Around the Horn - Mr Olsson Home

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In 1847 San Francisco was a sleepy town.
~I
Ready, Set, Rush! ~
The ecret soo n got out. Sutter' worker began to boast abo ut the
gold to fr iends . Even Sutter brok hi vow of sil nee. "I have made a
di covery of a gold min ," he wrote a frie nd. " Ac ording to experi­
ments we have mad , [it] is extremely rich."
When one of his hi red hands used a nugget to pay fo r a pu rcha e,
the rush was on. Before long, th average miner was pulling gold worth
$200 out of the river every day. At the time, the average wage was
about $1 a day.
The people of San Fra ncisco, abo ut 136 miles to the south , ignored
the news at first. They had heard a lot of talk about gold. The claims
had alway amo unted to noth ing.
A San Fra ncisco businessper on nam d Sam Brannan returned from
C oloma with proof that this time the laims were real. H e al 0 returned
with a plan-to make his fortune Iling mining equipment.
4
Brannan couldn't sell mining equipment
without miners. So he filled a bottle w ith gold
dust and walked the streets of San Francisco.
He held the bottle high and shouted, " G old!
Gold! Gold from the American River!"
Wide-ey d men crowded around the
bottle and d cided to head for the gold fields.
Then Sam Brannan set out to buy every
pick and shovel he could find.
At the time, San Francisco was a small
town with only 800 residents. Its main
business was farming and ranching. The excited
miners who came to town changed all that. They
clutched bags of gold and talked about how anyone
could pick up gold right from the ground. By the
end of 1848, the town had been drained of all but
about 100 people.
Marshall made his discovery on January 24.
By summer, more than 4,000 people had
rushed in, hoping to make their fortunes.
R eports of the discovery bega n trickling to
states in the East. Almost a year after Marshall's
discovery, California's military governor sent
President James Polk a tea box filled with gold
dust. In D ecember 1848 Polk made a sp ech to
the United States Congress. He confirmed that
stories about the discovery of gold were true.
II -- - - - - - - - - - - - 1
James Marshall found gold
nuggets like these.
The President's announcem ent set off a
national stampede. "The Discovery of Inexhaustible
Gold Mines in California," trumpeted a headline
in ]1/c New York Herald newspaper. "Tremendous
Excitement Among Americans," it went on. The
headline promised details about "The Extensive
Preparation to Migrate to the Gold Region."
5
Sailors faced stormy weather when traveling around Cape Horn.
~
Around the Horn ~
T here was no sh ortage or a terner eag r to get to California. There
was, howe er, a shortage of ways to get there. In 1849 no roads linked
the east coast to the west coa t. No cheap and easy sea route existed,
either. Boat ticket ' from N ew York c lIld o. t as rnuch as $1,000.
he voyage took at least ix months. Fir t the ships had to ail down
the east coast of both N orth and South America. Then they had to turn
north an sail up the v e. t coast to an Francisco. Rounding Cape Horn,
the 'iouthern tip of outh Amer ica, was the most dreaded part of the trip.
Even experi need s ilor fea r d th e £ler e torms that erupted there. The
tor ms ofte n sl11.ashed ships into the jagged cliffS on shore.
8
This painting shows California gold seekers crossing the Isthmus of Panama.
O ther bound for California cut everaJ month ' off the trip by sailing
to the Isthmus of Panama in entraJ America. Thi narrow piece of land
links North and South America. A ri erboat on the hagr s R iver took
traveler. abou t 30 nllies across the isthmus. They walked or rode mule
the remaining 30 mil .
Boat pa ngers sailing up the hagres Riv r ri ked many dangers.
The crocodile in the hagr " brought their jaw together so fiercely
a to mak th for t trembl ,'a reporter WI" teo Deadly disea e uch as
eho1 ra, dy entery, y llow fever and maJari a posed another hazard for the
g Id seekers.
Those who made it aero the isthmu to the P ific cean and the
port city of Panama had to walt for a hip to take them to an raneisco. In
M ay 1848, thousan ds of people were stuck in Panama, walong their turn. ~
Adrawing made in the 1860s illustrates a festival in San Francisco, California.
A
A City of Opportunity
~
Th se;vh reach d an ranci co by ship found it overflowing with people. Clo to 100,0 0 newcomers had reached alifornia by 1850. About 40,00 of them had swarmed into an Francisco. an Francisc was a city of opportunity, especially for tho e with 'om ething to ell. In the harbor men in small boats surrounded the h ip S th y arrived. They offered to buy scarce goods- tools, food and clothing- for incredible Ul11. <
O nce on shore pa. sengers saw pil of goods- mirrors, clothing, mining mach in s-that others had abandoned. oon, when the newcom rs 1 arned there was nowhere to put their belonging and no one to help carry them , they also left their things. The early min rs did well. At th beginning of the gold rush, vein of gold in rock.. were easy to find . M iners used spoons to dig the o-old ou t of the ro ks. They had plenty of money, and they were willing to . pend it lavishly. L~
10b=======~======================================~
~.
