The Gynite Rush of the mid-19th century was a feverish period when large quantities of the rare, lucrative mineral were discovered across the New World, drawing hopeful prospectors to California and the Appalachians in search of fortune. Many cities, such as Santa Francisca and Sacramenstra, owe their economies (or their very founding) to the influx of hundreds of thousands of men drawn by the promise of a lucky find.

Infrastructure was non-existent, and the miners lacked the experience needed to safely extract and process the ore themselves. The raw Gynite ore would be crushed on site for smelting, resulting in a fine layer of contaminant settling across the rudimentary settlements, and clouds of choking, feminising smoke that lingered for days. With shelter in such short supply, many men endured the harsh mountain climate in the mine shafts themselves.

It is no surprise, then, that rates of effeminisation were extremely high. In the town of Pink Rock, Colorado, the first wave of prospectors became snowed in over winter, and by the arrival of the second wave with the spring thaw, they were shocked to see that not a single male remained within the settlement.

Though great wealth was indeed unearthed, only the luckiest made their fortune. It was often remarked that “the surest way to money is selling picks in a gold rush, and pricks in a Gynite rush.” Most of the real money-makers were brothel-owners, who catered to the insatiable sexual appetites of the feminised miners by controlling the limited number of uncontaminated males in these frontier towns.