Mining and Mineral Industries in the US: Photographic Perspectives

Educator's Guide
and 
Bibliography & Links

Colorado School of Mines Arthur Lakes  Library, Golden CO			National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum, Leadville CO
Colorado Digitization Project

Educators' Guide
Images can be used to enhance a lesson plan; a series of images can be used to promote discussion on a topic. This Guide lists questions that can be paired with images from this Project; the responses can be used as the basis of discussion and further research in libraries and on the Web.

 

People & Lifestyles What was it like to live in a mining community? What kinds of people prospected and mined in the West? What were their families like? What did people wear? Where did they get their clothes? Did children go to school? What would it be like to go to school in a mining town? What could people do for fun at a remote mining town? How were people able to communicate with family and friends elsewhere?

 

Environment What was the impact of mining on the surrounding environment? What natural resources were needed to develop a mine? Why are the tailings piles next to old mines still visible? What are the non-visual effects of mining on the environment? Old mines are a visible part of Colorado's history; how would you balance environmental clean-up with historical preservation?

 

Work & Technology What types of jobs were available in mining? What kinds of technology did miners need for gold mining in Colorado?  What equipment did miners use? How did miners get the valuable minerals out of the rock? How did ore and rock get transported out of the mine? To smelters and processing facilities? What were the work conditions in a mine like? How did miners protect themselves while working in a mine?

Colorado Mining What minerals have been mined in Colorado?  How did mining affect your county's development?  Why did some mining towns fail and become "ghost towns"? Why is there less mining now than before? Who were famous people in Colorado's mining industry? Why were they famous? What was Leadville's role in Colorado mining? How did the Colorado School of Mines originate? What was it like to be a student at Mines in the 1800s?

Bibliography & Links

• Heritage: Colorado Digitization Project Union Catalog
• Denver Public Library's Western History Collection
• Golden Pioneer Museum
• Colorado Historical Society
• Colorado Geological Survey
• Colorado Railroad Museum

History of Colorado's Minerals Industries

Dorset, Phyllis. 1970. The new Eldorado: The story of Colorado's gold and silver rushes. New York: Macmillan.

Fossett, Frank. 1876. Colorado: A historical, descriptive and statistical work on the Rocky Mountain gold and silver mining region. 

King, Joseph E. 1977. A mine to make a mine: Financing the Colorado mining industry, 1859-1902. College Station TX: Texas A&M University Press.

Look, Al. 1955. 1,000 million years on the Colorado Plateau: Land of uranium. Denver CO: Bell Publications.

Noel, Thomas J., et al. 1994. Historical atlas of Colorado. Norman OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Smith, Arthur E. 1993. Bibliography of Colorado mining history. Coeur d'Alene ID: L.R. Publishing.

Smith, Duane A. 1980. Secure the shadow: Lachlan McLean, Colorado mining photographer. Golden CO: Colorado School of Mines Press.

Smith, Duane A. 1977. Colorado mining: A photographic history. Albuquerque NM: University of New Mexico.

Voynick, Stephen M. 1996. Climax: The history of Colorado's Climax Molybdenum Mine. Missoula MT: Mountain Press.

Voynick, Stephen M. 1992. Colorado gold: From the Pike's Peak rush to the present. Missoula MT: Mountain Press.

Places and People

Bean, Geraldine B. 1976. Charles Boettcher: A study in pioneer western enterprise. Boulder CO: Westview Press.

Blair, Edward. 1972. Everybody came to Leadville. Leadville CO: Timberline Books.

Budd, Montgomery R. 1930. Colorado and its School of Mines. Golden CO: Colorado School of Mines.

Griswold, Don. L. 1996. History of Leadville and Lake County, Colorado: From mountain solitude to metropolis. Denver CO: Colorado Historical Society.

Leonard, Stephen J. 1990. Denver: Mining camp to metropolis. Niwot CO: University of Colorado.

O'Connor, Harvey. 1937. The Guggenheims: The making of an American dynasty. New York: Covici, Friede.

Smith, Duane A. 2001. No one ailing except a physician: Medicine in the mining West, 1848-1919. Boulder CO: University Press of Colorado.

Smith, Duane A. 1989. Horace Tabor: His life and the legend. Niwot CO: University Press of Colorado.

Southworth, Dave. 1997. Colorado mining camps. Round Rock TX: Wild Horse Publ.

Sprague, Marshall. 1994. The king of Cripple Creek: The life and times of Winfield Scott Stratton, first millionaire from the Cripple Creek gold strike. Colorado Springs CO: Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District. 

Varney, Philip. 1999. Ghost towns of Colorado: Your guide to Colorado's historic mining camps and ghost towns. Stillwater MN: Voyageur Press.

Vernon, John. 1995. All for love: Baby Doe and Silver Dollar. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Wolle, Muriel Sibell. 1974. Stampede to timberline: The ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado. Chicago IL: Sage Books.

Zamonski, Stan. 1961. The fifty-niners: A Denver diary. Denver CO: Sage Books.

Zhu, Liping. 1997. A Chinaman's chance: The Chinese on the Rocky Mountain mining frontier. Niwot CO: University of Colorado.

Colorado Mines

Active permitted mine operations in Colorado. (Serial.) Denver CO: Colorado Geological Survey

Argall, George Oates. 1949. Industrial minerals of Colorado. Golden CO: Colorado School of Mines

Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources Inactive Mine Program. 1982. Their silent profile: Inactive coal and metal mines of Colorado. Denver CO: Colorado Dept. of Natural Resources. 

Colorado directory of mines. 1879. Denver CO: Rocky Mountain News Printing Company

Colorado mining directory. 1883. Denver CO: Colorado Mining Directory Company

Del Rio, S.M., ed. 1960. Mineral resources of Colorado: First sequel. Denver CO: State of CO Mineral Resources Board

Henderson, Charles W. 1926. Mining in Colorado: A history of discovery, development and production. USGS Prof. Paper 138

Hollister, Ovando J. 1867. The mines of Colorado. Springfield MA: S. Bowles

Hooper, S.K. 1896. The gold fields of Colorado: A brief description of the various gold districts located on and contiguous to the line of the Denver & Rio Grande R.R. Denver CO: Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company.

McGregor, Joseph K., Abston, Carl. 1994. Photographs of historical mining operations in Colorado and Utah from the USGS Library (CD-ROM)

Rooney, Rosalia. 1994. Mining in Colorado: A selective bibliography. Golden CO: Colorado School of Mines

Vanderwilt, John, ed. 1947. Mineral resources of Colorado. Denver CO: State of CO Mineral Resources Board

Western mining directory. (Serial.) Denver CO: Howell Publications
 
 

Working in a Mine

Jameson, Elizabeth. 1998. All that glitters: Class, conflict, and community in Cripple Creek. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press.

Lingenfelter, Richard E. 1974. The hardrock miners; a history of the mining labor movement in the American West, 1863-1893. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.

Morrison, Tom. 1992. Hardrock gold: A miner's tale. Norman OK: University of Oklahoma.

Spell, Leslie Doyle. 1959. Forgotten men of Cripple Creek. Denver CO: Big Mountain Press.

Witt, Matt. 1979. In our blood: Four coal mining families. Washington: Highlander Research and Education Center.

Woolfe, Brian R. 1993. On the hill: Reflections of a miner. Tucson AZ: Westernlore Press.

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