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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
An Illustrated History of California's Gold Rush by Wells Fargo Bank (PH 1-27) (34 pages)
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Page: of 34
Y ar nas
The Elephants
Graveyard
hen you reach Mariposa you have come
to the end of your journey through the
Gold Country. But you will remember
it long after you leave. Because while you were there,
you were able to relive, at least in part, an era
which is gone never to return again. The Golden
Decade in California was boisterous and bawdy
and sometimes brutal. But it was also gay and generous and unselfconscious. The ’49’ers endured many
discomforts, but two things they never suffered from
were inhibitions and ulcers. And so, in these days
of international tensions and stifling conformity, it
is refreshing to revisit an era in which you could
name your town Jackass Hill or Redeye or Skinflint; when a newspaper editor was not afraid to
write (as J. J. Ames of the San Diego Herald did)
“There are several individuals in this city who don’t
like the Herald. We don’t give a damn whether they
like it or not.” And when picking up and trekking
3,000 miles in a horse-drawn wagon, fighting Indians, hunger, thirst and cold on the slender chance of
finding enough gold to pay for the trip was such a
commonplace that it was jokingly referred to as
“going to see the elephant.” All that remains now is
the elephant’s graveyard. But there’s still an aura of
destiny about the Mother Lode. And who knows —
someday a rockslide in the depths of some still canyon after the winter rains may uncover a rich vein
of the gold that’s still waiting to be discovered in
the Gold Country.