Section and silver: Editorial representations of political regionalism and bimetallism in the Cripple Creek mining district press, 1869-1904

Abstract

This historical research explores two political issues, the silver movement and political regionalism, in select newspapers of the Cripple Creek Mining District in Colorado from 1896-1904. These two topics are not suitably studied in prior research on Colorado journalism, which has tended to explore minor press environments and has largely neglected press operations and editorialism during the Gilded Age. This research is grounded in concepts such as sectionalism, which is used to guide the study's investigation of silver and political regionalism. Primary research utilizes the Cripple Creek Citizen, Morning Times, Morning Times-Citizen, Times (weekly and daily), Evening Star, Mail, and Daily Press and the Victor Daily Record newspapers. Those sources are analyzed to better understand how Cripple Creek Mining District editors manipulated the battle for free silver and bimetallism in the 1890s and identified political boundaries to direct voters in elections surrounding the turn to the twentieth century. Such analysis expands media historian's understanding of Colorado journalism, explores the significant but poorly-researched influence of bimetallism on Gilded Age presses, and applies the critical concepts of political regionalism and sectionalism to mine camp and Colorado journalism. This research concludes with a number of observations intended to generate further study in related concepts by media historians and offers a potential gateway towards the development of cultural theory pertaining to sectionalism during the 1890s in the American West.