"A Question of Title," illustration for A Peep at Washoe, by J. Ross Browne, in Harper's Monthly Magazine, Vol. XXII, p. 4, December 1860. Larger.
A decade after California's gold rush, Nevada enjoyed its own mineral miracle, the Comstock Load. One way to get there, over the Sierra Nevada range and through the town of Strawberry.
Journalist J. Ross Browne chronicled the journey, which included an overnight stay at Strawberry--where hungry miners competed for service.
At the first tinkle of the bell, the door was burst open with a tremendous crash, and for a moment no battle scene could have equaled the terrific onslaught of the gallent troops of Strawberry. The whole house actually tottered and trembled at the concussion, as if shaken by an earthquake. Long before the main body had assaulted the table, the dini of arms was heard above the general uproar; the deafening clatter of plates, knives and forks, and the dreadful battle cry of "Waiter! Waiter! Pork and beans! Coffee, waiter! Beefsteak! Sausages! Potatoes! Ham and eggs—quick, waiter, for God's sake!"
J. Ross Brown two-part chronicle, "A Peep at Washoe," was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1860 and 1861.
"Soledad," illustration for Crusoe's Island, 1864. Larger.
We modern Californians are used to air conditioning to help us get through the summer heat. But in the 1850s, we had to depend on something else.
Reporter John Ross Browne traveled extensively throughout California and remembered one scorching summer day in the 1850s as exceptionally miserable as he traveled inland from Soledad on his mule.
Although the sun was not more than two hours high, the heat was intense. The rich black soil, which had been thoroughly saturated with the winter rains, was now baked nearly as hard as stone, and was cracked open in deep fissures, rendering the trail in some places quite difficult even for the practiced feet of the mule. Every thing like vegetation was parched to a crisp with the scorching rays of the sun. The bed of the river was quite dry, and no sign of moisture was visible for many miles. The rich fields of wild oats were no longer to be seen, but dried and cracking wastes of wild mustard, sage-weed, and bunch grass. . . . And yet, thought I, this is but a flash in the pan to the deserts of Africa. Not that the heat is more intense there; for I believe it is admitted that the thermometer rises higher in California than in any other part of the world. . . . I found it quite warm enough on the present occasion, and would have been very glad to accept the loan of an umbrella had any body been at hand to offer it to me.
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