Eureka! It’s the GOLD DIGGERS come to Pistols & Petticoats, and Jewel Jones—of JEWEL’S GOLD—is from a long line of gold diggers! Her daddy (Joshua Jones) and his daddy before him (Moses Jones, first met in book four SINS OF THE MOTHER of my Texas Romance Family Saga) mined gold in California all the way back to the 1850s during the Gold Rush of 1849. God blessed them, and the family is set financially for generations.
But Jewel’s father wanted to make it on his own, find the mother lode for himself on the claims he’d purchased on Troublesome Creek in Alaska. He just hadn’t found enough gold to warrant opening a mine before he perished. He had faith the mother lode was there though. Jewel loved traveling north with him, helping him in the wilderness in her teen years.
It’s 1895, and now Jewel is a grown, intelligent, headstrong Daddy’s girl bent on proving he was right about the Alaskan mine. Her mother’s dead set against the whole dreadful idea of going there again, but had made the bargain…
Why, you ask, did I decide to organize a collection for Gold Diggers?
So, back in December, my husband Ron and I took off on a research journey to ride the Oregon / California Trail for a covered wagon story. It was indeed a fabulous trip I highly recommend for western history lovers! But towards its end, we made a surprise stop at Sutter’s Mill on the American River. It was an unplanned treasure trove of fun and information.
It’s a park and museum with old buildings and replicas. Seeing the place where the California Gold Rush started in Coloma was awesome! When I talked Ron into going, on the map it only looked like twenty to twenty-five minutes. But the road winding around the mountain down to the beautiful river was an experience in itself!
The place was originally John Sutter’s lumber camp back in 1847. His foreman building the sawmill for him, John Marshall, discovered less than an ounce of shiny metal in January 1848. Some of the other workers started finding gold in their off hours. Rumors were first confirmed in the San Francisco newspaper that March, and by December that year, President James Polk made it official in an address to Congress that gold had been discovered in California, and the Gold Rush of 1849 was on!
The S.S. California was one of the steamships that made the voyage. She left New York in early January 1849 on her maiden mail run, scrambling to fill their vacant rooms with passengers. By the time the steamship got around Cape Horn and to Panama City on the Pacific, there were seven hundred people waiting to board to get to California.
In 1849, 40,000 miners took about ten million dollars in gold; the next year, forty-one million worth was mined. And the following year, that amount doubled to EIGHTY-ONE MILLION taken by a hundred thousand miners! After that year, mining levels declined until by 1865, mining brought in less than eighteen million. Isn’t that amazing?
Jewel’s father Joshua (born in book four SINS OF THE MOTHER of theTexas Romance Family Saga) had mining in his blood and passed it on to his daughter. I fell in love with Jewel. When writing, one needs to remember “unity of opposites” which is a nice way of saying the villain needs to be almost invincible, stronger, and more cunning than the heroine. This man we found in the character of Boaz Branson, the son of a con man set to salt Jewel’s mine to increase its value as his father had won a percentage of it in a poker game, but will he turn into a hero? And if he does, then who’s really the bad guy? It is a story that includes adventure, gumption, high stakes, murder, and mystery . . . oh, yes, and romance of course!
JEWEL’S GOLD is Book Four in a wonderful multi-author collection, including Amy Lillard, Chautona Having, Jennifer Beckstrand and myself! If you love the history of the wild west, you’re sure to enjoy the Gold Diggers Collection, launched this past month!
JEWEL’S GOLD is book four in the 2019 Gold Diggers Collection .
Caryl’s offering a free e-book copy of JEWEL’S GOLD to one of the commenters who answer this question:
Would you have followed your husband or want to go yourself to prospect for gold?
~*~
Best-selling author Caryl McAdoo is all about loving God and giving Him glory! Though western historical Christian romance is her favorite genre—especially family sagas—she also writes contemporary Red River Romances, Biblical fiction, and young adults and mid-grade readers. The prolific hybrid author loves singing the new songs the Lord gives her, too. (Take a listen at YouTube) Caryl counts four children and sixteen grandsugars life’s biggest blessings. She and high school sweetheart-husband Ron (fifty-plus years) live in the woods of Red River County about five miles south of Clarksville in the far northeast corner of the Lone Star State, waiting for God to open the next door.
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Welcome Caryl, you’re book sounds amazing.
I’ve always been intrigued with what could make everyone set out for the unknown, traveling across the unforgiving land to a new territory in hopes of finding gold or for any matter the unknown out west.
