In the history books we learn that gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill and that precipitated the famous Gold Rush of 1849. Someone told me that gold was actually discovered much earlier in the West. Is that true? Lorette Warren Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Yes, it’s true. Jose Ortiz discovered gold south of Santa Fe in 1832. The boomtown of Delores sprang from the strike and it is credited with being the first strike in the West.

True West March/April 2025
In This Issue:
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- Truth Be Known
- What Has Taught Me: Deb Goodrich
- Earp, Cowboy Songs & Prairie Hygiene
- Trails of the Old West
- The Frontier Characters of South Dakota
- The Bowie Knife
- The Kindled Flame 1835
- King of the Scatterguns
- Selling the Mythic West and the Real West
- A Gut Punch Turns into a Miracle Reprieve
- The Beginnings of the Bird Cage
- Frontier Colossus