Women In The Gold Rush

by Elisabeth Margo

Book Overview

Based primarily on eyewitness accounts, diaries, and the wespapers of the time, "Women of the Gold Rush" is the rich and sometimes uproarious history of the women who tame sthe Forty-Niners, and left... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566190649
• ISBN13: 9781566190640
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Indian Head Books
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Nuggets are scattered everywhere

I purchased this book years ago at a used bookstore after picking it up and reading but a few paragraphs randomly selected on a couple of pages. I just bought a second copy to give as a gift. The vignettes of California life in the era of 1848 to 1870 are fascinating and humorous. Women are definitely, prominently featured, but men are more than background. They are the framework upon which all the stories are built. This excerpt from page 198 is illustrative: ======================================================== "...Men no sooner got their women to the gold country than they began barricading themselves into small corners where the stag existence could go on without petticoat interference. They wanted women, all right, but they believed in zoning: woman in the kitchen, at the dance, beside the cradle; no women in the billiard parlor, the saloon, the bowling alley. From the beginning, bowling alleys were almost as common as saloons. Dame Shirley wrote of Rich Bar: - - The rolling on the bowling alley never leaves off for ten - - consecutive minutes at any time during the twenty-four hours. - - It is a favorite amusement at the mines, and the only difference - - that Sunday makes is, that then it never leaves off for one minute. But though such places were declared by ironbound custom sacred to men only, women of "a certain type" did appear in them nevertheless. One of the things that made Grass Valley women draw their skirts aside when Lola Montez passed by was that Lola used to stroll into the local tenpin alley with a big cigar in her mouth, order the barkeeper to set up beer for the crowd, and bowl a few rounds with her bearded friends." ============================================================== If you have a teenager who needs encouragement to pick up a book and read, I would recommend "Women of the Gold Rush" by Elizabeth Margo. Start anywhere, stop anywhere, it is fascinating history for anyone.