Richard Braden

Yellow Fever: the 1849 California Gold Rush Richard Braden

This is a story about a Cherokee family who survived forced displacement from Georgia to the northeastern corner of the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) by the U. S. Army in the late 1830s and now seeks more farming land and better opportunities in the far West in the late 1840s. Their search for farmland in the extreme western part of the Kansas Territory (close to the Rocky Mountains) yielded disappointing results initially. Then their entire outlook was changed when the word came over the Rocky Mountains that gold has been discovered in huge quantities on public land in central California. The Simmons family knew a lot about gold mining, and they were tempted to mine for the elusive yellow metal again. They had a big decision to make, and they made it quickly-they headed west for California, across the most unforgiving stretch of land anywhere in North America.