Aspen.com: Celebrate History Week
Posted on 12. Mar, 2009 by admin in Showcase
March 2009 – Aspen.com: Overview of Aspen’s Celebrate History Week
In 1890, as silver mining boomed in the snowy footholds of the Elk Mountains, Aspen’s population ballooned and a rustic mining camp became the third-largest city in the state of Colorado. Boasting a population of 13,000, only Denver and Leadville were bigger. The Aspen area was the single largest silver producer in the country until the mine-town era came crumbling to a halt. Amidst fears of a devastating economic depression, the US Government stopped buying silver bullion by repealing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890. America’s western silver mines were glutted, abandoned, and left for sagebrush, tumbleweed, and cattle ranching.
During the so-called “Panic of 1893,” the national economy collapsed, unemployment reached an all time high, railroads were crippled under a credit crunch, weary investors frantically pulled out of American markets, the stock market hit an all time low, and 600 banks failed.
Hmm. Doesn’t this sound familiar?
