The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1907-10-24
ACROSS THE PLAINS
TO CALIFORNIA IN '49
Story of Travel On the Way to Search for Gold Before
the Day of Railways
C. A. BULLEN WRITES LETTER TO PIONEER ASSOCIATION
Telling What Mice Time the Tendereet Had While Travelling
Across the Great American Desert

BY sunset thirty men and as many
horses had reached the crossing
All were packers" there were no
wagons. | Judge that the river here
was about so yards wide with deep
whirling current, and the question be-
fore us was how to get our animals
and packs across. We finally decided
to tie our "lariats" together leach ami
NAL had rope C'Lariat"D about 80
1T long to tether him out at night and
make a line of sufficient length to
reach twice across the river with some
line to spare, then two men took the
end Of the line and others swan over
to assist, and reached the opposite side
of the river. In the meantime we had
collected dry willows from along the
river bank and make three bundles
we lashed them together making a
float, we attached the middle of our
line securely to the float and after
| placing some of our truck on the
i float the men on the opposite shore
| towed the float over and we on our
| side towed il back for another load
SO we got our luggage across. The
river bank nearby was perpendicular
and we would bring a horse near the
edge of the bank make his bride fast
| to the line and three or four men
would topple him over into the water
which was deep close to shore. SO
we passed our traps and horses over
| and the men swan the stream. And
now comes the funny part of The story
to every body except myself. In
| some way in sending over some of my
! things one of my boots was lost over
| board Ga man cannot swim very well
| with his boots on and | was left with
| only one boot Very few of us had
| a spare pair of boots, but very fortu-
natley one man in the company had
a spare shoe which he generously
| gave me. Only one more incident of
our journey will | mention. Our pro-
visi"' were getting short, in fact ours
were exhausted We partook of the
last of our food one morning for our
breakfast and we did not know where
we should obtain the next meal, but
| Providence had not forsaken us. Be
fore noon we came to a station where
California people had sent out provi-
sions to supply just such cases as our
! selves. Our money was exhausted,
we did not have a nickel left, but we
had two good mules for which we paid
$500 each in St Joe. We made the
best bargain we could and sold one
Of the animals for twenty pounds of
flour, which was sufficient to carry us
to the end of our journey, reaching
lIangtown on August 13th. 1850. BE.
fore leaving st. Joe we bought an
army tent, which was our only protec-
tion and as we had practically no rain
on the journey it served our purpose
very we'll If my memory serves me,
we had only one shower on the trip.
1t had been three months since we
| left Gods country, we had traverSed
the lands of several tribes of savage
Indians without being molested, had
reached our destination in good health
and full of hope for the future. While
in st. Louis we had written our parents
that we were going to California and
wished them to direct letters to us at
San Francisco, and now we wanted to
hear from home you may be sure.
After spending few days reconnoi-
tering around HangtOwn we started for
Sacramento, 60 miles distant. After
proceeding miles to Cold Springs we
saw by the side of the trail a shanty
and on its trail marked in chalk Vine
| yard Hotel. This was the first re-
minder of the Home Land had seen for
| months, / knew something about
"Martha's Vineyard for some of my
relatives were born there. We went
into the Hotel" and found that ii
was kept by Downs & Fosdick two old
| Superannuated sea captains, who had
sailed around the Horn to make their
pile" In California They told us that
a man made it his business to carry
letters to San Francisco for % cents
each and would bring letters back for
$500 each. This was better than go
ing for our mail ourselves. The gov
ernment had not yet established
mail route" in that country. We sent
out our letters and on his first return
trip the carrier brought us good news
from home We spent about six
months at Cold Springs working at
Placer mining and during that time
had saved $55000 in gold dust, which
was the currency of the country.
Learning of the rich mines on
Feather River 200 miles north we de-
cided to 60 there. In March 81 we
went to Sacramento, where we bought
an outfit" paid $50. for mule, packed
our traps, and some provisions and
proceeded to Rich Bar on the north
fork OF Feather river, arriving there
the latter part Of the month. We soon
secured claim and went to work and
by the LIST OF July we had added $4,000
90 to our pile. Shortly after we reach
| ed Rich Bar there came terrible
snow storm which so blocked the trail
that all communication with the out
side world was cut off until provisions
at the Bar were nearly exhausted.
Flour sold as high as $500 per pound,
paid $24.00 for my six quart pail full
Of flour. will relate another incident
In the previous autumn we built log
cabin for our comfort during the
winter which-we covered with Shakes"