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The Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858 As Reported by the California Newspapers of 1858: Was It A Humbug?

by Lewis J. Swindle

290 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0120; ISBN 1-55212-721-4; US$26.95, C$39.95, EUR26.00, £18.00

The chronological history of the Fraser River Gold Rush of 1858, as viewed and reported by the newspapers of that era, the information being obtained from the miners and correspondents who journeyed to the Fraser River.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book This book is about the gold rush which took place in the Fraser River and vicinity in 1858, which was within the British Possession and the Washington Territory, now called British Columbia and the State of Washington. This book covers the Fraser River Gold Rush from its infancy to what could be considered its conclusion, as viewed by the California newspapers. This book is somewhat unusual as it tells the chronological history of the gold rush as it unfolded and progressed, by using newspaper articles from that era. The news articles themselves were, in most cases, letters which had been written by many of the miners or correspondents who went to the area, either to dig for gold or report on what was happening. Many of the letters capture the experiences of the writer and his ordeal in trying to reach the gold fields, as well as the latest news of the day. Over 25% of the California miners would go to this place called the Fraser River, not believing in the perils and danger that awaited them until actually faced by them. As some would say, crossing the plains was nothing in comparison to trying to reach the gold fields of the Fraser River and vicinity. This book readily depicts their reason for saying so.

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About the Author While in the U.S. Military stationed in Turkey in the eary 1970s, Swindle became interested in minerals and geology. In returning to the U.S. and during the 26 years he lived in Colorado, he spent countless hours in the mountainous terrain looking for, digging and collecting the minerals known to exist in the Pikes Peak Region. He always enjoyed writing, which resulted in having six extended articles about minerals and his experiences published in a national mineral magazine over a period of eight years. He then spent six years searching the plains around the Pikes Peak Region, to determine the origin, types and forms of Petrified Wood existing within that area. In moving to the California and the Gold Belt Region, it seemed only natural that searching out the history of its gold would follow the author's next interest. As a result of this interest, two books have been published. The first was The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Northern Mines of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt, As Told by the Newspapers and Miners (1848-1875). The second was The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Southern Mines of California's Mother Lode Gold Belt, As Told by the Newspapers and Miners (1848-1860). Also by Lewis J. Swindle: The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Northern Mines The History of the Gold Discoveries of the Southern Mines The Story and Trials of Adolph Julius Weber

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Excerpt

    A practical miner at work on Sailor's Bar sent a letter to the S. F. Times dated June 7, 1858, which stated:

