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Hard rock miners spread across this untamed land, digging anything from coal to mercury - like at the New Almaden quicksilver mine in California. They mined lead in Wisconsin, copper in the Great Lakes and then, from 1848, gold in California. The 'Mother Lode' country of California was so called because of the vast weight of gold in its hills and in The high mountains of the Sierra Nevada. The Cornish established themselves in mining towns such as Virginia City in Nevada, Butte in Montana, and Leadville, Colorado, often competing with the Irish for jobs and cultural ascendancy. But the American Cornish are also descended from farmers and preachers, engineers and clerks. Many of the Methodists in Cornwall saw the opening up of vast tracts of farm land as a great opportunity. Whole families travelled out to Wisconsin and Ontario, aided by cheap fares and a new country needy for labour. The Methodists particularly, but others who resented the taxes imposed by far off London, felt they were exchanging a land of bondage for a land of freedom. This exodus from America started to dry up at the start of the 20th century. Conditions back home were better, communications had improved with faster shipping lanes meant you could go to America to work and actually plan to go home again at a later date, rather than relocating your whole family. The last trickle was seen in Ontario, where the US government was still offering assisted passages for gold miners; and to places like Detroit, to work the booming car factories, and Grass Valley in California. Picture courtesy of Dick Chamberlain (see Cornish World issue 27). |