People who bought very pi c of mini ng eq uipm~e nt th ey could find
did weli. So did merchant who raised th eir price to meet the demands
of desp rate people. A newly rich but hom sick miner migh t pay $1 .50
for a month -old new paper that cost a nj -kel ba k home. M erc hants
who a y ar earl ier had charg d fo ur cent fo r a foo t of lumber now
charged 30 c nts.
S0111 . ized up th _ si tu ati on and changed pl<n . Luzena Stanle
Wilson wa one 'uch person. H er fa mily arri ed in Sacramento in 1849.
The first night they arr ived , she set abo ut making bi cuits for dinner. A
nu n ame up to the fire. Wilson was embarras ed. " My kirts were torn
otT in rags above my ankle; my sleev s hu ng in tatt r ab v my elbows;
my hand brown and hard, were glove less."
Th ma n wa n't bothered by h r appearance. H e want d th bi cuits.
H e offc red five dollars for th em. Wilson wa sp eechless becall e it was so
much money. (It would be abo ut 125 today.) Wh en sh didn't answer,
th man th ught she wa nted m r money. H e held out a gold coin
worth ten dollars. Wils n and her husband promptly quit th e hunt for
gold and found their for tun e baking biscuits.
~
The Journey West
~
Thousands made the en tire journey by
land. Frorn coast to coast, the overland route
took about five months, and it was no picnic.
Travelers couldn't begin the trip until April
or May. But leaving in early spring often
meant there would be too little prairie grass
for their animals. Leaving later than June
could be risky, too. Early snow in Califor nia's
largest mountain range, the Sierra Nevada,
could block the way, leaving travelers to
freeze to death.
The first part of the trip was exciting
and not too hard. There was grass for the
animals and plenty of food for p ople, even
if it wasn't fancy. Th forty-niners, named
for the year in which they traveled, became
used to a diet of bacon, hard biscuits, and
cafE e. Now and then they came upon plants
and berries they could at. Th y al a caught
fish and hunted buffalo for meat.
The forty-niners' animal w re push d to
the limit. The steep stretches of the Rocky
Mountains exhausted th em. To light n the
animals' loads, the traveler threw out what­
ever they didn't ab olutely need. oon the
trails west were littered with everythi ng from
rocking chairs to iron stoves and party
dre e .
Emigrants to the West still managed
to keep their families together.
Mountains provided no cover for people crossing the desert on their way west.
/
i'
i
The two worst parts of the trip ame back-to-back. N o sooner had
the traY I rs cro ed the Rocky Mountain than they had to era s the
Forty-M ile D esert. ay would pa , without sight of water as the wagons
struggled on under th e blazing sun. " Our tongues wo uld be swollen, our
lip racked, and a ern t wouJd form on our tongues that could no t be
remov d," wrote a forty-nine r named L D ow St phen .
At last the travel rs would reach the Car on Ri ver j ust east of
California. There th y and their animals could fi nally dri nk their fill .
1"4L-- -..
Crossing the mountains was a difficult job that required travelers to work together.
,
Ju t ahead though, was perhaps the bigge t ob tacle of aU. That wa the
towering mountain range called the iena N evada. Exhausted teams of
mule pull d wag ns up teep slop s. They often teeter d and some tim
tipped, spilling the la t upplies. 'A regular wagon driver would have
thrown lip his hands in d pair and pronollnc d it impas able," Hugh
Brown H eiskell wrote in hi. diary in etober 1849 . "But we mov on a
there wa no pos ible retreat." Beyond th mountains, the overland trail
led directly to the gold .
Many prospectors set up their tents near streams.
~
Matted Beards and Long Toms
~
By the time the forty-nin ers got th ere, life in the mining camps had
become as frantic as life in th e city. T he days f pi cking nuggets out of
the streams and clearing $200 a day "vere over. In 1849 each newly
arrived min er thought he was th e one who wo uld win big. But few did.
!
The mining amps were ramshackle places. The newcomer put their
sh elters and tents Oil hillsides near riverbeds where earlier arrivals had
struck it rich. The found ers of some of thes odd communities had a
sense of humor. The camps had names like Bedbug, Mad Mule Gulch,
and Poverty Flat.
1"6L­
Miner's Menu
The miners in California ate some strange meals. Here are five miner specialties: Duff Duff: A kind of mushy hot trail mix, it was made from flour, water, and raisins. The mixture was put in a bag, boiled, and served with a molasses and sugar sauce. Hardtack: This rock-hard bread contained only flour and water. Hushamagrundy: A stew of turnips, parsnips, and chopped codfish, it was served on board ships headed for California. l obscouse: Another shipboard specialty, lobscouse was made from water, potatoes, and salted meat and fish. Salt pork: Salt pork is fatty pork that has been cured, or preserved, with salt. The miners developed their own rules in the camps. They had little
interest in niceties.They grew their hair and beards until they were long
and tangled. Some of them wore their clothes until they were just rags.
A few who had struck it rich would pay great sums for clean clothes.
Miners often paid as much as $7-about $150 in today's money-to have
a dozen shirts washed.
Food was a big problem. There was hardly any fresh food. Traders
would ride into th camps on wagons loaded with mail and salt pork and
bacon. Every now and then the wagons carried dri d apples or a luxury
such as oysters.
