A mineral discovery that was not the reason of attracting western settlers in the late 1800s was lead. The reason why A LOT of people started to move to the Western side of the United States was because of the attraction of gold and silver. The people that moved to the West wanted to get wealthy, and gold was a great way to gain a lot of wealth. Lead didn't get a lot of attention back in the 1800s because it wasn't very attracting, and wouldn't get you as much value as gold or silver would have.
