The departing
gold-seekers faced an immediate problem. California was a long
way from home. There was no railroad to whisk them west; no river
to float them to California. Instead, the journey would be a painful
test of endurance.
There
were two miserable choices. The sea route around the tip of South
America often took more than six months. But the alternative wasn't
much better--a 2,000 mile walk across the barren American outback.
The sea route was favored by gold seekers from the eastern states.
Seasickness was rampant; food was full of bugs, or worse-rancid.
Water stored for months in a ship's hold was almost impossible
to drink. And then there was the boredom--months and months at
sea with nothing to do, except dream about gold. The wait was
intolerable.
To
satisfy the growing thirst for speed, a quicker route was soon
employed across Panama. It seemed like a logical shortcut. But
traversing the rain forests of Central America in the 1840s was
an adventure in itself. Malaria and cholera were common. Those
who survived to see the Pacific faced another dilemma--they were
stranded. Ships to ferry them up the coast to San Francisco were
rare. And so the forty-niners waited for weeks--or months, in
overcrowded, disease-infested coastal towns.
For Americans
who lived in the central states, there was another way west--a
well-worn path carved out several years earlier: the Oregon-California
Trail. The overland road was much shorter than the sea route,
but it wasn't faster. Most had no idea how severe the overland
journey would be.
All they
could think about was gold as they plodded westward alongside
covered wagons at two miles per hour--for up to six months. The
first weeks on the trail took the adventurers along the Platte
River, past landmarks like Chimney Rock, Courthouse Rock, and
Scotts Bluffs.
Military outposts like Ft. Laramie were most important as post
offices--places to send letters to eager families back home--heartfelt
letters of optimism and hope.
Scottsbluff,
Nebraska
Anonymous
49er:
"The reports of the gold regions are as encouraging here
as they were back in Massachusetts. Just imagine yourself seeing
me return with $10,000 to $100,000."
As they pushed
further west, optimism was replaced by fear of the Native American
tribes along the Trail. But after the initial contact, fear often
turned to friendliness.
The real danger of the overland journey wasn't Native Americans--it
was water. That is, the lack of water. The last few hundred miles
were especially difficult.
Merrill
Mattes, author "The Great Platte River Road"
"Along the Humboldt and Carson Rivers you reach a point where
there is no water at all for long stretches and you would die
of thirst. Your tongue would blacken and you would drop dead,
and there were lots of accounts to that effect. Well, so some
smart cookies back in California got wind of this and they came
out with their buckets and barrels filled with water and they
would sell the water for $1.00 a glass, or whatever--as much as
they could get away with."
The price for water could go as high as $100 per drink. Those
without money--were sometimes left to die. It was a lesson in
supply and demand that would be repeated many times over in frontier
California.
