Shortly after
the War of 1812 American prospectors pushed into the region, and
the Government began granting leases on easy terms to operators.
In 1823 one of these men arrived with soldiers, supplies, skilled
miners, and one hundred and fifty slaves; and thereafter the
"diggings" fast became a mecca for miners, smelters, speculators,
merchants, gamblers, and get-rich-quick folk of every sort, who
swarmed thither by thousands from every part of the United
States, especially the South, and even from Europe. "Mushroom
towns sprang up all over the district; deep-worn native paths
became ore roads between the burrows and the river-landings;
sink-holes abandoned by the Sauk and Foxes, when no longer to be
operated with their crude tools, were reopened and found to be
exceptionally rich, while new diggings and smelting-furnaces,
fitted out with modern appliances, fairly dotted the map of the
country."*
* Thwaites, "Story of Wisconsin". p. 163.
Galena was the entrepot of the region. A trail cut thither from
Peoria soon became a well-worn coach road; roads were early
opened to Chicago and Milwaukee.
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