Gold! The California Gold Rush

Ready to dig into some Gold Country history? Well, if you plan on traveling with us you better soak in a little information, otherwise you're going to be unprepared for the rough and rowdy era of the California Gold Rush!

California is known for its rolling hills, giant oak trees and populated cities. It’s also known for Hollywood, the place that makes all the movies. Let me be the first to tell you that these movies hardly ever depict what real life is like. I should know, I’ve met all those people they make those movies off of!

Of course I’m sure you’ve all read stories about the famous California Gold Rush. Who hasn’t? Someone discovered gold, everyone came to get it and now there’s no more gold, just a football team called the 49ers.

If you’ve done Californian history, you might recall that gold was first discovered at John Sutter’s sawmill in 1848. Do you remember who discovered it?

Not Sutter. One of his workers, James Marshall.

When James told his boss that he’d discovered gold in the river next to the sawmill, Sutter made all of his employees swear not to tell anyone. He knew that if word got out he’d have people all over his property, and of course he’d like to get some of the gold first. Who wouldn’t? Sutter owned the mill, therefore the land and the gold on the land was his, too.

Do you think you could keep a secret that big? Well, someone at the mill must have been bursting at the seams, for within a few months a shrewd merchant by the name of Samuel Brunnan headed to San Francisco to spread the word about the gold. Samuel owned a store near Sutter’s fort, and figured that if he told everyone about the gold he’d make a huge profit selling mining tools. He was right, as soon as the word “gold” caught everyone’s attention, San Francisco became a ghost town and Samuel Brunnan had a thriving business. Sure beats selling lemonade to make money!

Men flocked to California in hopes of striking it rich.

By the end of the summer of 1948, the news had spread up and down the Western coast, across the border to Mexico and even to the Sandwich islands, which is now present day Hawaii. I hadn’t even realized there were Hawaiian miners until Marin and I went to visit the gold mines. Who knew?

The news also made it to the Mississippi Valley and most of the eastern states. Newspapers were chucked full of accounts of men who claimed to get rich overnight, just by “picking the gold right out of California’s wondrous earth.”

Even so, the Eastern folks didn’t head out West yet, they wanted to make sure that this was the real deal.

So when President James K. Polk confirmed to Congress in December that there was indeed gold in California, the journey began. People from all walks of life sold their belongings to pay their way to the West. There were three ways to the goldfields. You could take a boat to Panama, cross Panama and then board another boat to San Francisco. Or you could take a boat around South America’s Cape Horn, the southernmost part of the continent. Finally, the cheapest way was to walk or ride to California from wherever you lived.

Each way had its dangers.

The demand for passage to California was so great that old boats or undersized boats were being used to take people around Cape Horn. Hundreds of these vessels were not made for such a journey, and in the stormy waters of Cape Horn, sunk.

If you were to take the trail to California, you’d find that in the Spring weather made a lot of the trails almost impassible. They also created the perfect place for muddy and contaminated drinking water, and thousands of the travelers were killed by bouts of cholera.

Even so, despite the setbacks and perils, by the time 1952 rolled around over 200,000 travelers had made it to California, “the Golden State.”

In the early days of the Gold Rush, some miners were pulling between $300 and $400 dollars worth of gold right out of the ground and dry riverbeds. In 1849 about $10 million worth of gold had been mined out of the Californian soil. As competition increased though, fewer claims brought in so much money.

Three miners try their hand at panning for gold.

So began panning, where miners started to sift through the soil in the running creeks and rivers to find gold there. It worked okay, but it didn’t yield as much gold as the earlier days had.

Because of the amount of money some of the miners were pulling in, shopkeepers and farmers took advantage of the gold strike. Boots cost $20 a pair, eggs $.50 each (they don’t even cost that much now!) and potatoes were $1.00 a pound. Marin and I only pay $.50 a pound for farm fresh potatoes, and even store potatoes only cost us $.45 a pound. The prices were outrageous, even in our costly world today we wouldn’t pay that much for some of those items. And this was back in the day when a dozen eggs cost about a dime!

