In the late 1840s the settlement teemed with migrants escaping foreclosures and lost opportunities in the Eastern cities. But for these intrepid dreamers it was only a way station, a starting point where they hitched their dreams and sole possessions to oxen, horses, and mules for the great treks to California, Santa Fe, and Oregon. Then came 1849 and the forges, stables, and taverns went into double duty servicing a different clientele, for this was the beginning of the Gold Rush. The apron-skirted mothers, penniless farmers, and bawling children mixed with raffish Europeans, Indian traders, buckskinned mountain men, Indian scouts and squaws, Mexican mule drivers, and fancy ladies—a gathering of sinners and saints of all races, all hopes. For all their differences, they were united in one respect: the desire to find fortune on the other side of the continent. It was nothing less than the incubator of the American West. Before that, however, another group of pioneers had determined the place to be something far greater.
