DC Public Library System

Gold rush stories, 49 tales of seekers, scoundrels, loss, and luck, Gary Noy ; foreword by Gary F. Kurutz

eng

Includes bibliographical references

contains biographical information

illustrations

no index present

non fiction

Gold rush stories

bibliography

959875387

Gary Noy ; foreword by Gary F. Kurutz

49 tales of seekers, scoundrels, loss, and luck

"This volume explores the deeply human stories of the California Gold Rush generation, drawing out all the brutality, tragedy, humor, and prosperity as lived by those who experienced it. In less than ten years, more than 300,000 people made the journey to California, some from as far away as Chile and China. Many of them were dreamers seeking a better life, like Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, who eventually became the first African American judge, and Eliza Farnham, an early feminist who founded California's first association to advocate for women's civil rights. Still others were eccentrics--perhaps none more so than San Francisco's self-styled king, Norton I, Emperor of the United States. As Gold Rush Stories relates the social tumult of the world rushing in, so too does it unearth the environmental consequences of the influx, including the destructive flood of yellow ooze (known as "slickens") produced by the widespread and relentless practice of hydraulic mining. In the hands of a native son of the Sierra, these stories and dozens more reveal the surprising and untold complexities of the Gold Rush."--Provided by publisher

The wings of the future: beginnings -- Undisciplined squads of emotion: motivations -- The consequence of fearful blindness: twilight of the Californios -- "I know it to be nothing else": the sad tale of James Marshall -- The tale of Teleguac: Jose Jesus, native resistance, and survival -- "A vast deal of knavery": the warnings of Daniel Walton -- "The El Dorado of their most sanguine wants": John Linville Hall, the first journal -- "A perfect used up man": in the diggings -- "With a taint of fraud and a spice of comedy": claim salting -- Castles in the air: quartz fever -- "Death stared them full in the face": Silas Weston and Kelly's Bar -- "That blighting curse": dissipation -- "Plenty of jabbering and quarreling and several fights": Alfred Doten -- "Gambling on one card the fruit of his labor for the year": games of chance -- "There is no persuasion more esteemed for moral conduct": Jews in the gold rush -- "Everything looks forlorn and wretched": storms and floods -- "A wind turned dark with burning": the plague of fire -- "The blue vault of heaven": Alonzo Delano and the Great Grass Valley fire of 1855 -- A crumbling kingdom: the collapse of Sutter's Fort -- The devil's chaos: hydraulic mining -- "As huge, to me, as an elephant": grizzly bears -- "A very normal childhood": children and families -- "The years have been full of hardships": Luzena Stanley Wilson -- Shadow and light: Mifflin Wistar Gibbs and defiance of discriminationA vast, glowing empty page: reinvention and the veritable squibob -- "Emperor of these United States": Joshua Norton -- "Very little law of any kind": lawyers and judges of the gold rush -- "Enjoy it with luxurious zest": James Mason Hutchings -- Letter of the law: letter sheets and the ten commandments -- "To the land of gold and wickedness": Lorena Lenity Hays Bowmer -- "The theatre of unrest": Eliza Farnham -- Draped in a butterfly robe: the Mariposa County Courthouse -- "Convulsive throws and conflicts of passion": Dr. John Morse, the first historian -- Cheesquatalawny: John Rollin Ridge -- "I am JoaquIn!": the legacy of JoaquIn Murieta, the celebrated California bandit -- Cock-eye and snowshoe: John Calhoun Johnson and Jon Torsteinson-Rue, trailblazers -- Dueling designations: Lake Bigler versus Lake Tahoe -- "A great deal of hard times": the diary of Joseph Pike -- Guilty of dust and sin: drinking, dining, and desire -- Players and painted stages: curiosities and amusements -- "So wonderful, so dangerous, so magnificent a chaos": the 1849 California Constitution -- The legislature of a thousand drinks: Thomas Jefferson Green and the first California legislature -- "An act for the better regulation of the mines and the government of foreign miners": the foreign miner's tax and the French Revolution -- "We are not the degraded race you would make us": Hab Wa, Long Achick, Noman Asing, and Governor John Bigler -- "The theatre of scenes which we hope will never be repeated": vigilantes -- Going up the flume: the hanging of John Barclay -- "Awful calamity": the explosion of the steamer Belle -- The territory of Colorado: the Pico Act of 1859 -- The final accounting: death in the goldfields

49 tales of seekers, scoundrels, loss, and luckForty-nine tales of seekers, scoundrels, loss, and luck