By the end of 1849 the gold was already beginning to pan out. Miners started to move wherever there were rumors of a big strike, often setting up little tent and shack communities known as mining camps. They gave these camps funny names like Whiskey Bar, Poker Flat, or Flapjack Canyon. Women and children were hardly present in these towns, they were men communities. 

A drawing depicting what the mining camps looked like

You can imagine there was a lot of lawlessness in these camps. Sheriff’s were appointed quickly to restore order. Punishments were harsh and swift, oftentimes the outcome not too pleasant. Even so, claim jumping, where a man steals gold or says that someone else’s claim is actually his, happened a lot.

By 1851 big mining companies began to replace the small time miners. These huge operations would blast right through the mountain to get to the gold, and sometimes these tunnels would collapse on the miners. It was scary and tough work, you never knew when a mine shaft would come down on top of you.

The Gold Rush didn’t last long, but some of the communities the miners had built did. They became towns and cities that are still in existence today, though they’re very much changed. For instance, small communities like San Francisco and Sacramento became large towns in a couple of years. Can you imagine these places as towns? In our time now, they’re huge cities! But they were tiny at one time, until the miners moved in.

Though the number of people who struck it rich are tiny compared to the thousands who made hardly anything on the Gold Rush, we can still credit the gold fever for giving us the populated state of California today.

Here’s a little-known fact for you!

 Did you know that people joined the rush from as far off as Europe and Australia? Many Chinese also flocked to San Francisco to join in the gold rush. California became a huge melting pot with people from all nationalities and backgrounds working side by side to strike it rich. Many Californians today are the descendents of these hard working immigrants. 

Today in history: A steamboat by the name of the SS California, one of the first boats created specifically to carry mail, launched on this day, May 1st, for the first time in two months from San Fransisco. It was bound for Panama city. 
Why did the SS California remain at bay for two months? Because the Captain's crew jumped ship to go find gold! It took Captain Cleveland Forbes that long to find a new crew to sail with him to Panama city, because everyone wanted to strike it rich.

Join us next week, when Marin and I give you some books to read about the California gold rush. Don’t think for a minute they’re going to be boring, these stories hold adventure, danger and even mystery as the characters experience life in California first hand!

Oh and yes, we know its not May 1st in the USA, but we're in 1770s Russia right now, so we decided to give it to you today, since its May 1st here. ;)

Fast Facts and Trivia

A little preview of what we're covering next month!

We're coming up quick on our first adventure, an excursion to the California Gold Rush. Starting next week on Wednesday, we'll have a once a week post about the Gold Rush (sorry folks, we can only fork out so much at a time. Because of the amount of work we put into our posts, we usually are only going to be able to post once a week.) and perhaps a question/answer time for those of you who have questions.
But before we began next week, here are some fast facts about us, 4T and where we live.



I, Trevor, am twenty-six and was born in Inverness, Scotland, in the year 2002.

Marin is eleven and was born in Teplice-Šanov, Czechoslovakia, (now the Czech Republic) in the year 1930.

4T stands for Trevor's Time Travel Teleport, and its a wristwatch made in the early 1920s. Its an antique watch I made into a time machine when I was twenty.

We live under the mountain of Mauna Kea in Hawaii, during the year 12 A.D. Hey, if you're going to live on a tropical island, might as well have it to yourself!

An old photo of Hawaii

We own a Siberian tiger named Vasili, five horses named Zachary, Levi, Erinn, Flynn and Monster Horsie, too many chickens to count or name, several tropical birds and a blue fairy penguin named Spot.

My favorite time era is the year 1000, when lands were vast and unpopulated and the world had much to discover.

Marin's favorite time era is the 1870s in America. She loves the wild west, the cattle drives and the horses.

Whenever we time travel, we have to set a certain amount of time we'll be in a given area. So if we wanted to visit Luxemburg in the 1600's for a couple days, we'd set the time on 4T and have it transport us into that era. But we cannot make it take us home any sooner or later than what we've set, except when it glitches up or breaks. Which happens a lot.