    "Editor Daily Times: In my last letter I stated that I should come down to San Francisco in the course of a few weeks, as the water was too high to work to advantage. I have given up that plan, and shall wait here until the water falls, which will be in the course of about six or seven weeks. I have done but little here for the last fortnight. Some of the claims higher on the bar have been worked all the while. I hear of some making big wages here still. One man reported taking out $100 in his claim last Saturday. I think this bar will pay from $4 to $6 a day when the water goes down. I have been prospecting the country back of this place, but without success. It is very rough and mountainous, and difficult to get through. I do not think there is much gold hereabouts, except what is on the river.
    The Miners are coming here thick, and many cannot get claims, nor can they go higher in the river at present. Men can be hired to work here just now quite low. I got several last week, when the river fell so I could work on my claim, at $3 a day and board. Provisions are very high here now. Bacon, ham and all such articles $1 a pound. Flour 50 cents, and other things in proportion. Quicksilver is worth $20 a pound. It is in great demand, as the gold cannot well be saved without it. Although a great many are coming in large numbers leave every day and return to Victoria and the places on the Sound. Where living is cheaper, as they find they can do nothing here without claims, and there is no way of getting up until the water falls. The mountains above this are steep and close on the river, and it is impossible to pack an animal over them, besides there are no animals here to speak of. It is all foolishness for men to be rushing up here the way they are doing at present, as I wrote you before. Two months from this is full soon enough. Those who got in first and secured claims will do well enough when they can work them, but not the new comers.
    It will not pay to bring up lumber here and rockers as many are doing - the short rockers, such as are made in San Francisco, do not answer to work with quicksilver; they are too short. They should be at least six feet long. We have a kind of cedar here that splits tolerably well and answers for the making of rockers. Sluice-washing has not yet been tried, because it requires a wheel to raise the water so as to get a head, and this kind of work cannot well be done yet; nor will men spend time making them, when they can make from $6 to $10 with a rocker , and make it easier. If I do not strike something, I will leave my claim for a few weeks and go to Bellingham Bay, where I hear work is plenty, and come back when the river gets low. The weather here is now getting very hot, and, according to all accounts, the summers here are full as warm as in California, but the hot weather does not hold on so long. I have talked with men who have been in these parts for years, and some of them all their lives, and they say the winters are very cold. Snow begins to fall in October, and lies quite deep until spring. At least this is the character of the winters higher up the river, above the mountain range, which begins near here.
    I should be tempted to go higher up this river, notwithstanding these difficulties were it not for the Indians. They have forbidden the whites coming up and it would not be safe for them to do so, except in large numbers. It is thought we will have serous trouble with them, and they have in fact already commenced. Almost every day there is a disturbance, but it seems both parties are aware that fighting once begun, will be a serious affair, and are, therefore disposed to hold back if it begins in earnest, there will be bloody work and it is like powder, which only wants a live spark to set it off. The Indians are very saucy,and in no fear of the whites, whom they look upon as intruders while on the other hand, many of our people are quite too ready to shoot, or resort other harsh measures for retaliation whenever the Indian commits a trifling offense. Several whites have lost their lives on the river, in attempting to recover a blanket or shovel, or punish an Indian for stealing it.
    I have just learned that a party are fitting out on this bar to go up the river soon with small boats, intending to carry them round the falls and rapids and so work their way up, taking sufficient provisions for a couple of months. It is looked upon as a hazardous experiments, not so much on account of the high water as the hostility of the Indians. The members and employees of the Hudson's Bay Company could go everywhere through all parts of this Indian country, and can still do so with safety, but it is different with the gold hungers. The natives heave a dread of them and will oppose their entry as the forerunners of their own destruction. J. R.

    The S. F. Times, spoke next about a letter a William Daniels wrote, dated June 7, 1858, from between thirty and forty miles above Fort Hope, which he talked about how rough it could be if miners insisted in coming to the area. The newspaper stated he said in his letter that:

    He holds out no special inducement to California miners to leave their gold diggings at home, to run the risks of being drowned in the Fraser River rapids, to be tomahawked and scalped by the Indians, and to be frozen to death amid the frosts and snows of a hyperborean winter. The solemn facts is, that these Fraser River gold mines, though they should yield a hundred dollars a day, to the hand, are less inviting to a prudent men, than those of California, which yield only five dollars. For six month of the year the river is bound up with ice, rendering mining impracticable - for three months the floods cover all the mining ground - and all the year round a fierce and warlike nation of Indians will be waging unremitted war with all that class of miners who are so unfortunate as to hail from the United States. Mr. Daniels, in his letter, says that, while digging in his claim, he has to keep his revolver constantly within reach of his hand, in order to protect himself from the troublesome attentions of the natives.
    Our deliberate conviction is, from all that we have yet read, that no Californian, who has steady work that gets him three dollars per day, ought to think of bettering his fortune by seeking such a dreary and dangerous region as that of Fraser River. There may be much glorious excitement in stemming rapids, fighting murderous Chinooks, and shivering through a six month's winter, but there are only a certain few who have a taste for such ticklish amusements.

    The historical first trip the steamer Surprise made up the Fraser River to Fort Hope on June 6, 1858 is mentioned in a letter to the S.F. Bulletin by their correspondent.

