Lady Dame Letter

“We are acquainted with many here whose gains have never amounted to much more than “wages”; that is , from six to eight dollars a day. Written by Dame Shirley (Louise Clappe )in 1851.

pg 164 The Gold Rush edited by J.D. Loyd Greenhaven Press San Diego California 2002

Gold Mining Camps in the West

“A loaf of bread might fetch as much as seventy-five cents in the camps..Eggs were sometimes as high as $1 to $3 apiece. “ (Loyd, J.D.)

If you could wash clothes, you could make $8 dollars a dozen. If you could cook a meal, you could sell it for $5 to $10. (Levy, J.) They Saw the Elephant.

Some women went there to make money, others enjoyed the adventure, and others came out of family obligations or marriage. One Example is Eliza W. Farnham during the gold rush in California.

“she learned that her husband, who had journeyed to California without her had died there.” She traveled there to settle his affairs. She describes a mining camp in her letters. “ as your horse loiters through the dusty street, you see rough one story hut, which as you pass discloses dismal rents in its cotton walls and ceilings.” Eliza W. Farnham California Indoors and Out: How we Farm, Mine and Life Generally in the Golden State (New York: Dix, Edwards 1856A different example is Nellie Cashman, who freely roamed and worked the west as an independent miner.

Exploring for the Railroad

“You will go to Missoula via the N.P. Railroad, and then by team to the Flathead Lake country, to examine that country for a railway line between the Kootenay River and Marias Pass….I have lately visited the lower Kootenay country and if it is possible for you to do so, I with you to go down the Kootenay as far as the falls, and report what the character of the work would be in the vicinity. I would like to know the probable height of those falls.”

To Mr. Haskell from E.H. Becker Chief Engineer Helena, MT Dec. 6 1889

The Railroad Enters the Tobacco Valley

“a new route left the Pacific Extension at Columbia Falls, swung west to Whitefish, and reached Rexford in 1911.” There it met a line built from Jennings..and shortly became the new main line…” pg. 115

January 6, 1893 the Pacific Extension line was completed. It allowed passengers to travel from St. Paul, Minnesota all the way to Seattle by rail. Pg 85 The Great Northern Railway: A History R.W. Hidy, Muriel E. Hidy, and Roy V. Scott with Don L.

Hofsommer Harvard Business School Press Boston, MA 1988