How Miners Lived, Dressed, and Died in the 1800s - Heddels. How Miners Lived, Dressed, and Died in the 1800s. While most people know that blue jeans have their origin in the great, late-1800s mining booms in places like California, Nevada, and Colorado, not many have a nuanced grasp of this period's long-term effects on what has become a ubiquitous classic.