Newberry Library - A trip to the gold regions of the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1860 1860

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Open book A trip to the gold regions of the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1860 1860

Title A trip to the gold regions of the Rocky Mountains in the summer of 1860 1860

Creator Young, John D. (John David), 1839-1898

Date 1860

Place Colorado, Great Plains, Illinois--Chicago, Overland Trails, Saint Joe Road

Language English

Subjects Frontier and pioneer life, Gold miners, Gold mines and mining, Indians of North America

Summary John D. Young's narrative of his 1860 round trip from Chicago to the Colorado gold fields and his experiences there, probably composed in Chicago after the trip. Contains full descriptions of encounters with frontier justice, friendly and hostile Indians (Potawatomi, Pawnee, Comanche, Arapahoe, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne), a Rocky Mountain forest fire, great buffalo herds, a "hurricane" at Marysville, and a prairie dog village. Also discussed in detail are rich Missouri farmlands poorly utilized under slavery, the Pony Express, towns and forts (Quincy, St. Joseph, Marysville, Fort Kearny, Denver, Tarryall), scenery and terrain, road conditions, diet, clothing, equipment, diggings (Tarryall, Blue River, California Gulch, etc.), methods of gold extraction, claim salting, etc.

Biographical/Historical Note Colorado gold rush participant and Ottawa, Ill., lumber merchant.

Extent 1 v. (120 p.) ; 32 cm

Format Sources, Manuscripts, Travel literature, Transcripts

User-Contributed Transcription 45We now commenced to decend for we stood on a mountain unclear about one thousand feet higher than the plane the decent was very abrupt and we had to tie three of our wheels to keep the wagon from pitching over upon the horses in about two hours we reached the park and found that it was even lovlier looking than we had imagined while looking upon it from the mountain top. The grafs was soft and green as a meadow in our own prairie state nice little brooks clear as crystal filled with brook trout sporting gayly before our eyes crofsed and recrofsed each other all over the surface of the plain everything looking so invitingly comfortable we made up our minds to camp there for the night We picketed out our horses and for the first time in four weeks they had good grafs we made a spear and caught some fine brook trout for supper that evening we had such a supper as might make an epicure envious of our enjoyment fish flesh and fowl the kinds being the trout venison and buffalo meat with some bacon to supply the grease for cooking and then we had some ducks for the dessert we made some warm biscuit and tea and it was really the most comfortable meal we had on the journey. This night we did not suffer any from cold we were sheltered from the winds by the mountains in the morning we started once more on a smooth level road in continued very good until noon when we came to a swamp or morafs similar to those in Illinois it was about a fourth of a mile acrofs and dreadful hard pulling sometimes I thought we must sink and go under the mud we held on bravely and at last got acrofs safe we then journeyed on and arrived at Tarryall an hour before sunset this is one hundred miles from Denver and eighty miles from the place we entered them it took us just ten days to come that distance. We were now at the mining ground the goal of all our hopes and expectations and when we came to look at the prospects it seemed as if we were as far as ever from realizing the acquiring of gold which had brought us so long a journey. Tarryall so called

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Edward E. Ayer Manuscript Collection

Link to Catalog View record

Call Number VAULT Ayer MS 3210

BibID 991330378805867

Rights Status No Copyright - United States

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 2445px × 3795px 26.57 MB

File Created 08/21/2023

Filename 991330378805867_Ayer_MS_3210_00024.tif

Unique Identifier NL11LVPB

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