An 1862 report on the Eighth Census included data on occupations of passengers arriving in the United States between 1820 and 1860. A total of 39,087 miners arrived in that 40 year period. The vast majority (96% or 37,523) arrived in the 1850s. No doubt many were bound for the gold fields. Source: The Preliminary Report of the Eighth Census, Census Office, Department of Interior, Washington, May 20, 1862, page 17
Researching Native American Families
“Our way of doing genealogy does not always fit the Indian way. They may take into their home an orphan, the homeless of any age, a widow or other stray and call them “brother, sister, aunt” etc… and there may be no blood relationship at all. It was also an accepted practice to use the mother’s family name and she could be listed as head of household. An Indian name generally does not tell you if the person is male or female.”
A research tip from Mary Ann Hetrick’s Native Genealogy Webring
Cost of Finding Fortune
In the mid 1800s, many men (and a few women) came west expecting to strike it rich. Some expected to find gold nuggets lying on the ground like acorns waiting to be gathered. They discovered panning for gold was tedious and seldom produced fortunes. Digging for gold or silver was hard work that often brought nothing more than a pile of rock. Those who did not give up and return home often resorted to working for one of the large mines at a daily wage. Mines offered options of pay with or without “board”—a bed in a dormitory and meals. Those who took their pay without board sometimes shared tents or cabins and cooked their own meals.
The July 7 1877 Colorado Springs Gazette reprinted from the Silver World newspaper this sample of wages with and without board (meals and a bed) in the San Juan mining district.
Chipeta National Park?
Many places, things, and organizations have been named for Chipeta. In 1909, while she was still living, her name was proposed for a National Forest.
President Theodore Roosevelt had authorized the 1905 expansion of Wyoming’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve into the area of northern Colorado near Estes Park. Three years later conservationist and nature writer Enos Mills proposed creating a national park of more than a thousand square miles to include Colorado’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve.
The Fort Collins Weekly Courier reported on November 3, 1909, “Suggestions for names for the Medicine Bow forest are beginning to reach the…Courier, as well as Forest Supervisor Wheeler. Mrs. J.W. Skinner suggests ‘Chipeta’…Enos Mills…suggest[s] ‘Long’s Peak’ and ‘Rocky Mountain’.” The Courier noted other submissions included “Ute” and “Roosevelt Bear.”
The following July that section of Colorado’s Medicine Bow Forest Reserve became the Colorado National Forest. The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated the area in September 1912 and proposed a national park of about 700 square miles. The first bill proposing the park was introduced in Congress February 6, 1913. Almost two years later on January 26, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation creating the 358.5 square mile Rocky Mountain National Park. The park has since been expanded to 417 square miles.
Sources: www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org and www.esteshistory.com/chronology.html
Kudos to Google
While searching for a photo of Lafayette Head (an early day Ute Indian Agent), I discovered he had a Wikipedia page. “First Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, serving from 1876 to 1879 under JOHN LONG ROUTT” was the sum total of information about the man. I knew more about him that that! I set aside other projects to give Mr. Head his due.
My research files focused on his work as Indian Agent. Colorado history books added tidbits including his participation in drafting Colorado’s state constitution. At Ancestry.com I connected with a descendant of Lafayette’s sister. He supplied information about the Head parents and grandparents who were Missouri pioneers.
Two out-of-print books provided the most interesting material. In a 1908 volume, Life of the Right Reverend Joseph P. Machebeuf, D.D., I learned that Head was a Catholic convert baptized by BISHOP LAMY and a settler of the Guadalupe community on the Mexican CONEJOS LAND GRANT. The 1890 History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888, outlined Head’s military experiences during the MEXICAN-AMERICAN WAR (1846-1848).
What amazed me was not the information I found in these two books but the fact that I read them on my computer screen. The volumes were digitized by Google from New York City and Harvard University libraries. I recalled the active debate when Google announced its digitization plans. I admit I was a skeptic, imagining a negative impact on book sales from this program. Yet, had it not been for these digitized volumes, I would have missed intriguing details of LAFAYETTE HEAD’s life.
Thanks Google, for bringing such valuable research material to my desktop!
Let’s Ride!
At age eight, I decided to become a cowgirl like Dale Evans. I watched her on television every Saturday morning. Riding a pale horse named Buttermilk, my heroine joined her famous husband, Roy Rogers, in new adventures every week. In my official Dale Evans outfit (a fake cowhide skirt and vest with hat and gunbelt), I rode my imaginary horse to adventure in my Southern Indiana backyard.
Of course, I grew up to realize those shows were only stories and the West was no longer the wild, untamed place of Saturday morning serials. Still, I packed up and moved to Colorado the day after college graduation. I found a job in Denver and began to read Colorado history. That is where I first heard of Chipeta, a Ute Indian woman born in 1844 when the American Southwest was still Mexican Territory.
One morning in the summer of 1995, I sat up in bed and said, “I’m going to write a biography of Chipeta.” Like Dale Evans, Chipeta was known because of a famous husband, Chief Ouray of the Utes. I wanted to discover the woman herself, the woman who was so special that streets, parks, schools, and natural landmarks in Colorado and surrounding states bear her name. My search took eight years and many hundreds of miles. The result was Chipeta: Queen of the Utes (Western Reflections Publishing, 2003; P. David Smith co-author). In the fall of 2008, Filter Press released Chipeta: Ute Peacemaker, a biography for children in the Now You Know Bio series.
In this blog I plan to share research experiences and tidbits from my Chipeta files (which continue to grow). I hope to host other writers for discussions of research and writing. So, come on along for the ride – and leave your trail of comments.
