March 24, 1869

The 1858 discoveries were teasers. George Jackson’s discovery of a substantial placer deposit in Chicago Creek near present-day Idaho Springs in January 1859, a lode gold (veins of gold embedded in rock) discovery at Gold Hill in January 1859, and John Gregory’s finding of lode gold near Black Hawk fueled a Gold Rush which drew tens of thousands of prospectors into the region during the spring and summer of 1859. Those adventurers quickly fanned out across the Front Range and traveled deep into the Rockies.