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Oregon's Golden Years

SKU: 1021021

By: Miles F. Potter
181 Pages
8 1/2 x 11 Paperback
Many Photographs

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You can earn 75 Gold Dust Points on this product!

Price: $14.95

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A single handful of shiny nuggets changed Oregon from a quiet settlement in the Willamette Valley to a brawling frontier that stretched from the Rockies to the Pacific Ocean. At the first cry of gold, thousands of prospectors swarmed into the state and headed for the mines with pick, pan, and burro. Wise merchants and farmers followed. They knew the miners would need supplies and would have gold to pay for them. Settlements sprang up overnight, first in Southern Oregon and then in the wilderness east of the Cascades. Hillsides were pocked with mines, large and small � the Columbia, Greenback, Bonanza, Red Boy, Virtue, and the famed Cornucopia. A miner once uncovered a nugget worth $14,000 near Greenhorn. The author claimed the town had �a ghost under every boulder.� He also believed the bulk of Oregon�s gold is still in the ground � more treasure is in the mountains than was ever taken out. Life was raw, and the towns were crowded with lonely men. Saloonkeepers, gamblers, hurdy-gurdy girls � all were willing to separate the miner from his poke. Whiskey came in 5-gallon barrels, and you were lucky if t hadn�t been watered down and fortified with plug tobacco. Miners called it �tangle leg� or �brave maker.� Games of poker, faro, and three-card Monte went on night and day. Everyone wore a gun, and the only deterrent to crime was not knowing how fast the stranger across the table would be on the draw. Shelves of the general store were piled with bolts of calico and outing flannel, slabs of sowbelly, and rows of coal oil lamps. On the floor were hundred-pound sacks of brown beans and an open pickle barrel. You could tell how many people were staying at the local hotel by checking the roller towel beside the tin washbasin on the back porch. Men in search of treasure opened the gates to the wilderness. Oregon�s Golden Years � with affection and good humor � honors these men and their imperishable lust for gold.

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