The Gold Seekers: Gold, Ghosts and Legends From Carolina to California by Nancy Roberts

Author:Nancy Roberts [Roberts, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Expeditions & Discoveries, United States, State & Local, South (AL; AR; FL; GA; KY; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; VA; WV), West (AK; CA; CO; HI; ID; MT; NV; UT; WY), Social Science, Folklore & Mythology, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781611173604
Google: HjwMCAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Published: 2013-06-12T20:40:32+00:00

Jim found some of the Georgia miners in the El Dorado Bar.

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1858

“Us Georgians just know how to mine for gold,” he said winking, pleased at Jim’s surprise over the amount he showed him. He was replacing the gold pouch in his antelope pocket when they heard a shot ring out followed quickly by two more.

Both men dropped to the floor.

“Where in blazes did that come from?” Jake cried out in the midst of the hullabaloo of voices. There were shouts and crashes of chairs and tables overturning as men hurried to get out.

Jim felt a burning sensation in his chest and when he looked down crimson was seeping from beneath his shirt and spreading across the left side … it couldn’t be possible. The hard, dangerous journey to get here, the months of traveling from one gold camp to another and now as he was ready to go home someone had shot him. He thought of Desiree’s warm beauty and how greatly he loved her. When he looked up at the shining brass lamp hanging above him, there was her face and the baby’s reflected in it and then their images began to blur.

Somehow he knew he would never see his wife and child again. It hurt … oh, how the knowledge hurt … far worse than the pain of the wound in his chest. A terrible sadness and longing enveloped him overshadowing the pain.

Jim was dimly aware that someone was putting something under his head. He saw Jake’s face bent over his filled with rage and grief and the faces of the strangers swam around him. Then it no longer seemed he was lying on the floor of the El Dorado Hotel in San Francisco … he was back in Dahlonega … he was home.

The first letters Desiree received came from San Francisco and were written in June of 1850. They were full of the excitement of this teeming settlement of 25,000 people living in conditions more primitive than Jim had ever imagined. Through the fall and winter letters arrived from one gold camp after another, letters filled with the beauty of the country.

Jim wrote often and she began to enjoy his descriptions and share his enthusiasm. California had just been given statehood and more people were arriving daily. There were thousands of acres of beautiful land and Jim could buy property with no questions asked. He wrote, “I feel that the chains I have worn for a lifetime have dropped from me” and “even if most of these people knew I had mixed blood, it would not interest them.”

“My dear, lovely wife, you must see this land and the beauty of the Pacific coast, for I want you to think about our making a fresh start here. Does the idea of traveling all the way across the country frighten you, Desiree? When I can tell you more about it, I don’t think you will be frightened … you will be excited.”

One morning in late fall, Desiree Boisclair went to the post office as was her daily habit.

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