Gold Rush Fever Economy Style

Those gold rushers who could not afford ship's passage or preferred solid ground had a choice of several overland trails.  One began at Fort Smith, Arkansas through Santa Fe and the Arizona deserts.  Lack of water and temperatures around 110 degrees cracked wheel axles and killed oxen, leaving those Argonauts to wander on foot, leaving their bones to bleach in the desert.

Not much easier but by far more popular were the Mormon and Oregon Trails over the Rockies directly to Sacramento.  Originating in Independence, Missouri (now Council Bluffs) this journey required waiting for spring before departure.  Most wagon trains heading out had actual bodies of government assigned (even legislatures) to enforce law and order on the journey.  Wet weather plagued many gold rush trains, making trails muddy bogs, sinking wagons wheels and making travel impossible.  Cholera epidemics took 5,000 Argonaut lives.  By the end of 1849, the trails were littered with cemeteries and gravesites.  Later travelers west used the abandoned junk like rusted old stoves, left on the trail as route markers to California.

One prospector's journey is recorded in 1849 "For miles an animated mass of beings broke upon our view.  Long trains of wagons with their white covers were moving slowly along...in a few moments we took our station in line, a component part of the motley throng of gold seekers who were leaving home and friends far behind to encounter peril of mountain and plain."  -  Alonzo Delano 1854 Life on the Plains.  .

So it seems that no matter which method you used to get to the gold in California, it was not a sure thing! One was more expensive than most Argonauts could afford, one was almost sure a death sentence from tropical disease, and finally the one affordable was a trial of the elements that could end in your death anyway!  Makes you think that the gold might not have been worth the trip?!

Next time...those rip-roaring gold camps
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Today in Pioneer History: "On July 10, 1889, In a drunken rage, “Buckskin” Frank Leslie murders his lover, the Tombstone prostitute Blonde Mollie Williams. Leslie was an ill-tempered and violent man, especially when he drank. He told conflicting stories about his early life. At times, he said he was from Texas, at other times from Kentucky, claimed he had been trained in medicine and pharmacy, and he even boasted that he had studied in Europe. He earned the nickname “Buckskin” while working as an Army Scout in the Plains Indian Wars. None of his assertions can be confirmed in the historical record.

The Coming of the Argonauts

Argonauts - from Greek mythology for those after the Golden Fleece - was a name given to the gold seekers in American history, those first prospectors who had half a chance of making a decent living.  The dry beds and waters of the American River were rich in gold, the foothills of the Sierras, although less accessible, had much more.  Many of these early Argonauts made thousands of dollars in just a few months.  Even the moderately lucky averaged $20 a day - a healthy pay for common workers back in those times. 

Much of what the Argonauts earned, however, went for necessities, from people like Sam Brannan (see previous post) at exorbitant prices. In August of 1849 one miner wrote home, "Salt Pork here in San Francisco sell for $.75 a pound, at the mines it is $200 a barrel.  Flour $2 a pound, potatoes $30 a bushel.  A ship load of potatoes would bring two hundred thousand dollars!"  It was far easier to make a living servicing those panning for gold than it was to join them.  Collis Huntington, railroad magnate, started his first million by buying iron bars at $20 a ton and selling them to miners at $1 a pound.

In 1849 California's population rose from 20,000 to more than 100,000.  By 1852, less than 3 years later, it was more than double to 225.000 and California became a state.  Almost all of those were male, and almost all of those were Argonauts. 

Most migrants came by sea from the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts on a 17,000 mile journey around Cape Horn in 6 months.  If they preferred to sail to Panama, they could travel overland to the Pacific Coast, board another ship bound for San Francisco in 6 weeks. The problem was most of those never made it via Panama where the overland jungle route struck down most with malaria, yellow fever and cholera.  Cape Horn was safer but became more expensive as demand rose. 

Those who could not afford  to go by ship chose another avenue, which we will see next time...

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Today in Pioneer History:  "On July 6, 1862, writing under the name of Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens begins publishing news stories in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.