When we go to a certain time period, we always bring something from the last era we visited. When we leave, any given object from the place we visited might come back with us. 4T always picks up something that we bring back with us, and when we visit the next place it switches it out. One of the weird glitches that happens. Sometimes we can choose what we bring back, sometimes not. It makes things interesting!

Marin's father was a watchmaker and her mother a seamstress. She planned on becoming one or the other when she got older, but when the War broke out she was forced to give up her dream.

A cartoon I found on the internet that basically describes what I was training to be!

By trade, I studied to become a scientist. Then I decided I'd rather be a scientist than study to be one, so I began to create my own experiments and see where they'd take me. This does not mean you should stop studying, kids! I just decided to work on my own instead of heading to college. 

We are both Christians and proudly embrace that Creationism, the Biblical teaching that the world was created in six days, is true. We should know, we're time travelers. 
 

I think that gives you a fair introduction to us! Hope you're ready for next week. Until then, I bid you good day and have a wonderful weekend.

The Unknown: Part One

             *Somewhere in time, an event that Trevor and Marin are unaware of taking place*

Captain Ross Hubert chewed his lower lip thoughtfully as he scanned the paperwork on the desk before him. The survey was littered with we believe and we think, a factor Ross knew would get him in on his boss’s bad side. Oh, why can’t they find any evidence? He groaned inwardly. Ross brought his fist down with a slam! Then glared at the papers before him. A lot of good these do. He growled. Nothing on that elusive man or his partner.

 The forty-three-year old officer stood up and stretched, tossing the survey aside on his already cluttered desk. He’d deal with that later. The boss hadn’t called him in for an update yet. He had a little time to think up a good explanation as to why there was nothing to report on.

            “Coffee, Captain?”

            Ross turned towards the door to his office to face a freckled Lieutenant, his fiery red hair a stark contrast to his blue army uniform. The young officer held a coffee pot in his hand and a mug in the other.

“Yes, thank you, Lieutenant.”

            The Lieutenant poured the Captain the caffeinated drink. “Here you go sir.”

            Ross accepted the mug and gulped down a third of it without pausing to breath. The hot liquid was a welcome distraction from the problem he had at hand, one he wasn’t excited to come back to.

            “Any news on Project Thirty-Six?”

            So much for taking a break on the matter. He glared at the Lieutenant and set his mug down. “You are dismissed, Lieutenant. On your way,” he muttered.

            The Lieutenant saluted and marched back down the hallway, leaving the Captain alone with his problem again. “Oh,” he moaned, collapsing in his chair, “what am I going to tell the Major?”

            Nothing that he’d want to hear.

~oOo~

            Sidney Wellington slipped into the waiting room, his hands shaking as he clicked his heels in a salute to the guard. “I’m here to see the Major,” he stammered. “I was told he’d like a cup of coffee.” Sidney tried not to spill the pot he held in his right hand, but his nerves causes his hands to jolt like a lizard on a hot summer day.

            The guard looked him over and nodded. “You may pass, Lieutenant.”

            The redheaded officer gave a curt nod of thanks and forced himself down the dark hallway. It was his first time being called to the boss’s office. He’d heard stories that the Major kept a rattlesnake in a glass cage under his desk, and another tale that claimed he had a jar of black widows as a window decoration. The insanity of the rumors were easy to laugh at in the safety of the barracks, but now that he was on his way to see the man it was a different matter.

            What if they were true? What if the Major was as mad as they claimed? He’d once heard that the Major had put a man on the front lines just because the officer had spilled water on his paperwork. Would he do that to a poor guy who’d been put up to the task of bringing him his coffee?

            This is foolish, Sidney chided himself, no one can be that mean. Not even a man in his position. Or could they? After all, where did the rumors come from?

            There was the door.

            Sidney balanced the coffee pot and mug in one hand and tentatively reached with the other to open the door to the office. He paused, then decided perhaps the best course of action was to knock first, just in case. With a deep breath he balled his fist and gave two light raps.

            For a second or two there was silence, then a muffled, “Come in!” told him he’d have to continue on after all. Here goes nothing.

