Fifty-Niner

A "Fifty-Niner" is the term used for the gold seekers who streamed into the Pike's Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory in 1859. The discovery of placer gold deposits along the South Platte River at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in northwestern Kansas Territory by a party of miners led by William Greeneberry "Green" Russell in July 1858 precipitated the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.

Many Fifty-Niners took the "Smoky Hill Trail" west through Kansas Territory up the Kansas River valley. The last significant civilian settlement along this route was Manhattan, Kansas, several hundred miles east of the mountains. Between there and the mountains the Fifty-Niners had to cross the unmarked plains, often getting lost, and sometimes confronting Plains Indians. There is no record of how many prospective miners died en route to Pikes Peak.

The northern, or Platte River, route followed the Platte River through Nebraska along the Oregon Trail, then angled down along the South Platte River to the gold region.