I believe the topic of Early National Fredericksburg that we talked about in class is very interesting to me. In the sense that the manufacturing of Iron and mining of many other minerals really launched the growth of Fredericksburg’s economy. I believe you chose to this topic for class because it follows the timeline we have been on in the history of Fredericksburg. But it also is extremely important in the development of the city of Fredericksburg. The topic of the Iron production is especially significant for the local history here. The process of Iron mining and production led to so many new resources. With mining there were now gold mines which were huge parts of the economy and a big source of money making. Then there was also Granite, Free Stone, Quartz and “Shistus”. The Iron mining opened up the economy like it never has before. There were so many new minerals being sold and so many new opportunities available. Iron itself was already huge with producing money but it also contributed to the ideas of mining for other minerals as well. So I think the Significance that Iron mining had on the cities economy is extremely important to the local history. I think this fits into larger national history as well because this new way of mining and all the new minerals being found was not just happening around Fredericksburg. There was Iron mining everywhere and it was expanding more and more. And the importance of gold mining in the Fredericksburg area was not just happening there, it was wherever gold was able to be found. Gold became bigger and bigger and eventually came the literal Gold Rush. So this definitely fits into national history because just about every state was going through this growth of mining Iron as well as Gold. With this topic I would like to know more details about just how much they were making off of materials such as Iron, Gold, Quartz, etc. How much per year and how much was being produced to make however much money was made. It would also be interesting to know how much a nugget or gold costed. For example how much did a tiny piece of the gold cost. The last thing I would like to know more about is which city was the most positively effected by gold mining and Iron production. It is super cool to see how different resources led to the growth of the economy throughout different years of history.