Legends & Legacies
Many Aspen miners came from the iron mines in Michigan and Minnesota like these in Sellers’ Mine in Hibbing, Minn. Library of Congress photo
Why would someone want to be a miner in the 1880s? Where did those miners come from? There is not an easy answer to those questions as there were a variety of answers, but exploring them shows that Aspen had a diverse populace.
One profile defined the nation as much as Aspen. In the 1880s manufacturing rapidly expanded but much of the developed world, including America, operated with mostly a rural agricultural economy. Immigration to America included males from large agricultural families. The eldest son inherited the farm so the younger brothers knew if they were to have any kind of future they had to go somewhere else.