by Pam North

Although prospecting in the mountain streams was still pursued by a few Coloradans for decades, the
primary phase of productive placering proved to be brief, mainly because such placering was fraught with
an assortment of aches, pains and ailments attributed to high altitude and working in the icy water of mountain streams.  Laboring in the diggings brought its own brand of risks; the inherent conditions of extreme cold, dampness and exhaustion from hard work weakened the body and spirit of those employing the placer mine process, and the result was a high incidence of colds, influenza and respiratory ailments
that often could prove to be fatal.  Many men assuming that their initial good health and enthusiasm would prevail against the rigors of prospecting, and that they could make their fortune before disaster struck, soon discovered that they were not as invulnerable to illness and misfortune as they had once believed.

Manuals providing advice to those heading for the gold rushes, tried to warn their readers of the conditions that lay ahead.  Within the pages of the guidebooks were instructions to carry along medicine chests containing such supplies as fever pills, pain killers (morphine and opium), quinine, laxatives, various curative salts, and citric acid.  Caution was emphasized; conditions that would only be mildly troublesome to a man of average health could be fatal in the mountains, and specific dangers were cited:  colds, scurvy, rheumatism and snow blindness.  Information was dispensed on camping and coping with life in the wilderness:  how to handle a dog team, where to shoot a dog or a horse should an emergency situation arise,
and hints such as not to grasp a rifle barrel when temperatures went to 30 degrees below zero and colder.  The manuals reiterated the important philosophy that only those who were sufficiently prepared to deal with hardship and adversity should attempt to seek gold.

Underground mining brought its own set of dangers.  Cave-ins, explosions, failure and malfunction of machinery, and falls were commonplace, making accidental injuries a constant likelihood.  Men who were missing an eye, fingers, an arm or leg were numerous in the mines.  Statistics have proven that mining was between three and four times as dangerous as manufacturing or working on the railroads.  The conditions where injuries occurred underground were unsanitary in the extreme.  Wounds were likely to be covered with workmen's clothing until a physician could be summoned; infection was almost certain.  Compounding the problem was disease.  Miners ate  their lunches near sites where human and animal wastes were excreted, and provisions for hygiene were virtually non-existent.  Contagious diseases ran rampant in such situations.

Undergound mining posed another serious hazard.  Silicosis, an insidious occupational disease associated with an industry in which men lived their lives underground, was a chronic respiratory ailment that resulted from the inhalation of microscopic silica particles over the course of many years, leading to fibrotic scarring of the lungs.  Fibrosis, in turn, led to impaired respiratory function and a predisposition to pulmonary tuberculosis and pneumonia.  The high altitude of Colorado  compounded the physical problem.  Because the mining industry consistently refused to accept responsibility for the conditions causing the disease, miners with silicosis were forced to keep their symptoms secret so that they could keep working, and in doing so, their continued exposure to the cause of their disease  worsened it.

The opportunity of prospecting and mining for gold lured thousands of men to the mountains.  While some were successful at making their fortunes, the vast majority lost their health and vigor, and some even their lives, to the hazards and hardships that were inherent in this occupation.  The price of gold was high.
 

Resource:  No One Ailing Except a Physician - Medicine in the Mining West, by Duane A. Smith and  Ronald C. Brown.