            The Lieutenant opened the door and stepped into the room, expecting to see exotic wildlife in cages everywhere and a uniformed man with a crazed look in his eye. Instead he found a neat and orderly office with a grey-headed figure hunched over a laptop, his cap dangling from the side of his chair.

            Sidney snapped to attention as the chair swiveled around to reveal the Major, his green eyes catching sight of the coffee pot in the Lieutenant’s hand. “Ah, you brought my coffee.”

            His voice was surprisingly soft and quiet, why, it was normal. Sidney wasn’t sure what to think. He’d heard countless stories about this man and now he didn’t look all that impressive. Whoa, the guys really trumped up on this story!

            “Yes, sir,” Sidney nodded. He poured a cup of the caffeinated drink and handed it to his superior officer. “Will that be all, sir?”

            For a second the Major didn’t speak, he took a sip from the coffee mug and nodded in approval. “Did you make this yourself, officer?” he asked.

            Sidney nodded.

            “You did a fine job.” The Major set his mug down and glanced up at Sidney. “Tell me, what did the Captain say to you about Project Thirty-six?”

            The young serviceman started, nearly dropping the coffee pot in his hand. How did he know I talked to the Captain? “Excuse me, sir?”

            “You know what I’m talking about,” the Major leaned back in his chair, his eyes boring into Sidney’s. “You asked the Captain about Project Thirty-six. What did he say?”

            Sidney’s mind raced as he tried to recall what the Captain had mumbled. Why did the Major want to know? Wouldn’t he get a straighter answer if he just asked Captain Ross himself? Sidney had only been trying to make small talk, he'd heard a couple of stories about Project Thirty-six and was curious to know if there had been any new developments. Was he in trouble?

            “Nothing, sir,” Sidney stammered, hoping his answer satisfied the commander. “He merely dismissed me when I asked.”

            “Ah.” The Major nodded, a small smile crossing his face.

            The smirk on the man's lips brought Sidney to the conclusion that the stories had circulated for a reason, the Major’s demeanor was beginning to frighten him. He was so cool and calm, surely he was going to explode any minute.

            “Lieutenant,” Sidney brought his mind back to the present as the Major began to speak again, “I’d like you to tell Captain Ross I want to speak with him.”

            “Sir, yes, sir!” Sidney switched the coffee pot to his left hand and saluted.

            “Dismissed.” The Major waved him off.

            The young Lieutenant left the room relieved nothing had happened to him and a trifle guilty that something he might have said was going to get his Captain in trouble. I hope for the Captain’s sake there was a development on Project Thirty-six.

~oOo~

            “Nothing?”

            Captain Ross, his hands in a sweat and his military cap in his hands nodded.

            The Major stood up, his small frame of five-foot-nine more menacing than that of a man a foot taller than him. Ross took a step back as the Major looked him right in the eye. “Captain Ross, you have failed to deliver.” His tone had a dangerous edge to it, his eyes cold and calculated. “I don’t like it when my officers don’t deliver.”

            “Give me more time,” Ross pleaded, “I need more time. You can’t expect me to find the target in two days when he’s had a lifetime of experience in hiding!”

            Click. Ross froze as he stared into the barrel of the old-fashioned Lugar. He looked up into the Major’s gaze, his heart pounding against his chest.

            “Captain,” the Major said slowly, “That’s exactly what I expect you to do.” He clicked the safety back onto the Lugar and pocketed the weapon, turning his back on the Captain and heading to his desk. “I’m giving you forty-eight hours to either find Trevor Trekker or some historical document that will tell us where he is in time." he picked up a piece of paper and stared at the image. "I have some unfinished business with the man to attend to.” 

            

*Look for part two at the end of May*

Highlights from Marin: What You Need to Know

            Hello there everyone. This is Marin Maklakov, Trevor’s assistant. Are you ready to time travel with us?

