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SDCI'I(~i V • THE HIS'IDRIC OOt~'I~CI' ()F' THE NORTH FORK Q7UNi'RY The Cultural Context Late nineteenth and early twentieth century Euro-American aspects of American History and culture ultimately must be viewed within the context of that cultural domi.rion generally lctroMm as Victorianism. As a terrQoral period, the Victorian Era is named after Queen Victoria of Britain who reigned from 1837 to 1901. In the United States, the Era was characterized by American Victorianism which became the donunate cultural tradition in the Nation until abort the time of the First World War, if not longer (Baker 1978, 1983). The Euro-American occupational rewrd of western Colorado vividly doc~m~ents the starkly contrasting Urban and Rural Subtraditions of the American Victorian Cultural Tradition. The interplay of these subtraditions is the hallmark of the Victorian Era. In western Colorado, the Rural Subtradition associated with agricultural hanesteading represents an extensive form of land use. This resulted in specific high altitude agricultural adaptations and the formation of a specialized rural subculture within the general Victorian cultural context. The Urban Subtradition is primarily associated with the extractive mining industry which is representative of intensive land • exploitation. The urban mining frontier left dramatic testament to the force of the Urban Subtradition in Victorian America as it ultimately cane to dominate the nation's cultural profile. As a point of reference, it is appropriate to clarify the concept of American Victorianism or American Victorian C.Ulture as this author summarized it in an earlier work: American Victorianism developed within and diffused fran the British/American middle class and errQhasized such attributes as: Protestant religious beliefs, literacy, o~Qulsive behavior stressing an ethic of steady work and punctuality, Whig/Republican political orientation, temperance, e~hasis on rational order in individual and society behavior, humanistic self~ultivation and self-denial of physical or mental excesses, emphasis on efficient use of time, conspicuous consurtptian, individual self-righteousiess, emphasis on natural laws of moral principles, and didacticism (Howe 1976). The dominant British/American middle class enghasized these attributes, diffused them in varying degrees to diverse ethnic groups recently arrived in the United States, and attempted to force them onto the native Indian population as well. Victorianism must be viewed as the major cultural ford in the transfornation of a rural United States into a highly industrialized, urban, multiettuic nation. In the growt]i of what some sclwlars refer to as the Americar; Civilizatioir, the Victorian Era and its culture was of paramount importance. • Howe has referred to the era as the "crucial" transforniation of the nation since it was "a time of industrialization, 18