© Bud WiscoMining weaves through the United States like the veins under our skin. As important as blood to people, the minerals under the ground have played important roles in the development of this country.
Let's look at some of things that would be very different without mining.
Click on one of the topics below.
People Interactive Timeline Culture
The "Robber Barons"
Meet some of the people who were responsible for the American industrial revolution, and made their vast fortunes. To learn more about these people, click here.
The Workers -
One of the main reasons there are so many groups of people with different cultures in the United States, is because of mining. Our mining- based resources brought people from all around the world here to make a living.
To learn more about these people, click here.
Click on the dates on the timeline below to go to major events in American history, that depended on America's mined natural resources.
Native Americans mined gold and traded it with the Spanish Conquistadors in Florida, sent to "Get gold, humanely if you can, but all hazards, get gold," by King Ferdinand of Spain.
Iron mining and smelting begins in Virginia.
To learn more about iron, click here.
1621 Lead Mining
Galena photo
© Jessica MariskanishLead mining and smelting begins in Virginia.
To learn more about Lead, click here.
1846 Steel Production
© S Howe-MariskanishThis process begins in Kentucky, laying the ground for the industrialization of America. From railroad tracks to bridges and buildings, steel would change the face of America forever.
1848-1849 California's Gold Discovery and The Gold Rush
Miner on the Trail
© S Howe-MariskanishIn 1848, James W. Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, discovered gold in the American River while building his sawmill. This began The Gold Rush of 1849. Prospectors flocked to California, risking their lives hiking across the Isthmus of Panama (the Panama Canal hadn't been built yet), traveling by wagon train, and sailing around Cape Horn. These miners are known as "The Forty Niners".
The Gold Rush triggered the statehood of California on September 9, 1850, and the huge westward U.S. expansion. By 1849, 40,000 settlers had come by boat, and 6,000 wagons carrying thousands more across the California Trail. Although the $2,000,000,000 gold mining industry peaked by 1852, heavy settlement continued.
1859 Comstock Lode Discovered
Silver U.S. Mercury-Head Dime
© S Howe-MariskanishThis enormous gold and silver strike brought even more people and prominence to the western territories. Once part of California, the territory including the Comstock Lode area was made the state of Nevada during the U.S. Civil War. Its riches paid for the North's victory over the South, and assured the future of the United States of America.
This strike, also, guaranteed an end to Native Americans' way of life, who were forced onto small reservations of less desirable land.
1861-1865 Civil War
U.S. Army Uniforms
© S Howe-MariskanishWhen 11 Southern States seceded from the Union, the American Civil War began. It's hard to
imagine what our lives would be like if the Confederate states had won the war. Who knows? What we do know is that the Southern States did not have the wealth of natural mineral resources that the North did. Much of the Union's war effort was financed by The Comstock Lode. Supported by the many deposits of iron ore, lead and coal, the North had a big advantage over the South. With a total of 617,528 dead, the Civil War stands as the bloodiest, costliest war in American history.
1869 First Transcontinental Railroad
© S Howe-MariskanishThe high rate of expansion, and gold and silver strikes in the Western Territories prompted the construction of the first U.S. transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific Railroad building West from Omaha, Nebraska and the Central Pacific Railroad , building East from Sacramento, California, joined in Promontory, Utah on May 10th, 1869. This event provided fast and safer transportation from East to West, and unified Americans from coast to coast.
The Home Insurance Building , the world's first skyscraper, was designed and built in Chicago, Illinois by engineer William Le Baron Jenny. The 10-story-tall structure began the use of steel-beam construction. Mostly, used only in America until the turn of the century, steel-beam construction changed the steel industry forever. American I-beam standards and steel construction materials would be used worldwide. Now, many more people could live in as smaller area of the city.
In 1889, the Otis electric elevator, also made of steel construction, started a building boom of superstructures standing taller than fifty stories within 10 years. Today, countries compete with eachother for the "World's Tallest Building" title.
To see some of the tallest buildings in the world, click here.
Wilbur and Orville Wright made and flew the world's first powered airplane called the "Flyer 1," (or the "Kitty Hawk,") at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina on the morning of December 17, 1903. This paved the way for the aircraft industry society around the world relies on daily.
By the time the United States entered World War I, after German submarines sank three U.S. merchant ships, the Allied Forces in Europe had already been fighting the war for years. U.S. supplies, loans and troops supported the allied victory. By the end of the war, the United States had loaned the Allies $7,000,000,000. Over 1,000,000 U.S. troops served in Europe.
1941 U.S. Entered World War II
By the time the United States entered World War II, after Japanese forces attacked two American Naval bases, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and Clark Field in the Philippines. The Allied Forces had been fighting the war for years.
U.S. supplies, loans and troops supported the allied victory. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closed all U.S. gold mines, so that mining would produce only the minerals needed for war.
During this war, the race for atomic weapons took place. The United States' , Manhattan Project, successfully developed the world's first atomic bomb. After Japan refused to surrender, President Harry S. Truman ordered it to be dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945. Still refusing surrender, Nagasaki, Japan was bombed on August 9, 1945. Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.
This was the beginning of the nuclear age.
1946 First Electronic Computer
© University of PennsylvaniaENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer), the world's first electronic computer was activated February 14, 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built with over 17,000 electronic vacuum tubes, ENIAC could make mathematical calculations up to 1,000 times faster than mechanical computers. Funded by the United States Military, ENIAC was the beginning of the computer industry.
1957 Alaska's oil deposits discovered
Alaska was purchased in 1867 from Russia by Secretary of State William H. Seward for the United States. And though the purchase of $7,200,000 made the cost per acre less than $1, it was not considered a good purchase. It was so far away, so cold, and harsh, and communication was so slow, that hardly anyone saw its value. Alaska's purchase became known as "The Seward Folly".
The huge oil deposits discovered in 1957 led to the statehood of Alaska on January 3, 1959. This made the United States 20% bigger, because Alaska is twice as big as Texas.
1961 First American Man in Space
On May 5, 1961, A. B. Shepard, Jr. became the first Astronaut in Space. His spacecraft was called the Mercury-Redstone 3. This success was the beginning of America's manned space program.
