Gettin' to Golden Gulch
By Gannon
Our legendary story of a group of argonauts named Skylar, Don, Brianna, Christian, and Gannon trying to see the elephant starts with the journey to the diggings. It was long, hard, rough, and challenging, but was worth it.
The stage is set in February of 1849. The news had just reached us: a small flake of gold had been discovered in California! Gold fever came with the news everywhere it went. It was like the plague! Everyone got the urge to find pay dirt and strike it rich! We were no exception. Before we went the five of us all worked for a high-powered company in Boston. As soon as the news reached us, we quickly quit our jobs and ran to a bar so we could start planning. We formed a company, the Golden Hunters, and made plans to go to California. However, the only members were the five of us.
Our small little company left for California along with other forty-niners on March 4. Turns out we left too early, and the ground was covered in snow, leaving little food for the oxen pulling our wagon to eat. But that didn’t stop the Golden Hunters. We continued on, getting over every obstacle we faced.
Our attempt was unsuccessful, however. We were in the middle of the United States when we came across a river. The current was very strong, but there was no turning back now. Step by step we urged the oxen through the raging current. About halfway through the river the current picked up about 150% and got deeper by about five feet. Because of this sudden increase of speed and depth, the oxen were swept away by the water and drowned. Luckily, we all jumped off the wagon just before it sank. We were not going to find a nugget or hit pay dirt today.
But we didn’t give up. A defeated company, we went back to Boston to plan again. We decided to take the overland route for the second time, but leave at a later date. We left for our second attempt to get to the Californian gold fields on June 5th. This time, we had no problems with the river that stopped us last time and continued on. In fact, we only had one problem. After crossing the prairie we encountered some rough road. The wagon rumbled, shook, and nearly fell apart. Luckily we are all very strong and held the wagon together. A few days later we crossed the Sierra Nevada’s to see the gold fields of Golden Gulch! We had made it!
The road to great riches in the diggin’s isn’t an easy one. It took us two tries and an entire fortune, but getting to a boom town and using our cradle to find flakes, color, and even nuggets is the best feeling in the world!