St, George,
First, I would like to thank you for your kind help and guidance .... without it I would be much less knowlegeable than I am today.
Yours and the other voices in hear have pointed where to look.
As I have said before, I am fortunate to live in a capital city ... I have already been to the California Room for a talk on Dashielle Hammett (way out of our historical era), so I know where I need to go next ... I see me having my nose in books for the next three months ... which in itself is good; it gives me a direction.
Like any massive movement (the Oklahoma Land Rush comes immediately to mind) it always seems it was not the participants, but the people who supplied (sutlers) and moved the particiapants (railroads) that became the Leland Stanfords and Charles Crockers ... in fact, if I remember right all of the Big Four who pushed the railroad through gained their wealth through supplying the '49ers; Huntington and Hopkins were partners in a hardware company; Stanford operated a grocery business with his brothers; and Crocker was a dry goods merchant. Kind of the supply chain coming full circle ....
Regarding spurs, I talked to one of the the Lindholm Brothers who is going to supply me with 'Chihuahua' style rowels to go in my normal spurs at a quarter of the cost of new spurs ....
So now I am just looking for a pair of inexpensive Botas de Alas ,,, an oxymoron if I ever saw one .... LOL