hese service industries profited from the mining boom: as failed prospectors found, the rush itself often generated more wealth than the mines. The $25.5 million in gold that left Colorado in the first seven years after the Pikes Peak gold strike, for example, was less than half of what speculators had invested in the fever.
The mining boom often enriched service industries still as the rush generated massive speculation. In Colorado, the gold extracted was less than half of what investors poured into it..