Waking up one cool, spring morning in mid-March, 1948, I considered leaving my little town of Spruce Pine, North Carolina. I heard people loading their wagons, getting ready to head out west. I exclaimed to my brother,Tom, “It looks like the whole town will be deserted soon! How ‘bout we load up and head out too?” Tom quickly agreed. Since we did not own very much, there was not much to pack.  We had two horses, Buck and Sally, that we hooked up to our small, covered wagon. We filled it mostly with supplies and food for the trip. Like all the other gold seekers, we hoped to strike it rich!          The thought of traveling over mountains, across rivers, and through dry lands seemed tough, but we hoped it would be worth it all. The first obstacle was to cross over the Appalachian mountains. We finally reached Kentucky by crossing through the Cumberland Gap. We enjoyed all the scenery and slept under the stars the first few weeks because it was not raining and it was warm at night.

We finally arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, the “Gateway to the West.” In bustling St. Louis, we purchased more supplies and food for the longest part of the upcoming journey, since we thought this would the last big city we would see. We bartered some beef jerky with the boatman in exchange for a ferry ride for Tom and I, our horses, and all of our supplies across the wide Mississippi River. Safely reaching the other side of the river, we continued on our journey. Like many other gold seekers, we decided to hop on a trail called the Santa Fe Trail. It was well worn from many previous travelers. We traveled through the western states of Missouri, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

The trail life was very interesting and educational. We saw many Indians but they did not seem to pay us any attention. From all the stories back home, I thought all Indians wanted to kill me. We also saw some strange animals. One such animal looked like a opossum with armour on. There were also many cows that looked like they had long beards.

The trail was also dangerous at times. One day after riding for hours, we heard a rustle through the woods ahead. After coming closer to the sound, we sighted an enormous grizzly bear, approximately seven feet tall. The beast was gathering honey out of a bee’s nest. When it spotted us, it roared and charged. Luckily, Tom and I had a gun or we would have met our death. It took me three shots, but I finally brought it down.

Finally, the trail came to an end in Southern California. There were many mountains around us and we knew the journey was not over yet. We traveled for another few weeks before we finally came to our destination, San Francisco. We were astounded by how many men were searching for gold. They were digging and even arguing over the best place to find this precious metal. Because we wanted to escape from the crowd, we headed to the surrounding hills to pan in small streams. We felt  really excited when we found shiny yellow rocks in our pans. After one of the other panners weighed it for us, he just chuckled and told us it was only “fools gold.”

Not willing to give up, we spent many weeks panning. The only things we found were more  “fool’s gold” and sore backs.  We finally decided to give up the search for gold and turn back for the long, two thousand mile journey toward home. We were a little older but a lot smarter.