As Trevor’s assistant it’s my duty to pick up on the things he might have left off. He can get a little carried away and often forgets things, he’s prone in that way. Don’t get me wrong, he’s one of the smartest guys I know. He created 4T, for goodness sake! It’s just that Trevor is a little bit…shall we say immature? He acts more like he’s sixteen then twenty-six. I’m just warning you so you’re not surprised when he gets into one of his goofy modes and leaves us behind. When he gets an idea he runs with it, often leaving me behind without even realizing it until I’m in dire danger or something. Don’t worry, he always comes back right when I need him the most, I’m just giving you a heads up in case that happens while you’re traveling with us. I’m used to it now and I know the ropes of time traveling pretty well, but if you have any real important questions you’d best direct them to him. He knows a lot about history, more than I do.

I see that he’s explained what we’ll be doing as well as his general outline, but he forgot to mention a couple of things to you all. I’ll just brush over them real quick so we can get started next week on our journey.

First off my Czech name is not hard to say. It’s Elizaveta Rifka Maklakov. You say it Ya-lee-za-vee-ta Reef-ka Moc-la-cough. Trevor just has trouble saying my name because he’s Scottish, he likes to draw out his E’s and roll his R’s on everything. I speak with a more guttural tone, which isn’t as nice sounding as his Scottish accent, but at least I don’t get fancy with my English. To make it simple though, I’ll just go with Marin. I like it anyways, it sounds like an American name.

The second thing I’ll mention is this, Trevor loves to interact with everyone. Leave comments, ask questions. We want to make sure your time with us is fun and pleasant, so don’t be afraid to speak up. If Trevor gets a little too wound up just let me know and I’ll straighten him out. He gets excited and wants to drag us all over the time space continuum, but I’ll make sure he tones down a little and keeps it nice and simple. Otherwise he’ll start speaking in that rapid Scottish accent of his and neither one of us will understand him!

The last thing I’ll give you is an outline for next month’s adventure. I typed up an informative graph so you’ll know just what to expect from our expedition. It’s coming up fast, so I hope you’re ready.

It’s a pleasure to have you with us and we’re going to have a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy being with us, I’m excited to have a new friend along!

-Marin Maklakov

May

2014

Week	Topic	What to expect
1	The California Gold Rush	The history of the Gold rush, a little known historical fact and a highlight from today in history.
2	Book Recommendations	Two book series we think you’ll like about the California Gold Rush.
3	Panning for Trouble: Part One	Trevor and I head to a mining town called Grizzly and find more than we bargained for while panning for gold.
4	Panning for Trouble: Part Two	A discovery leads to a hightail chase as Trevor and I race to find the law-before it can find us!
5	Panning for Trouble: Part Three	The conclusion of our harrowing adventure, along with a few surprises.

Trevor's Time Travel Teleport (4T)

           Face it, you always wanted to time travel. Maybe you wanted to fix a mistake you made in the past. Perhaps you wanted to travel to the future to see what kind of flying cars they have. Or, maybe you just want to know what your parents were like when they were younger.

One way or another, you thought about it. You wanted to do something that involved traveling through time. But you found out early on that no one had invented a time machine. Well, at least no one from the future had appeared at your doorstep inviting you to go on an adventure through the time space continuum.

I’ll even bet that some of you want to time travel to see what it was like in the past, what living during those time periods in your history books was like.

“Hold it!” I can hear some of you say. “This is a set up, isn’t it? You’re going to make up a whole long list why we should study our history books. After all, those who don’t read history are ‘doomed to repeat it.’”

Actually no, those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Though if you don’t read it, that too will be your ticket of doom. It’s in the context, you know?

I’m not going to give you a long list of why you should read history. I’m not going to tell you how exciting it is and how much you’ll learn from it. I’m not going to make you read historical facts and figures.

I’m going to show it to you.

Myself, Trevor Trekker.

 My name is Clever Trevor Trekker.

 Marin says that's a dumb name, but I like it. Not only am I clever, (I’m Scottish, after all. That automatically makes me smart) but I trek all through history and my name is Trevor. Clever Trevor Trekker. That’s me in a nutshell.

And I’m a time traveler.

“That’s impossible!” You naysayers exclaim. “No one has invented a time machine.”

Well, I have. It’s called Trevor’s Time Traveling Teleport. Or 4T, whichever you prefer.

