“The New Eldorado!!! Gold in Kansas Territory!!”- August 26 Kansas City Journal of Commerce describing the Pike’s Peak gold rush.
The story of westward expansion includes several episodes of mineral discoveries setting off national and even international migrations, popularly referred to as “rushes.”
It was not the case that all mineral finds created mass exoduses. For example, Sir Francis Drake’s circum-navigation of the globe in 1579 reported the first historically documented discovery of gold in New Albion (we call it California).
In the 16th Century there was little interest for the English to sail from Europe to exploit gold from the western coast of North America. Mexico and Central America temptations created a royal outbreak of gold fever among the crowned heads of Europe.
There were several discoveries of gold in California which set off local prospecting surges in Spanish territories. The 1848 findings at Sutter’s Mill on the American Fork River set off the greatest California Gold Rush.
International Gold Rush
In the late 1840s, conditions were right for an international gold rush. The world economy needed a shot in the arm as Europe recovered from the numerous revolutions and wars of independence of 1848-49 and the Mexican American War opened the gold fields to easy exploitation.
Miners by their tens of thousands flocked to El Dorado to take away California’s pavements of gold.
The great California Gold Rush’s allure enticed amateur miners take to the seas and the vast unimproved trails of the American and Mexican interior.
The popular term for the obsession to strike it rich was “Gold Fever.” This disorder drove otherwise sane individuals to abandon hearth, home, family, and friends in a gamble wherein they bet their lives and fortunes on the hope that untold riches were ripe for the taking.
Thousands of the “argonauts of ‘49” perished of Asiatic Cholera, shipwrecks, tropical diseases, accidents, drownings, murders, and a host of other causes. The California Trail, with perhaps more graves than miles, has been characterized as one of the longest cemeteries in the West.
On To Colorado
The 1848 great gold rush begun was followed by another rush in 1858. This gold rush was centered on Colorado.
Gold had been discovered in 1807 in the Pike’s Peak area by Zebulon Pike. The 1850 discovery of gold by Cherokee gold miners passing through on their way to the California Gold Rush was one of the sparks that ignited the Colorado Gold Rush.
In 1850 the Cherokees were among the few experienced gold miners involved in the California diggings. While traveling to California the Cherokees noted the gold at Cherry Creek.
Their own gold fever made them too busy getting to the California fields to understand what they had found. They resolved to thoroughly investigate the Colorado find as they journeyed back to the Cherokee Reservation in 1858.
There had been other discoveries of “color” in the front range area, but the Cherry Creek find set the wheels of a new rush in motion. Cities such as Denver and Aurora were seeded by the new diggings and the vast wealth they created. Once the word was out about the richness of the Colorado finds, the trickle of prospectors grew into a river and in short order a flood.
John D. Young Comes West
John D. Young of Chicago was one of many who heard about the new gold rush and found themselves caught up in the excitement. Nineteen-year-old John was born in Canada. In 1843 his family emigrated to Chicago.
The tales of miners in Colorado striking it rich after digging the soil with an axe and washing the gold out with a frying pan tempted many a would-be prospector to head west before all the gold was gone. John joined a group of seven similarly enticed men to abandon their jobs and become prospectors. John’s group included his father and a brother.
John’s tiny band left Chicago in April of 1860. The first legs of the journey was a railroad ride from Chicago to Quincy, Mississippi. From there they took a riverboat to Hannibal, Missouri where they took the railroad to St. Joseph.
A ferry ride brought them across the Missouri River to the community of Bellemont, Kansas. On this leg of the journey, they witnessed the beginning of one of America’s legends, the Pony Express. The new service allowed mail from home to be waiting at mail stops ahead of plodding prospectors and their freight.
The journey on the Platte River route past Bellemont resembled that of the Forty-niners. Steam propulsion was replaced by muscle power to move freight and people.
Those city dudes treated the journey much as a recreational excursion. They adapted well to the rhythm of travel on the trail, usually making twenty to thirty miles through the lush farmlands.
Along the way they held a singing contest with Kansas ladies and even paid good silver to look at a very old Native American man. By the time the jolly troupe reach Maryville on the Blue River the weather was turning sultry.
Don’t Ask Too Many Questions
The easy days of travel were past them and the heat took its toll. Yet the travelers awoke each morning rested and ready to forge ahead. At Pawnee Ranch, John sought to ask the proprietor questions about the route ahead. He was stopped in his tracks by a grimacing human skull on the counter with the inscription “Died from asking too many questions” on its forehead.
