加州淘金热

In 1848, news of the discovery of gold in the Sacramento River of California, territory that became part of the United States in the treaty that ended the Mexican War, 激励了整个国家和世界. “阿尔戈英雄”——富有冒险精神的淘金者——从南美远道而来, 欧洲, and Asia to San Francisco on their way to the gold-bearing rivers and mountains of the interior of California. 美国人通过陆路或海路长途跋涉, either from eastern ports around Cape Horn and directly to California, or to Panama and across the narrow isthmus on horseback and by boat, 然后再乘船到旧金山. 超过100人,000年探矿者, including thousands of citizens of the "Old Bay State" (麻萨诸塞州), arrived by the end of 1849 and have been known ever since as "Forty-Niners."

为了艰难的旅程, men—and the great majority of gold seekers were men—often formed "companies"—mutual aid organizations who shared the dangers of travel and, 在某些情况下, 一起在加利福尼亚生活和工作. Some companies had formal names: "The Boston and California Joint Stock Mining and Trading Company" for example. Members adopted bylaws and voted on whether they would travel on the Sabbath or allow drinking during the journey. Many Forty-Niners including Daniel 内森 (often spelled "Nayson") tried their luck and returned home relatively quickly, carrying with them stories (in this case a poem) describing their great adventure. By the time that 内森 returned to New England in 1851, California had become the 31st state.

丹尼尔·W. 内森, Argonaut和艺术家

丹尼尔·W. 内森出生于1820年. In his memoir he describes a life that revolved around shoemaking and church in Amesbury, 麻萨诸塞州, 当, 1849年初, 他“染上了加州的淘金热”." He travelled to California by way of New York where he shipped aboard the 新奥尔良市, 开往巴拿马地峡的轮船, 和一小群吃苦耐劳的新英格兰人一起, 包括他的弟弟乔治, 一名医生, 和其他来自埃姆斯伯里的同伴.

内森把他的公司去加利福尼亚的旅程画了下来, 首先在巴拿马, 然后在搭乘捕鲸船前往旧金山的途中 奈安蒂克最后在加州.

The journey to California took so long that 内森's little company had limited time for prospecting before they wintered over near the ranch of Charles 棕色（的）, “山回家,在今天的圣马特奥县, 旧金山南部. 在那里, 补充他们的资金, 内森 and his friends cut redwood logs into boards for the burgeoning construction business in San Francisco. 1850年春天, the remaining members of the "company" moved on to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada where panning for gold had given way to primitive mining:

我们公司现在解散到其他地方去了. 棕色（的）, 里德, 和我一起搬到了乔治城, 在山脊上, 或者在南福克斯和中福克斯之间划分. Here we prospected and located, in a deserted cabin, and our claim, in Illinois Canyon. 这里是我们的邻居，很多来自纽伯里波特和埃姆斯伯里. 这里得到的黄金很粗糙, 大块和小块, 工作也更好了, 比河流更新奇.

那是在1850年秋天, 在乔治城附近的马穆鲁克山上翻新的小木屋里, that Daniel 内森 and his hardy companions enjoyed their Thanksgiving chowder fest.

The poem and narrative were written long after the events described in them ("we must look backward two score years"), but there is near-contemporary evidence to support the accuracy of his account. 内森把他的画寄回家, some of which were published in the Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. 1851年在波士顿成立, Gleason's Pictorial often contained illustrations of local interest or by local artists. 这些措施包括 a view of the Thanksgiving repast described in 内森's poem, published as "矿工小屋" in the August 30, 1851 issue of Gleason's with the explanatory text:

The sketch here given represents the interior of a California cabin, on the occasion of the occupants enjoying a genuine clam chowder, and the copy of the scene as it occurred last Thanksgiving day in a cabin, the actors in the scene being three young men from the old Bay State. The encampment was on Oregon Canon [Canyon], near Georgetown, and the artist, Mr. D. W. Nayson [内森], to whom we are indebted for the sketch, was one of the party.

Some details of the poem and newspaper account remain a mystery: how did the bivalves from the Merrimac get to California? 是家里寄来的罐头蛤蜊吗?

新英格兰淘金热的老兵

While Daniel 内森 was enthralled by the beauty of the gold country, his party never managed to mine enough gold to do much more than meet their expenses, 在进一步的冒险之后, 第二年，他和他的一些同伴回到了家乡. 像许多其他的“49人”一样,他在加州待了很短的一段时间, but he looked back on his experiences there for the rest of his life. He was an officer and historian of the New England Association of California Pioneers and lived in Epping, 在他1895年去世时的新罕布什尔.