/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>56535257
kek
>>56534059
first pic isn't directly free silver related, but Leadville being the largest silver producer in the world at the time was very much behind the free silver movement. Both the miners and the mine owners had a very direct interest in supporting silver. So when the Sherman Act was cut the wages of miners also got cut. This resulted in a strike for higher wages. The owners couldn't take the loss so they brought in both scab workers, the national guard to protect the scabs, and a number of gunfighters and killers to spice things up.

In the resulting gun fights a number of people died, several mines were lit on fire, and ultimately the miners sabotaged the mines by shutting off the pumps. This resulted in most of the mines flooding.

what they didn't know is the owners weren't bluffing. They were going broke. So they never pumped those mines out. They closed them.

the town quickly died.

in 1896 the town put on a carnival to try to raise money and get some tourists in. They built a huge castle out of ice with ballrooms, skating rinks, towers, sledding, restaurants, art galleries, the whole works. And people did come. It was hugely successful until one of the hottest and earliest springs on record destroyed it.

after that the town was largely abandoned.
These are some of the souvenirs of that carnival. In 1896. Three years after the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and very shortly before the death of the town.