to find a fortune in gold and silver. Pikes Peak in Colorado was one of the deposites of gold and silver that was found when miners began to scour the west anew.
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Miners and companies found precious metals in Oregon, Montana, and Idaho after the depletion of gold in California.
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The hope for this act was to address land issues in the U.S. by changing the cost per acre.
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This marks the true start of the frontier movements.
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Allowed for homesteading in ex-confederate states
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During the 1870's miners found most of their treasure in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
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The General Mining Act of 1872 states that any American Citizen that is over the age of 18 is allowed to make a claim to federal land for the purpose of mining. This act was important since the U.S. government had little to no intervention in the west after the acquisition of California resulting in the miners making their own laws.
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Miners went deeper into the Rockies in hope of finding not only gold and silver, but lead, copper, and zinc that were essential to the industry of the northeastern part of the nation.
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Due to the destruction of crops from natural disasters, this act helped the farmers effected
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Made ammendments to the original Homestead Acts by lowering the qualifications for homesteading.
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Miners began to use the dredging method was used to increase the harvest of precious metals. Dredging is the use of a long chain of buckets that bring up mud and silt from the rivers and deposit it on screens that separate the precious metal from everything else.
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Made the federal government responsible for the water distibution amoung farmers
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Was created by Congress in response to the frequent and disasterous explosions that killed hundreds of miners each year.
