gold rush

Bitterly cold snow flurries pelted the determined features of twenty-one-year-old Ethel Berry’s face as she drove her dog sled over the Chilkoot Pass in Alaska. Clad in a pair of men’s mackinaw breeches and moccasins, she cracked her whip over the team of animals hauling an enormous mound of supplies behind them. Ethel was slowly...

A steady stream of miners, ranchers and cowhands filtered in and out of the Number 10 Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota.  An inexperienced musician playing an out of tune accordion squeezed out a familiar melody ushering the pleasure seekers inside.  Burlap curtains were pulled over the dusty windows and fans that hung down from the...

The long shadows of a beleaguered wagon train stretched across a parched trail through Nevada known as the Carson River Route.  Pioneers traveling west used this unavoidable path to get to California.  The long, dry crossing was one of the most dreaded ordeals of the entire emigrant experience.  The supply of fresh, drinkable water was...

A thin, unshaven prospector took a long drag off the butt of a cigarette before flopping into an oversized chair in the plush lobby of the Mizpah Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada. The six-story building featured all the conveniences possessed by establishments like it in New York. The rooms and foyer were primarily occupied by stylishly...

  The Lovely, “Madame Moustache” Soiled doves of the Old West frequently wrestled with matters of the heart.  Many longed to meet a man who could help them escape the life they were living.  Popular, frontier madam Eleanor Dumont dreamed of such a savior.  Shortly after she moved to Northern California she met a man...

Women crossing the great plains of the American frontier during the Gold Rush didn’t have a pocket guide of dos and don’ts to help them through romantic encounters.  There was no manual to fall back on when in doubt about the pioneer, prospector, or cowboy that came calling.  The daring ladies who bravely ventured beyond...

Pioneer woman and early entrepreneur, Luzena Stanley Wilson   Frontier pioneer Eliza Inman wrote in her journal in 1843, “If Hell laid to the west, Americans would cross Heaven to reach it.” Luzena Stanley Wilson, mother of three and wife of aspiring gold miner, Mason Wilson, wholeheartedly agreed with the sentiment. In 1849, news of the Gold Rush captivated...