John decided that sometimes it is better to not be well informed. The prospectors had access to one or more emigrant guides, which they found helpful in such situations.
When the Chicago boys left the Blue River, they camped out in the plains. The lack of wood and the paucity of other accustomed resources prompted John to finally ponder what they might have gotten themselves into. Why had they left established jobs, comfortable quarters, and good friends to go on this “wild goose chase?”
The trip had its advantages. They marveled to see buffalo and antelope as the prairie was festooned with colorful wildflowers. John stopped in Fort Kearny to post letters and receive mail. The lack of fodder on the plains affected their horses. A stop at Fremont’s orchard provided crab apples and passable grazing for their tired horses.
Approaching Denver, the prospectors became more cautious. They were in the territory of the fearsome Cheyenne Indians. John’s party joined with other travelers forming a wagon company some fifty men strong.
One day a solo Indian scout appeared in the distance. The warrior acted very interested in the prospectors’ train. While stopped for a noon break, the wagon company formed a large circle with the horses kept inside of the protective lager.
The First One Thousand
While the prospectors prepared their meal a multitude of “one thousand” Indians appeared. How accurate that assessment was open to questioning. Clearly there must have been enough to scare all hell out of the wagon company.
The startled prospectors stood to their arms and for a tense two hours the two groups watched one another. The miners unanimously agreed they could not remain in the waterless position they occupied and needed to find a more defensible location before dark.
The wagons were formed a line with half of the miners strung out on opposite sides of the road. In this formation they slowly pushed on. There were times when the Indians approached too closely and were convinced to fall back as loaded rifles were leveled at them by the distraught prospectors.
On occasion groups of mounted warriors rushed at the train filling the air with the sounds of their whooping. Those charges slowed and stopped as the prospectors prepared to volley.
As the sun started to fall, the defensive circle was reassembled atop a hill. Guards were in place all night. There were two false alarms but no attacks.
The morning light revealed that the warriors were gone. As the wagon company approached Denver, it was met by friendly Arapahos who traded and engaged in friendly contests with the prospectors. The amazing horsemanship of the Arapahos impressed John.
Early Denver
In 1858 there was hardly a structure on the land that became Denver. John marveled at the broad regular streets and buildings which had sprung up almost overnight. A huge brick building called Ming’s Denver Hall contained a clothing store and the branch of a Chicago bank.
There was a wholesale store operated by the Waddell and Russell’s company which was larger than comparable stores in Chicago. A U.S. Mint building was under construction. Denver had a mercantile boasting three stories in height.
While taking the tour of Denver, John was near a gun duel between two gamblers. Two men drew and fired with one falling dead. The survivor was arrested and tried that night before a huge crowd at the Denver Hall.
A jury of twenty-four men was empaneled. The prosecution focused on the poor character of gamblers in general and the defense argued that dueling to redress an insult was fitting and proper.
Witnesses were confused as to whether the defendant fired the first shot, or the two opponents fired simultaneously. The jury returned a finding of guilty.
The “judge” hesitated in sentencing the defendant and merely said, “Let the will of the people be done.”
Such a vague pronouncement protected the “judge” from being prosecuted for his lack of authority to sentence a man to hang. Those who hated gamblers expressed their version of “will of the people.” The next morning the gambler was swinging at the end of the hangman’s rope.
John must have been curious about the bad boys of Denver and managed a visit to a place of gambling. The gambling hall was as much of a den of iniquity as suspected. What he saw confirmed the size of the gold strike to him.
Picking The Citizens Clean
John visited an immense hall filled with people and piled high with gold. The crowd busily gambled away their gold in a variety of games of “chance.” The professional gamblers rarely lost. They were adept at picking the citizens of Denver clean.
John and his companions left Denver and its temptations behind and started out for the mountains. They were enthralled by the grandeur of the scenery.
Traveling the plains did not fully prepare them for ascending the Rocky Mountains. They barely made nine miles their first day of climbing. After four days they encountered snow fields and were forced to build a hut and store half of their possessions.
John wrote, “All around us was clouds and snow.” As bad as the climb was, the steep descents were another kind of torture.
Heading To Tarryall
When they reached the community of Tarryall, the Chicago boys expected to find diggings for them to prospect. Instead, the community was held a teeming mass of miners, some returning with gold in their pockets, others with empty pockets. John learned a lot about gold fever in Tarryall.
