The Pike’s Peak Gold Rush (later known as the Colorado Gold Rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pikes Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history. The participants in the gold rush were known as Fifty-Niners” after 1859, the peak year of the rush and often used the motto Pike’s Peak or Bust! This map shows various routes from the east and the west to the gold regions. This map was commissioned by J.S. Fillmore, a land speculator and merchant. “