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

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 10have not the least doubt of its notwithstanding his age and infirmaties he managed to ask us for"money". as we went out ot the wigwam we each slipped a piece of silver into his hand he returned his thanks by giving us a harty shake of his hand. After ???? interruption we resumed our journey, we passed across several smaller streams this day we travelled about twenty five miles and reached the town of Marysville one hundred miles from St Joe at nightfall. We camped on the banks of the Big Blue river which runs through the town, it is a very nice stream having the peculiar characteristic of all Kansas rivers, viz, about one foot deep twenty wide and clear running water with a gravelly bottom the water is cool and tastes first rate. In the neighborhood of this river the bluffs are almost as high as those on the shore of the Missouri. the town has a very fine site on the bluffs commanding a view of the prairis for miles on every side. It is a place of some imprtance being the last outfitting place for immigrants for Pikes Peak, Utah and California and the residence of the Government Inspector of goods for U.S. troops in the west. the trains are here examined to ascertain that the supplys are all right and to prevent the shipment of any contraband article at the expense of Government. The town has a population of about one thousand and one pretty respectable looking street and some first rate stores a newspaper office Land Office a few lawyers and some doctors. After looking all about the town we packed up and turned again westward our first job was to get across the Big Blue aa very difficult undertaking with our heavily loaded wagon there is a very steep descent of about one hundred feet to the bed of the river in the middle a bed of quicksand and a hill to raise on the other side however we hitched four horses to each wagon and

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 2423px × 3811px 26.45 MB

File Created 02/17/2023

Filename 991330378805867_Ayer_MS_3210_00006-0.TIF

Unique Identifier NL11JUFS

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