Gold Rush • The Gold Fields
A Professor Chalkdust and Miss Lucy Adventure • Part 5
This twelve-part serial follows the unexpected adventures of Oxford professor Emerson Caldwell Chalkdust and new teacher, Victoria Ann Curly, whom he volunteered to mentor. Both get far more than they expected thanks to a magical encyclopedia set. I will post chapters every other day until it is complete.
In the previous chapter, the Professor and Miss Curly decide to rent a horse and visit Sutter’s Mill.
Start at the beginning here:
The Professor returned shortly with a horse. He helped Miss Curly get on, and they rode off toward Sutter’s Mill. As they left town, Miss Curly gazed at the vast wilderness just outside of town. She realized there were no cell phones, no internet, no way to contact anyone. They were in a different time. Essentially, a different world, truly on their own, except for the birds flying overhead and the few animals she heard running through the woods. She hoped there were no bears or mountain lions around. She started a conversation with the Professor to take her mind off her wandering thoughts.
“Professor, tell me about John Sutter.”
“His is an interesting story. Sutter was, or is, hmm, I will tell his story as history. I am more comfortable speaking of the past than in the future. John Sutter was a man who was attempting to build an agricultural empire in California. He likely would have been one of the richest men in all of California had it not been for the discovery of gold. He was building a large flour mill with four stones when the gold was discovered and brought to him by his mill contractor, James Marshall.
Some believe Marshall’s son actually found the gold. Sutter knew this discovery would ruin his agricultural plans. He asked his crew to keep it secret for six weeks while he was away on business in Sacramento. He hoped to complete the mill, having already invested $24,000 in it.
His crew agreed, but as you can imagine, this was not a realistic request. Word soon got out about the discovery of gold, and the rush was on. Eventually, all of his employees left to search for gold, and he was left financially ruined. His mill was never completed, the millstones were stolen, and he didn’t profit from the gold or the prospectors to come.”
“How sad. It will be hard to face him knowing what will happen. My conscience tells me to warn him. But I know we can’t,” Miss Curly said.
“We may not meet him at all. He was in the fort at Sacramento when Marshall brought news to him. That is tomorrow.”
“It’s so weird knowing what is going to happen before it does,” Miss Curly said.
“Indeed. Perhaps we will discover how accurate history books truly are.”
They had ridden for a couple of hours when they came to a large clearing with a stream running through it. The Professor said, “We must water the horse and ourselves.”
They got down and walked to the stream. The horse started drinking while the Professor dipped his canteen into the brook to gather some fresh water.
Miss Curly bent down to splash her face and immediately saw a shiny gold object in the stream. She reached into the icy cold water and pulled out a small gold nugget.
Excited, she said, “Professor, I’ve found gold!”
The Professor took the nugget and examined it. “It appears you have.”
Miss Curly looked around and found several more nuggets simply lying on the ground.
“This is crazy. There is gold just lying here,” she marveled.
“At the beginning of the gold rush, gold was found on the surface. Later, it was panned or sifted from the sand in stream beds. Then, after all the easy gold was found, the land was ravaged by machines in search of deeper gold veins.”
“What should we do? If we take some gold now, won’t it change history or cause a paradox?”
The Professor smiled and said, “A question Hollywood has tried to answer for generations. I believe that any action we take has the potential to alter history. So we must be cautious in what we do. But since nearly 750,000 pounds of gold were extracted in the area, I doubt a few nuggets will change history. In fact, I have promised the town pawnbroker gold to retrieve my pocket watch. Since you discovered the gold, I am of the opinion that you may keep it.”
She smiled and said, “Minus one small nugget for the pawnbroker. It would do no good to leave a pocket watch from the future in this time. Plus, it is your favorite.”
“Indeed.”
What neither of them noticed during all the excitement of finding gold was that they were being watched. A man carrying a satchel was crouching at the edge of the woods, observing them. He did not move a muscle until they had remounted their horse and ridden off. Once out of sight, he opened a red book, read a few words, and simply vanished.
Continues in Part 6:
I get that Sutter had invested a fortune in the Mill, but if one of my employees had found gold on my property, I would have been out looking for more gold before I did anything else. If Sutter had found enough gold, he might have been able to complete his mill. Or moved away and built another one somewhere else. Blinded by his dream of being the San Francisco Mill Baron, no doubt.
Thanks for reading and responding. You make it fun.
Mark
Blinded by his dream…
Ahhhh! Interesting.
Maybe Kiki Dee was on to something!
https://open.spotify.com/track/2dpGNisIy8LNjpEGzDdtft?si=9lr_H2kGRX6vl0mr_dEoSg
A red book. Now what might that be? Great ending to this part, Mark.