A Gold Hunter's Experience

by Chalkley J. Hambleton

Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso

Genres: History, Nonfiction

122 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1898

Reviews

[Gu Kun · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 stars - straightforward storytelling with no frills.

[Janelle]

Dnf. I didn’t get far into this. The author bumbled his way through the first part of the expedition so pathetically I wondered if it was meant to be taken seriously. Looking at other reviews it sounds like he was serious.
The description of the destruction of America’s buffalo was very sad and hard to comprehend.

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little listen. Definitely more on the guy-friendly side. A few quotes that struck me:

"A thief was more sure of punishment than a murderer. There was so much property lying around in cabins unguarded, while the owners were off mining or prospecting, that stealing could not be tolerated, while the loss of a man now and then by killing or otherwise did not count for much."

"In Mountain City there was an enterprising chap who started a pie bakery and did an extensive business. Miners from all the country around, when they came to town, crowded his shop for a delightful change from the usual cabin fare. I went to town every few days for letters and papers, or to visit the mills, and always indulged in this one dissipation. I went to his bakery and feasted on pie. He had peach, apple, mince, berry, pumpkin and custard pie, and never since I was a boy in the land of pie did the article taste so good."

"After selling out my interest in the joint enterprise, I still had left some fifty claims on various lodes in the newer gold fields of the Clear creek region. . . . Some time after returning to Chicago I was making a real estate trade, and we were a little slow in adjusting the difference in values and closing the deal, and finally as 'boot' to make things even I threw in these fifty gold mines. Perhaps this was a mistake and a squandering of wealth and opportunities. Had I only kept them, and gotten up some artistic deeds of conveyance, in gilded letters, what magnificent wedding presents they would have made. And the supply would have been as exhaustless as that of Queen Victoria's India shawls. In the long list of high-sounding, useless presents, the present of a gold mine would have led all the rest."

The reader was quite respectable for a nonprofessional.

[Douglas Blaisdell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a very interesting account of a Chicago businessman's experience in the gold mining business in Colorado in the early 1860's. Most of the book is about the journey he took struggling to transport a whole setup of mining machinery halfway across the country along much of the Oregon trail. His description of the buffalo herds, the Indians, and the many hardships along the way were very straightforward and enlightening. His full description of the gold mining process was also very helpful in understanding exactly what the miners were doing and what their daily life was actually like. His story certainly reminds me that human beings had once been made of tougher stuff, being able to sleep under the stars for months at a time as well as under thunderstorms and blizzards, certainly grumbling, but not much worse off for it. His description of the mentality of the miners who talked of "cap rock" that surely had a mother load of gold beneath it as well as that of the financiers back east when he returned exemplify the mindset of the overoptimistic gambling spirit Mark Twain wrote about in his The Gilded Age.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 4 out of 5]

🖋️ When “gold had been discovered in the fall of 1858 in the vicinity of Pike's Peak,” Chalkley J. Hambleton caught the fever and headed West. Hambleton relates his story of travelling to “California in search of gold. Our outfit consisted of a 12-stamp quartz mill with engine and boiler, and all the equipments understood to be necessary for extracting gold from the rock, including mining tools, powder, quicksilver, copper plate and chemicals; also a supply of provisions for a year. The staple articles of the latter were flour, beans, salt pork, coffee and sugar. Then we had rice, cornmeal, dried fruit, tea, bacon and a barrel of syrup; besides a good supply of hardtack, crackers and cheese for use while crossing the plains, when a fire for cooking might not be found practicable. These things were all purchased in Chicago, together with the fourteen wagons necessary to carry them across the plains. Then all were shipped by rail to St. Joseph, Mo., where the oxen were to be purchased. The entire outfit when loaded on the cars, weighed twenty-four tons.” This was interesting enough to fill in my hour of reading, and to gain another perspective of those heady days of the Old West.
📙Published in 1888.

🟢The e-book version can be found at Project Gutenberg.
🟣 Kindle.
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[N Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique memoir detailing one man's gold prospecting adventures in Colorado just prior to and during the Civil War. As a primary source it contained some interesting anecdotes, and while it would have been more compelling to me to be more meticulous in its descriptions, it gave me a better understanding of what the gold rush looked like in practice and how claims were handled by those seeking their fortunes. I found it particularly intriguing how casually he talks about the investment of money, time, and effort, and how optimistic he was about the experience, even though he didn't strike it rich.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to read about mining from the miner's point of view.

[Natalia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interessante relato de uma empreitada território adentro atrás de minas de ouro.