Silver mining dominated the Colorado Rockies in this era.

Evidence

I shall forget many things, but never the awfulness and hugeness of the scenery. I went up a steep track by Clear Creek, then a succession of frozen waterfalls in a widened and then narrowed valley, whose frozen sides looked 5,000 feet high. That is the region of enormous mineral wealth in silver. There are the “Terrible” and other mines whose shares you can see quoted daily in the share lists in the Times, sometimes at cent per cent premium, and then down to 25 discount. — Isabella L. Bird, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, 448

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to her larger journey narrative of roughing it alone in wild landscapes - the contrast between civilization (share markets) and wilderness recurs throughout.

Related

• Mountain gold mining washed muddy debris down into the Sacramento (similarity 0.83)
• The Colorado Rockies exceed the Alps as a mountain panorama. (similarity 0.80)
• Mining devastates landscapes and corrupts the miners who pursue it. (similarity 0.79)
• Every mile traveling from Colorado Springs leads farther and higher into the mountains (similarity 0.78)