By 1852, the known gold veins, or b cis, had been ornpletely
depleted. ew camps . prang up in the mountains. cooping gold out
f veins became a thing of the pa t. ven panning-wa hing gravel in
a hallow pan-yielded few flak .
The miner now depended on the Long Tom, a wood-and-metal
trough abollt 12 feet long. Miner would shovel gravel and sand into a
tream of water that ran thr ugh the trough. If the dirt held any gold,
the water would wash out the dirt, Jeaving the gold.
T he Long oms oon exhau ted the riverbeds of gold. Many mjncrs
gave up and went home. th r miner ' began digging into the hill ides
111 earch of new vein '.
In this photograph two miners use a Long Tom.
18
Panning for gold was slow, tiring work.
19
Some mining companies used heavy machinery to sift through soil.
20
t~e
u~ed
ho~'
FinaUy
big mining companies mov din. Th y
huge
and powerful stream of wat r to 100. en the soil. If any gold wa
hidden in the rock beneath the 'oil, the ho es called monitor, would
blast it out.
ali fornia , gold ru h ame to an nd in ] 859, when gold and silver were di covered in N evada. Leaving alifornja's gold field. behind diehard fortune eekers took their t ols to evada. ther gave up mining but stayed to build alifornja, which had officially become a state in 185 . C alifornia's nickname, the Golden State is a reminder of the
citing years of the gold ru h. So i. the confid nt anything-is-po ibl
attitude today's .alifornian have. During the 1980 and 1990 , tho u­
sand of peop] flooded into alifornia to work for computer and
i Internet companie . Many struck it rich there. Most did not. But, like
I~orty-~n r , many b lieved that < nything was po ible.
J
In Goldfield, Nevada, gold was found in the rock of an abandoned claim. Prospectors
from all over the West rushed to the scene to stake out new claims.
21
~
Klondike Gold
~
Almo t half a century aft r aJi[ornia's gold ru h began , anoth r
one took offill th region ofn rthwe t Canada called the Yukon. It
was launch d in 1 97, when a 'hip teamed into eattle carrying two
ton f gold and a group of happy miner. As in 1849, gold seeker
quit their jobs left their families, and headed off to look fc r treasure.
Getting to the Yukon wa th harde t part. The anadian
gov rnment was afraid that eager, unprepared min rs would need
re cuing. Canadian official. decided that anyone who made the
trip had to any enough upplies to get through a y ar. Few of the
gold se kers had the money to hire porter, so they "leapfrogged"
their supplie . They would any a much a they c uld usually 50
to 75 pounds of goods, partway up a trail. hen they would put
down that load and return to their pile of upplies fi r another
portion . After they had moved th ntire pile to tl1e n w spot, they
would tart again, moving their supplies bi t by bit to the next
re ting pot.
It was slow going. The Chilk ot Pass over the mou ntain led
to the headwaters of the Klondike R iver. Ju t a tring over the pa
could take three l11.onth . ometime the entire trip from S attle to
Ala ka and th n to the Klo ndike took one or tw year . And the
Yukon i a wild rne of mountains and fores ts. It can get bitt rly
'old in winter. No wonder that few made it all th way.
As in California, the early arrivals found most of the e y pickings.
T hose who made the most money w re the ones ho oJd food
and equipment to the miner . The re t returned home d fea ted and
penniles .
T h ru h for Klondike g ld is long ov r, but min rs are till
digging up gold in the Yuk n. The anadian government say. tha t
in all , about 1 billion worth of gold has been tak n from the
r gion. Even now: about $54 million worth of gold comes from
the Yukon every year.
About 100,000 people headed for the Yukon. Of the 30,000
who got there, only about 300 got rich.
In 1872 Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, had a problem. One of his customers
wore out his pants quickly-he kept ripping out the pockets. Davis solved the
problem by using copper rivets to attach the pockets to the pants legs.
The idea worked. Davis knew that he had come up with something big, but he didn't
have the money to open a factory. So he asked a San Francisco business owner to
help him.
The business owner was the perfect partner. He had come to San Francisco in 1853
to sell supplies to miners. His business had done well, and now he was looking for
a way to make it grow even more. The two men asked the U.S. Patent Office to give
them the exclusive right to use the riveting process. The patent was granted in 1873.
Shortly afterward, the business owner's company began making and selling riveted
"waist overalls," as jeans were then called. They used denim cloth from New
Hampshire.
Waist overalls were an instant hit. The company had to build two new factories to
meet the demand for them. Together Davis and his partner had changed the world
of clothing. Who do you think was Davis's partner?
Think and Respond
CD What test was used to find out whether gold­
colored rock was real gold or fool's gold?
o Explain the different ways people traveled to
California during the gold rush.
@) Describe what San Francisco was like at the
beginning of the gold rush.
@) What is a Long Tom? How does it work?
® What do you think might have been the hardest
part of hunting for gold? Explain.
Write a Journal Entry Imagine that you are living in
1849 and hear about the gold rush. Using facts from
this Reader, write a journal entry about whether or not
you will take part in it.
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