1850 California Gold Rush Letter #whatintheworldsgoldmoney
I thought it would be fun to share with the #steemsilvergold community some of my other "gold related interests" in this post. Like ephemera and vintage letters.
This is the content from an original 1850 Gold Rush letter that I found, which I painstakingly transcribed, spelling and grammer mistakes included.
It was from a young Ohio man named William H. Helphry, from the Goldrush fields of California, back to his family.
If you're up for a great "gold rush history story", please follow along through the photos. That saves me 10 years of typing - thanks.
It is a fascinating account of the journey and stuggles to find gold. I love the description of the amount of money and gold and liquor in California!
Basically he kept a complete log of the trip, then when he made it there, he sat down and wrote it all down.
This kind of thing is seldom found in Gold Mining history. The plan was always..."we get there, then we dig, sluice and pan"....not write a novel!!
Much easier nowadays to get a little gold. Just log into your Goldmoney Holding account and watch your wealth grow!
You can sign up for a Goldmoney account, or learn more, by clicking here:
https://www.goldmoney.com/w/goldmatters
Hope that you enjoy the read, there are a few small pics of the actual original letter included also!
A little more info on the letter:
And finally, the selling price...aka Proof of Ownership 😁
Although the letter now sits in a "gold museum", I know that it is being properly cared for and enjoyed by many visitors!
I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I do! That letter was awesome to discover and research!!
Please upvote, resteem and follow!
Amazing thanks for sharing. Not sure if I can put it into words how much seeing this post means to me. I was born in Sacramento and raised in the foothills of the "gold rush" boom. It is my favorite place to visit sacramento and all of gold country when I go to california. It is a place so rich in history you can feel the energy in the air. I've lived in Moke Hill or mokoleumne hill which was a huge mining town. Alot of the mines would cave in because it was an absolute mad house with people all over mining. I lived in columbia also and the creek mentioned sound very familiar. That area was also where Black Bart was stagecoach robbing in those days. From Wells Fargo Bank I believe it was yeah I spent most of my life in sacrament, toulumne, and calaveras county.
Awesome, that would be so great to be able to explore. I know one of the letters from this group mentioned a stagecoach robbery, several mentioned how difficult it was to get money or gold sent home. You would pay the person a huge fee (in gold) to deliver the gold, then they would either keep it all or get killed on the way. Another told of seeing a man get killed by another man outside the saloon, in a knife fight over a card game. All had the same underlying message....it's not what you think, don't come here thinking that there are easy riches to be found. Even the stories of him finding good gold were followed by how expensive his provisions were there. Thanks for reading! I really enjoy researching that era! Please Resteem this post to others, if you can.
resteemed. Yes the gold rush was not all good. Many people died in hopes of becoming extremely well off but never made it.
Thank you, really appreciate your comments and resteem!
Awesome!!!
Thank you so much @goldmatters! Your 2017 Silver and Gold Summit post that spoke of investing in gold mining stocks made me remember the letter.
https://steemit.com/story/@goldmatters/silver-and-gold-summit-2017
I have more gold mining items somewhere. I also have a cool old photo album of early silver mining pics (somewhere). Would be fun to re-find that album again someday haha!
The urban legend about people making more money selling shovels than mining gold, is it true, then?
Yes, I think that was the case with many miners. The reason each of the letters home gave the "price report of provisions" was that he was incredulous! To us, flour, pork, sugar etc sound rediculously cheap. To him it was extreme price gouging. I read somewhere that the people that made the huge profits floated lumber there by ship, rather than overland. Lots of need for building supplies and gold for payment. Thanks for reading! Please Resteem this post to others, if you can.
Thanks. I think Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO of Amazon gave a TED talk about the Gold Rush a few years ago:
You have received an upvote from STAX. Thanks for being a member of the #steemsilvergold community and opting in (if you wish to be removed please follow the link). Please continue to support each other in this great community. To learn more about the #steemsilvergold community and STAX, check this out.