From 1812 to 1868, the open country at the end of the Wind River Mountains provided the only passage through the Rocky Mountain barrier of the Continental Divide for some 500,000 westering Americans. Through South Pass came mountain men, fur trappers and traders, explorers, missionaries, pioneers in covered wagons on the Oregon, California and Mormon trails, overland stage coaches, military expeditions, and Pony Express riders. By 1866, traffic on the great trails had dwindled with the anticipated completion of the transcontinental railroad, but in 1867 gold was discovered on Willow Creek and a rush began. By 1869, more than 30 mines were in operation and some 3,000 people populated the region, while South Pass City, Atlantic City, and Miners Delight boomed. This male-dominated mining district then became an unlikely center of the move for female suffrage when South Pass City miner and saloon keeper William H. Bright was elected to the first Wyoming Territorial Council in Cheyenne. Bright introduced a Female Suffrage Act giving all adult Wyoming women the right to vote and hold public office, and it was passed and signed into law on December 10, 1869, making Wyoming the first official government in the country to grant equal rights to women. The mining boom collapsed in the 1870s, the population moved on, and the towns became near ghosts, though limited mining activity continued.