During the summer of 1859, an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 emigrants flooded into the Rocky Mountains in search of gold and the majority of the “Fifty-Niners” or “Pikes Peakers” traveled through the Fort Morgan area. Frank Root, a messenger for the Overland Stage described the route during the early 1860s when the Pikes Peak Gold Rush was in full swing:The writer counted, from his seat on the stage-coach, along the Platte, between Fort Kearney and old Julesburg, in one day, during the civil war, nearly 900 wagons – to be exact, 888 – destined westward on the great overland route. These wagons were drawn by no less than 10,650 animals – cattle, horses, and mules.
There were three primary routes to Pikes Peak one of which was along the South Platte River; the other routes were farther south along the Arkansas River or along the Smoky Hill Route.
A number of guidebooks quickly came on the market to guide these westward hopefuls. Many of these guidebooks were written by men who had no direct knowledge of the trail.
In 1859, William N. Byers (later editor of the Rocky Mountain News) wrote a guidebook along with John H. Kellom A Hand Book to the Gold Fields of Nebraska and Kansas in which they describe six routes to the gold fields, one along the South Platte River. Byers had not travelled along the South Platte route, but he had interviewed Wynkoop and Stenberger who had travelled the route in the winter of 1858 carrying the charter for Denver City to Lawrence, Kansas. The authors insisted that their descriptions of the route “may be relied upon to be very nearly correct.” This guidebook also included a letter from M. D. Downs who reportedly was one of the first to travel to the goldfields in 1858 along the South Platte River route:
From Omaha, our road has been traveled by tens of thousands of California, Oregon and Salt Lake emigrants. This well beaten road now crosses the south fork, while our road to the Gold Mines continues on the south side of the “fork,” and is very obscure at best, only three wagons having preceded us over it….
The following day, something like a cloud, obscure and hazy, loomed up in the western horizon. The practiced eye of Mr. Brown detects the form, and he pronounces them the Rocky mountains. Our glass brings out the clear outlines of Long’s and Pike’s Peaks. Seventy-four miles from the ford brings us to Beaver creek. The banks are nearly one hundred feet high, and very steep. The stream is twenty feet wide, three feet deep, and the water very cold.
Some of the men road in on horseback, and guided the teams across after we had driven them into the water. The stream should be bridged; it is difficult to cross with a heavy load. After crossing the Beaver, which consumed some time, we came upon an encampment of the Cheyenne Indians, who annoyed us much by their thieving propensities. One, who stole a ladle from my wagon, I caught and searched; but, not finding it about his person, I concluded he had tossed it into the grass, where I subsequently found it. In order to frighten our cattle, they spread themselves across the road, lying flat upon the grass. The presentation of our guns brought them to their feet and stopped their fun. They are armed with bows and arrows, and one white man with a gun can put a dozen of them to flight. They will do no harm to a company of ten to fifteen persons traveling together.
Beaver creek is the first running stream we have crossed since passing Fort Kearney, though we have passed several dry channels, where there is doubtless water part of the year…. From here we toiled slowly and wearily onward 29 miles, to the second and last stream of running water between Fort Kearney and the mines [Bijou creek]. This is more alkaline than Beaver creek, and some of our cattle suffered from drinking it. As we proceed westward the country becomes more broken, and the soil less fertile and more gravelly, producing abundance of cactus and soap weed – an evergreen, ten inches high, sharp-pointed and rigid, like a spear, and completely protected by its sharp spines from attack….
The root is used by the Indians to remove paint from their faces….
Many of the guidebooks included lists of supplies that would be needed for the journey and for prospecting and also advertisements for merchants in the various eastern cities that would be the jumping off point for the Pike’s Peakers. For instance, the list of provisions Smith and Oakes provided in their popular guidebook included:
Twenty-five miles nearer to Long’s Peak, which cuts clear against the western sky, we cross a dry channel [Kiowa creek] which Col. Fremont reports, in his explorations, a running stream…. Half a mile beyond, we pitched our tents in a small cottonwood grove [Fremont’s Orchard] – the first timber we have seen since leaving Cottonwood Springs, a distance of 208 miles. Here a high, sandy bluff, striking out to the river, cuts off the road, and compels our train to climb its steep ascent and cross a wilde ravine, after which the road is good and wood plenty.
- Teams, Implements, &c.
- 3 yoke oxen, $60 per yoke, $180.00
- 1 wagon and cover 85.00
- 3 yokes, 2 chains 9.00
- 1 tent 15.00
- 10 pairs blankets 40.00
- 4 steel picks 6.00
- 4 steel shovels 4.00
- 4 axes 5.00
- 4 gold-pans 2.00
- 3 augers 1.00
- 1 inch chisel .35
- 1 hand saw 1.25
- 1 drawing-knife .60
- 1 twelve-inch file .40
- 6 lbs. wrought nails .75
- Total $350.95
Provisions and Supplies for Six Months.
- 1000 lbs. flour 30.00
- 400 “ bacon 40.00
- 100 “ dried beef 12.50
- 50 “ salt .75
- 50 “ coffee 7.00
- 8 “ tea 5.20
- 200 “ sugar 18.00
- 30 “ rice 2.40
- 150 “ beans 5.25
- 60 “ dried fruit 4.00
- 6 “ pepper, 1.20
- 3 “ soda .30
- 6 “ cream of tartar 3.00
- 25 “ soap 2.00
- 25 “ gunpowder 9.00
- 50 “ lead 5.00
- 2000 gun caps 1.20
- 4 gallons pickles 4.00
- 4 “ vinegar 1.00
- 1 “ brandy 6.00
- 2 dozen boxes matches 1.00
- 1 coffee mill .50
- 1 frying pan .50
- 1 dutch oven 1.25
- 3 camp kettles 3.00
- 6 tin plates .50
- 1 set knives and forks .75
- 1 set spoons .25
- 1 butcher knife .25
- Total $166.30
- Grand Total $517.25
But as more and the Pikes Peakers soon turned back to the east, convinced that the Colorado gold rush had been a hoax, they chanted: “Hang Byers and D. C. Oakes. For starting this damned Pike’s Peak hoax.” The go-backers blamed the men who written the guidebooks that had fired them up with promises of gold.
Guidebooks:
A guide to the gold mines of Kansas: Containing an accurate and reliable map of the most direct routes from the Atlantic cities to the farthest point west … by John J. Pratt & F. A. Hunt, 1859
The Illustrated Miners' Hand-Book and Guide to Pike's Peak, with a New and Reliable Map, Showing all the Routes, and the Gold Regions of Western Kansas and Nebraska. By Nathan H. Parker & D. H. Huyett, 1859.
William N. Byers & John H. Kellom, A Hand Book to the Gold Fields of Nebraska and Kansas
Reed, J. W. & J. H. Colton, Map of and Guide to the Kansas Gold Region (New York: J. H. Colton, 1859), pp. 15-16.
The Past and Present of the Pike's Peak Gold Regions, by Henry Villard, 1860
Traveler's guide to the new gold mines in Kansas and Nebraska; with a description of the shortest and most direct route from Chicago to Pike's peak and Cherry creek gold mines, Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, 1859.
Sources:
- Bancroft, Caroline, Colorful Colorado: Its Dramatic History (Boulder, CO: Johnson, 1966).
- Root, Frank Albert & William Elsey Connelley, The overland Stage to California (Topeka, KS: Crane & Co., 1901).
- West, Elliott, The Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers, & the Rush to Colorado (University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1998).
- Worcester, Donald Emmet, Pioneer Trails West (Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1985).
so goodth
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