The Western Experience

The Western Experience

His/ 110

The Western Experience

My story as a gold miner began in 1848 when I heard the story of a fellow by the name of James Marshall discovering gold nuggets along the American River in the northern part of what later became California. Mr. Marshall was hired to build a mill for John Sutter at his ranch. While he was working on the mill, he came across a few shiny nuggets of gold in the river. Before too long, word got around that there was gold waiting to be discovered and people like myself, found our way to northern California to attempt to find our share. The rapid influx of American settlers created a rush to California. This led to an economically sound and socially active settlement.

The travels were not easy getting to California by any stretch of the imagination. We lived hundreds of miles away and traveled in convoys and by foot primarily. It took our group around six months just to get to California to attempt to mine gold. Unfortunately, we were not the only people that had made the journey. It was said that the population of San Francisco alone grew from a population of around 800 people to over 35,000 over the course of one year due to all of the miners showing up!

After our arrival to California, we still were not guaranteed success as gold miners. Shoot, we weren’t even guaranteed success at life in general. Our lives were in jeopardy every day. It was said that about one in every five miners was dead within the first six months of their arrival. Some of the deaths were related to hard work in the elements, but others were primarily related to racism and crime.

Because of limited supplies and the cost of transporting goods to California, prices for everything were ridiculous. We were often shocked to pay double or triple for everything from kettles to shovels. A used pair of shoes might cost us as high as $50 a pair. One of the men in our group complained of paying .43 for a breakfast that would have cost...