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I can tell you from my own family history, it wiped out much of the livestock business. The price of meat dropped precipitously driving many stockmen out of business. That combined with the homesteading going on at the time ended the large open range cattle operations throughout the West.
My g-g-g-grandfather's brother ran thousands of head of cattle across millions of acres of Southern Colorado and Northern New Mexico and was known then as "the cattle king of Southern Colorado". He lost it all in the panic of '93. Ironic to this thread, it was an earlier gold rush that had brought him out to the West.
Interesting how ripple effects occur. I wonder why the price of meat dropped?
Recently I took a train in Skagway, AK and was pondering the Yukon Trail. When you see how rugged the trail is, and think back to how much worse it must have been in the 1890s, it truly amazes me that so many people were willing to endure it just for the possibility of finding gold.
A guide on the trip told us something like 40,000 people hiked this trail. It's a very rugged trail through a mountain pass--and back then it would have been at the ends of the earth in a frightening wilderness. The people who hiked it were mostly business professionals--not outdoorsmen. They were dentists, accountants, clerks who were mostly out of work and in such a desperate situation that they were willing to try anything to support their families (even though going on an Alaskan trek back then meant they might never see their families again).
The trail itself is not only rugged but very narrow, and it was always crowded. You hiked in a single line and the hikers rarely stepped out of the line to rest or go to the bathroom because it was difficult to do so and you might not be able to get back in the line. People and horses literally died on the trail from exhaustion and were rolled to the side (over the edge, I'd guess). If you were lucky enough to find gold, it could be stolen from you.
I can't even imagine being so desperate that I'd give up my dental practice and go thousands of miles into the wilderness to look for gold. I wonder how bad life must have been for them to do something like that.
Any thoughts on what was going on in the country and in these people's lives that would lead to developing gold fever?
A lot of people who made the trip were firmly middle class and above and weren't really into mining. Lots of ways to make money in a boomtown without getting your hands dirty per se.
The Victorian era was British from top to bottom. Very much of the prevailing British philosophies of the time were just as widespread and accepted in America as the fashions, architecture, and the industrial revolution (which began in England).
Part of the Victorian way of thinking included a young man's striking out on his own and establishing a lasting family fortune, a notion that was only a thing that the nobles, lords, and royalty could aspire to. For the first time, a commoner could make enough money to be able to rub elbows with the lords. The commoners might be looked down on by the lords and nobles as being socially unfit, but their money was gladly accepted, and soon enough, so were they and their children.
For Americans, especially during hard times when a lot became disposed, those Victorian notions fit very nicely with what we thought of ourselves to be as a nation. And when an establishing a family fortune could be done by just showing up and picking up gold from the ground was a powerful lure.
The gold rushes of the west also appealed to another American belief; we have always liked to think of ourselves as being a nation of bold explorers and adventurers. The truth is, until Henry Ford created a reliable and cheap automobile, very few of us ever travelled further than 25 miles away from the place they were born. Our products and goods moved around far better and more frequently than we as people did.
So the lure of great wealth was a natural excuse for the restless and young to embark on a grand adventure. When a person's lifetime is spent in predictable drudgery, day after day, year after year, in a routine that never varies, a grand adventure is, for some, well worth the effort whether it succeeds or not.
There were always a very few lucky ones who got very rich very fast in every gold rush. More importantly, there were many more who left their old lives, established brand new ones, and built their wealth by hard work, doing what they knew in a raw place where their skills were highly needed.
And, of course, there were even more who lost everything on their grand adventure and went back home by any means they could, including walking back. All the way across the country.
Some of those total failures who returned home became wealthy from skills they gained out in the gold fields. John B. Stetson was a Philadelphia hatter who was one; he was only making a middling living in Philadelphia as a hatter, went out to California to find gold, and made himself a felt tent to live in there from beaver he trapped. And then, he made himself a big hat, and sold it. And then another, as the miners liked his big hats.
He went back to Philadelphia as soon as he was able, made himself another big hat and wore it all around town. He became locally famous as the home boy who was a 49'er, and locals wanted big hats like his, because the hats had romantic associations of adventure associated with them. Pretty soon, all the migrants moving westward wanted them too, because they were very practical headwear for the rigors of moving west.
Stetson never left Philadelphia again, but his hats are still around. He made his fortune from the misfortunes of his youth.
Interesting how ripple effects occur. I wonder why the price of meat dropped?
A perfect storm of contributing factors. Demand nationwide dropped due to high unemployment and over supply as ranchers sold off or slaughtered their herds just to make back what they could. Worldwide grain price declines made open range grazing less competitive in comparison to fence and feed operations. Local meat demand from miners in that part of the West dropped as the sliver mines shut down.
Also interesting that there had been a long period of middle class wealth, with many families building the ornate Victorian mansions. When the panic hit, many lost their life savings and simply walked away from their recently built homes. Leaving them furnished, which makes a vacant house extra spooky.
This is why Victorians came to be considered "haunted houses"; it had nothing to do with ghostly sightings. Interesting little bit of trivia.
Those are amazing homes. One of these days I've got to visit Eureka.
Cava--very interesting about how demand for beef dropped due to the economy. I predict very similar thing happening this year. Supposedly beef is going to skyrocket, and that combined with economic uncertainties are going to result in a lot of people saying "to hell with it, we'll just have chicken for a few years."
Funny how many similarities there are between the Panic of 1893 and what we see happening these days. Supposedly the Yukon Gold Rush is what pulled the nation out of the Panic. It always seems to be some dramatic event or discovery that pulls us out of these things. Makes you wonder what will be discovered in the next few years that ill be what pulls us out of this.
Those are amazing homes. One of these days I've got to visit Eureka.
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I live not far from Eureka and there isn't any real reason to visit the place, it is an ugly, redneck town. The Victorian mansion being referenced is a private club and no one is allowed inside save members. At best you can stand outside the place and look at it, and you can achieve that effect simply by looking at pictures of it. It is the only interesting building in the entire town, the only place that would afford a good view...and you can't get inside.
Cava--very interesting about how demand for beef dropped due to the economy. I predict very similar thing happening this year. Supposedly beef is going to skyrocket, and that combined with economic uncertainties are going to result in a lot of people saying "to hell with it, we'll just have chicken for a few years."
Sounds like good times ahead for Chick-fil-a.
The panic induced collapse of the open range cattle business was one reason the likes of Butch and Sundance turned to robbing banks and other criminal actvity. There were a lot of cowhands like them thrown out onto the trail without a job, similar to a couple decades earlier with former confederate gang members.
The panic induced collapse of the open range cattle business was one reason the likes of Butch and Sundance turned to robbing banks and other criminal actvity. There were a lot of cowhands like them thrown out onto the trail without a job, similar to a couple decades earlier with former confederate gang members.
I guess that's one of the reasons we like to romanticize bank robbers in the old west. So many of them turned to a life of crime our of desparation. To be honest, I'd probably choose bank robbing over hiking the Yukon Trail.
The panic induced collapse of the open range cattle business was one reason the likes of Butch and Sundance turned to robbing banks and other criminal actvity. There were a lot of cowhands like them thrown out onto the trail without a job, similar to a couple decades earlier with former confederate gang members.
Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank in 1889, four years before the panic could have sent him toward a life of crime.
The Sundance Kid got his nickname from the stretch he spent in Sundance prison, 1887-1891, for horse theft, again, well before any economic collapse could be blamed for his criminal career.
Perhaps there were cowhands who turned to crime for the reasons you wrote, but Butch and Sundance were already outlaws before the Panic..
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