John wrote, “Your real gold hunter is the most careless fellow in existence. He thinks of gold sleeping and waking and new reported discoveries will… carry him off even at midnight.”
Near Tarryall John observed diggings for the first time. He found the process of removing paydirt from under boulders, followed by washing the sediment through a sluice box prior to catching the gold with quicksilver (mercury) in a cloth, to be “simple.”
Alas all the claims there were taken, forcing John and his companions to continue onward.
Heavy snows hid the beaten paths and concealed dangers created by the steep terrain. Mules failed under their loads and the prospectors carried the packs.
A Second Thousand
John finally struggled to the Blue River diggings where there were as many as a thousand prospectors. (There’s that estimate again.) As before, all the claims were taken.
Moving further on John discovered a place with a trace of “color” but not in sufficient quantities to file a claim. After two days of working, they had nothing to show for their labors and walked back toward Tarryall. From that place they set out to reach California Gulch.
Since the trail was hidden by snow, they crossed the mountains using a compass to direct them. Snows continued and the landscape was a spider’s web of huge rocks interspersed with precipices. One night a mule tried to cuddle up with John to beat the cold. It was a rude awakening.
Lost In The Mountains
John’s party continued to slavishly follow the compass bearing. It was clear to John they were now lost in the middle of the mountains. The weather worsened and their provisions were running out. John learned to ease his hunger pangs by tightening his belt. They needed luck to get them out of this mess.
At first their prayers were answered with bad luck.
They crested a mountain which, instead of diggings, overlooked a large Indian village. Fearing the Utes, reputed to be among the most fearsome warriors of the mountains, the prospectors rapidly worked their way around the village. As fear of the Utes sped the Chicago boys on their way, empty stomachs were no longer an issue.
Miles past the village good luck embraced the struggling miners. John’s group happened upon a party of prospectors who shared venison, corn dodgers, and coffee. Their new friends told them which way to go and provided the good news that they could buy food twenty miles away.
Additionally, the Arkansas diggings were thirty miles away and a mining camp was forty miles.
After traveling twenty miles John was thrilled to purchase fresh baked bread from a Vermont
woman, at least until he tasted the unleavened black brick of a loaf. It was nothing like the fluffy well-leavened loaf of white bread he thought it to be at the time of purchase. One bite convinced him to leave the loaf behind
John consoled himself with a drink of fresh milk at the same establishment.
After their less-than-satisfying culinary experience, John and his companions soon reached to Arkansas River and California Gulch. There were solid log houses there and substantial diggings. The claims for sale were reputed to be salted to fool greenhorns. No one wanted to sell a productive claim.
Government And Courts, And Another Thousand
The miners at California Gulch established a municipal government of sorts. The water supply was inadequate to support the mining. A thousand miners were put to corvée work digging a feeder canal to community. (Yes, John used that number quite often.) Each claim was to provide workers for this task.
The community also set up a court system to resolve disputes. At one point a deputation of Utes approached the community and demanded reparations from the miners who were trespassing on their lands, taking their gold, and using the local resources.
The miners agreed to repaying the Utes somehow. Once the Utes had left, John was convinced they would not honor the debts to the landowners.
The Cure For Gold Fever – Finding None
Following a rumor, John and his companions moved outside of California Gulch and tried to work a marginally promising place. They found no gold. The gold fever in the group was cured.
They resolved to return to Tarryall. One step led to another and soon they were back in Denver and then on their way to Chicago. There were many adventures on the return trip, including almost getting caught in a forest fire and several encounters with various Indians.
From beginning to ending John’s great adventure to the Colorado gold fields lasted five months and two days. John eventually became a clerk in Ontario, Illinois, and served as mayor of that town for one year.
John’s gold fever was cured. He hoped to save others the tribulations and disappointment of prospecting and was free with warnings to those he met on the way home. He was as successful in convincing others, in their own throes of gold fever, to turn back as he was in mining.
He had plenty of chances to discourage prospectors who he met on the trail home. He wrote, “Every one thinks he will be the lucky person and, where so many failed, that he may perhaps make his fortune… tell them about the dangers and difficulties all the privations hunger, cold and fatigue they will have to undergo, of working up to the knees in cold ice water, they will only laugh to you and will not give credit to it.”
On his way to Colorado John had heard similar cautions by prospectors returning from the gold fields. To his chagrin, he paid them no mind. He should have known that even the best of advice doesn’t stand a chance against the temptations of gold fever.
Terry A. Del Bene can be reached at terrydelbene@me.com
