The Black Hills gold Rush started in 1874 and until 1876 was giving meagre dividend. In 1876 placer gold was found in present day Deadwood along the rivers. Placer gold are pieces of gold that have been washed down from a seam. That seam was found in April 1876 and from that seam 10% of the world’s gold has flowed over the past 125 years. You won’t read much in the literature about the holiness of the Black hills to the American Indians or how their claims have been ignored by everyone.
The reason I was thinking about this is because it reminds me of the Internet age with everyone piling in talking about money, secrets of making money, how to make money, where the dollars are, in the web and on the web and around the web. It is like a rush to stake a claim and become rich.
What made the gold rush possible was the fact that we as a species prize gold, we would do almost anything to possess lots of it. When they eventually find a golden asteroid it will end up in Fort Knox. The Internet is seen as a place to make money because that is where people congregate, and where there are crowds there is money to be made. There is no secret to this, it is just the usual commercial activity but instead of in a shop it is on a virtual shop.
And the people who found the world wide web to impart information and make everything free are ignored in the rush. As usual.