"Woohoo, I found a gold nugget!"
Hello cowboys and cowgirls!
For today we have picked digging for immense riches as our subject. One which probably also seems desirable in the game since the living can be costly while the cowboys need to be paid. And when we talk about riches, we are talking about gold.
The Old West of the United States was hit by several major gold rushes in the 19th century, including one in California, one in Colorado and one in Montana. The gold finds in each of these states resulted in a migration of gold diggers. However, the pursuit of wealth had also brought every imaginable evil of capitalism upon the population. In California, the situation was particularly worrying. The city of San Francisco was in flames six times in two years. Cholera raged in 1849 and the blood toll was particularly high among the indigenous population. In addition, the mercury used in gold mining poisoned many lakes and rivers.
Only a few gold miners became rich in the rushes; instead, wealth accumulated among those who sold goods and commodities to the gold miners. Each digger secretly hoped to find one of the four Lost Dutchman's Gold Mines.
But they also searched for slightly less noble metals: silver, copper and, above all, iron. Today, platinum metals are still being mined in the USA, and they have now surpassed the value of gold: Osmium, Rhodium or Iridium are among them.
Now that you know the boon and bane of gold... would you look for gold if it were available or would you rather try to squeeze gold out of the pockets of the gold hoarders? Drop us a line in the comments!