Just as the lure of free farmland drew homesteaders to the West, the possibility of gaining wealth from the earth in a different way, by extracting its mineral wealth, also attracted droves of settlers into this unpopulated region. They staked their mining claims in California, in Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, Montana, and in other western states; it was often the wealth generated by these enterprises that propelled the economics of these early frontier communities.
Curriculum Explorer