    "I left Fort Langley on the 5th of June in a canoe, and at night camped about 20 miles up the river. There were four other canoes in company with us. After super and a smoke, watches being settled, etc., we got under the blankets and were talking, when one of the party exclaimed that he heard the sound of paddlewheels. In an instance we were on our feet and listening. There was no doubting it. As the steamer neared us with her lights shining out in the darkness, our camp was about excited a state as could be imagined. Alone she came until abreast our fire, when the anchor dropped and in two minutes I was aboard the Surprise, whilst the party ashore were saluting her with guns and revolvers. It certainly was an event calculated to excel us, as we had not the slighted idea of there being any such steamer in the river. I left the canoe, as you can imagine, and took passage on her, being obliged to take out a mining license on going aboard, the boat not being allowed to take any miner up the river without it.
    She had left Fort Langley at 7 1/2 P.M., and had made twenty miles in two hours, the current running about six knots against her. The next morning, the 6th, at 3 1/2 A. M. she went ahead, and at 2 P.M. arrived at Fort Hope. This was an average of 4 1/2 knots. She could have gone at greater speed, but it wasnot desired. Mr. Yale at Fort Langley had sent an Indian aboard, who piloted her up and down, and who evidently knew every eddy and shoal on the river.
    The Indians on the river evidently did not know what to make of the Surprise; and as to the different camps and canoes we passed of white men, they all but stood on their heads for astonishment at seeing her going along in the centre of the current, showing what those infernal Yankees could do when necessary. She worked well, steered like a pilot boat, and though caught in some tight places, went ahead through all. At one or two places they "opened her up," and away she went around a sharp bend, or through a narrow pass, with a ten-knot current against her, as if she was aware what was expected of her, and the renown that would attach to her if she went through. Having gone up as light as possible - not knowing how shoal it might be in some places - there was but little coal left, and it was concluded not to go up Fort Yale then. She remained at Fort Hope two days."

    On June 7, the S. F. Herald, after the byline of FURTHER FROM FRASER RIVER stated:

    We yesterday received a visit from Mr. Edward Campbell and Joseph Blanch, both boatmen, well known in this city, who have just returned from the mines on Fraser River. The narrative of these gentlemen exactly agrees with that of Mr. Henry Ettling, published in the Herald of yesterday. Six of them joined in company, viz., the two first mentioned, and Mr. Timothy Sweeny, Alexander Young, Patrick Cosgrave, and James Duncan, all of them boatmen in San Francisco. They left this city on the steamer Commodore, and took a whale-boat with them, in which they performed the remainder of the trip from Victoria to Hill's Bar, 150 miles above the mouth of Fraser River, and two miles below Fort Yale. They mined for ten days in the Bar, until compelled to desist from the rise in the river, in which time they took out $1,340. They used but one rocker, and have no doubt but they would have done much better with proper appliance. There were from sixty to seventy white men at work on Hill's Bar and from four hundred to five hundred Indians, men, women and children. The Indians are divided in opinion with regard to Americans; the more numerous party, headed by Pobork, a chief, are disposed to receive them favorably, because they obtain more money for their labor from the "Bostons" than from "King George's men," as they style the English. They have learned the full value of their labor, and instead of one dollar a day, or an old shirt, for guiding and helping to work a boat up-river, they now charge from five to eight dollars per day. Another portion of the Indians are in favor of driving off the "Bostons," being fearful of having their country overrun by them. Provisions were exceedingly dear and scarce, flour selling for eighty dollars the barrel, bacon at seventy-five cents a pound, and butter at one dollar a pound. They reached Hill's Bar in twenty one days from San Francisco, and recommend the Victoria route as the most favorable. Parties going by that route would do well to purchase a whale-boat in this city, and obtain a clearance from the Custom House at Victoria, without which they will not be allowed to enter the river. The British steamer Satellite is stationed off the mouth of the river, and she has a launch manned by twenty men, stationed at Fort Langley, to search boats going up. They also advise learning the Chinook language, which is very easy of acquisition, and will prove exceedingly useful. The winters are represented as being very severe, the river being frozen solid, and the snow very deep. The present high stage of water is expected to abate about the middle or latter part of July, till when, mining cannot be carried on to advantage. A party of twenty miners had started to prospect for dry diggings in the interior. They were accompanied by Indian guides, who said there was Hi-Yu (plenty) gold to be found. Salmon was very abundant, the season having just commenced. No game has been observed above the mouth of the river; but they learned from some half-breeds that there were many bears in the hills. One species is described as being of a green color, not very large, but exceedingly fierce, active, and dangerous to hunt.

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Catalogue Information

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