"The Frazier River Thermometer. Great Gold Discoveries of 1858. The Frazier River Gold Mines and Their History",

This great lettersheet is unusual in its humorous depiction of the Gold Rush with witty drawings chronicling and poking fun of the experience. The drawings trace the miner's trials from the beginning: "Leaves his Family"; "Jonathan takes the Fever"; "Law limit, 400" shows a huge mob trying to board a steamship and nearly capsizing it; "Rushes for a Ticket"; "$500 per day to the man"; "Gets a letter from his friend"; "Reports confirmed"; "The Bulletin Board"; and "Country Merchant." Each drawing has an associated "temperature" listed. At center a large thermometer goes from 30° to 125° with the high temperature representing "Gone Crazy." Across the top is the final drawing, marked 125° and titled "Wildest anticipation realized" which shows the crazed men leaving their steamboat and immediately digging for gold. Long text portion giving the history. This is the earlier issue "Great Gold Discoveries of 1858" which gives conflicting reports about the amount of gold, difficulties encountered, inclement weather and its affect on travel and mining operations,. It concludes saying "such drawbacks, however, only seem to whet the appetites of our adventurous miners, and thousands are still flocking, by every steamer, to the new El Dorado of the North."

This example has a long letter on verso from miner R. Glascow reporting on how the boys are doing ("few making any money" and "American Jack was killed…by a log falling on him.") and information on the prices realized for the sale of several claims. Published by Sterett & Butler, 145 Clay Street, San Francisco.

References:

Condition: B

Fragile copy with some weakness along folds and some minute loss.