4T would look like a normal wrist watch to you, a mere mechanism build for telling time. I’m here to tell you 4T not only tells time, it travels through time. I can’t even begin to describe the things I’ve seen, the places I’ve been! The people I meet are extraordinary, the stories I hear marvelous. History is a fascinating spectrum, a place full of wild happenings and crazy events.

I was just like you, kid. I didn’t like studying history in a book, I didn’t like memorizing information and timelines. I’d rather live it than read about it, who wants to read a textbook full of facts and names?

That’s why I created 4T, so I could travel back in time and see what it was like. No more lists, I was going to live it!

And now I invite you to join Marin, myself and my trusty 4T on an epic journey to faraway places, places you can’t even imagine living in. Okay, well, maybe you can. Some of you have huge imaginations and are probably quite good at envisioning yourself in the Dust Bowl or on a ship heading to America. Just humor me for a bit, alright? It’s not every day I decide to let the world know about my adventures or 4T. After all, I don’t want the bad guys to get a hold of it. Not fun.

My assistant, Marin Maklakov

Hmm? Marin? Oh, Marin! She’s my assistant. I found her, orphaned, living in Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic) during World War Two. She’s around your ages, she’s eleven. Marin is the name I chose for her when I met her, I don’t think you’d be able to pronounce her Czech name. It’s really long.

If there ever was a girl who understands the importance of learning from history, it’s Marin. She lived during a time period that saw storms of darkness and evil threats that would have overtaken the world if the allies hadn’t fought back.

Goodness, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll let Marin tell her story when we pass through her time period. She can tell it way better than I can.

“Well Mr. Trekker, if you’re a time traveler, what time period did you come from?” you might ask.

The year 2025. But we’re not going to focus on the future, just the past. After all, as a friend of mine always said, “if you mess with time travel too much you’ll wreck the time space continuum.” I haven’t found that to be true with going to the past, but I don’t think you want to come with me to the future, just in case. First off, it’s not that great. Sure, we’ve got plenty of interesting things, but-well, I guess I’ll just let you get there yourself in a couple years. Then you’ll see. 

Okay, let’s wrap this up a bit. What can you expect coming along with me?

1) You’re going to learn history. Better get used to it, one way or another you’re going to learn something you didn’t know. For those of you who enjoy history, you’re going to love travelling with Marin and I. We’ll show you stories and people you probably haven’t heard about. We’re going to have fun!

2) Each month we’re going to focus on a different time period. Week one of each month is introduction week, we’ll look at some of the information of the time period we’re traveling to. (Don’t sigh, I can’t take you to the past if you don’t know something about it. Otherwise you wouldn’t fit in and the bad guys would drag you off to interrogate and force things out of you for the rest of your life. Not fun, Marin and I had that happen to us once. I’ll explain more on that later when we embark on our adventures together.) 

3) On week two, Marin and I will recommend the best books on that time period, just for you! We’ll tell you who the author is, what it’s about and the age group it’s for. Marin and I have read all the books we’re recommending, so we’ll be sure to add any notes on objectionable content in case there’s something in there you’re not supposed to read. 

4) Weeks three and four (and sometimes five, depending on what month it is) are the weeks you’re not going to want to miss. Those are the weeks that we’re going to take you to visit the time period and show you around! I want to break out into a Scottish jig just thinking about it! Between Marin and myself, we’ll take you to visit all kinds of neat places, from a scary beach in Maine to the biggest water dam in America. I’ll be sure to introduce you to people you might have read about, and Marin will show you what it would be like if you lived in the past. 

5) If you have any questions about myself, Marin or any time period in history, you can click on our profile pages or email either Marin or I about it. When you write an email, just tell who it's for and what you want to know. We’ll do our best to answer your questions!

4T, my time traveling wristwatch

That’s it, we’re ready to get started. Tell me, are you the tiniest bit interested? Do you want to know just a little about the past and what it’s like? Perhaps you want to know if Indiana Jones was real or not. (Sadly, no. But I can tell you some stories about men who were like Indiana Jones.) Whatever your questions, come with Marin and I and we’ll take you on the journey of a lifetime.

Are you ready? Then follow me, ‘cause things are about to get wild!