Viewing page 11 of 31

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the mouth of the Salmon & explore with McDermot at the head. [[These??]] returned and reported & then they all went up, arriving about the beginning of August. No work had been done on the Klamath previously. They worked at the mouth of Salmon three weeks till the mules went back to Trinidad for provisions. In the meantime exploring parties went farther up the Klamath & Salmon. While there a man came down from Wolf's bar 1 1/2 miles below Gullion's & reported good diggings there.  There were then no whites below him on the Salmon though several had come over from the Trinity by way of the South fork. The North fork was not struck till November 1850 by a party from Scott's bar. On the return of the mules Nordheimer & others went up the Salmon in Canoes as far as Gullion's - They were 21 days going up, 11 days of travel and 10 of work. Nordheimer, Gullion, Swain & Dick Humphrey wintered there. A party left the mouth of Salmon at the same time & went back to Orleans bar & made the trail over the Summit to the Salmon a little above Crapo's, went back to Trinidad and returned in time to meet the canoe party. In the middle of November all but Nordheimer's party of 4 and 6 others at the forks (Capt Tompkins & C.D. Moore) returned amounting to several hundred.

[[end page]]
[[start page]]

partly through want of provision & partly through fear of the Indians. These were however not numerous on the Salmon, though more so than now. The Scotts river excitement also broke out and many went over there, the upper Klamath having in the meantime been explored. In February 1851 great numbers came in from the coast & from Trinity, the weather being open. In the beginning of March rain set in & snow closed the mountain so that trains could not pass. A famine [[entered?]] & great suffering - provision rising to $2.50 a pound Some killed their mules, others left by the river trail. During the fall of 50 vessels had constantly arrived and packing to the mines was brisk from Trinidad.

Nordheimer's party kept the discovery of Gold Bluff secret for a while, when despairing [[strikethrough]]  anything [[/strikethrough]] of making anything of it themselves they let it out.  About Feby. 1851, the celebrated Gold Bluff fever broke out at San Francisco & a large party went up & took possession of the place.

A few days after his first arrival at Trinidad a party of Oregon French who had wintered on the Trinity came in and