I would of followed my husband, it’s what us wives do, but it would of been scary not knowing what lies ahead.
Hello, Tonya! I’m a bit of an adventurer and like you, would follow Ron wherever he went, but it was a “tough row to hoe” going west! Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have the opportunity to read JEWEL’S GOLD!
I’ll be reading Jewel’s Gold for sure. I would have followed my husband, especially with the possibility of finding gold. Those were some rough times so those miners deserved all the gold they could find. I enjoyed your post.
Amen! It would be fun to find the gold, wouldn’t it, Carol! The eighty-one million in that third year bowled me over! Especially in the 1800s that was a LOT of money! I’m glad you enjoyed the post. If you ever get a chance to visit Sutter’s Mill, I hope you will! BLESSINGS!
Thank you, Caryl for sharing your very interesting post. Wow! It sounds like you and Ron had a fantastic trip! I am not one to strike out on my own so I would have followed my husband to prospect for gold.
Hey Melanie! Every time we go to Paris I ‘say a little prayer’ for you when we pass your place! It’s been a long time since we’ve visited! Do you and your husband play bridge? We play every Thursday night in Clarksville–sometimes we have three tables! Love and hugs!
Welcome to P&P. I definitely would have followed my husband and would have helped him in anyway possible. Now if I was a single woman that had to make my way West to do it on my own, I don’t think I would have done that. If I was in Jewels shoes I would have wanted to prove he was right! Great blog! I’d love the opportunity to read your book!
Aww, thank you, Stephanie! I’m with you, going on my own would be a whole nother story! Of course, Jewel had a crew including her father’s old foreman Ned to help keep her safe. She goes to Alaska. My husband spent about three months up there when the Lord called him to come to be alone with Him and has wanted to take me there ever since. I imagine we’ll go one year soon! Thanks for your comment! Blessings!
Your books so very good and your post so informative. Thanks for stopping by today.
It has certainly been my pleasure to be a guest at Petticoats & Pistols!! It was a wonderful visit to Sutter’s Mill last December, and I’m so glad we went while we were so close! I’m a Texan and don’t get out of this great state too often 🙂 BLESSINGS!
I would have followed my husband. Your book sound fantastic and I would love to read it.
I think you will enjoy it if you love western history! We wives will follow our husbands just about anywhere, won’t we? 🙂 It would have been so harrowing to make the covered wagon journey though! Funny what we’ll do for love!
I would have gone with my husband. I loved the post. Very interesting.
Hello, Debra! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post and that tells me you’ll love reading JEWEL’S GOLD, too! You’ll learn a lot more about mining for gold in Alaska in the story with a little mystery and a lot of romance going on! BLESSINGS!
Hi Caryl! Welcome to P&P or Wildflower Junction as we call it. I’ve always been fascinated by the gold rush and men and women who followed the allure of the chancy venture. You know, I can’t say what I would’ve done but if I would’ve followed my husband, I’d be griping the whole way. I’m not a gambler. I’m the bird-in-the-hand kind of person. Interesting post.
Congrats on the new release and the series!
Thank you, Linda! I don’t consider myself much of a gambler either, but like you and so many of the others who’ve commented, I’d follow Ron anywhere–well, y’all wouldn’t follow Ron, but your own husbands! 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed the post. It’s been my pleasure to visit P&P–Wildflower Junction–and I’ll be hoping to come back soon! BLESSINGS!
I have Jewell’s Gold in my TBR stack! I would have gone with my husband. No way would he go by himself!!
I hear you, Trudy! When Ron went to Alaska to be alone with God, I wasn’t invited–it was the longest time we’ve ever been apart in our 53 years together, and it was hard for me! But we spoke at least once a week by phone before he flew out to Troublesome Creek. Did you know there’s still frozen land to be had for the settling it in Alaska? Glad JEWEL’S GOLD is in your TBR stack! 🙂 BLESSINGS! Thanks for coming by!
The gold rush was such a phenomenon for the U.S. It’s what put the western part of our country on the map, long before most settlers would have probably ventured there. I enjoyed reading the history and your personal experience, going there. Awesome post.
Thanks so much, Hebby, and you’re right! The “Manifest Destiny” had been around for a while–from sea to shining sea–as the politicians in the east wanted to make it all a part of the United States! And you’re absolutely right! The Gold Rush lured so many thousands to the West! I hope you enjoy JEWEL’S GOLD! Hugs and Blessings!
Hi, I enjoyed reading this post, it is so very interesting, and it sounds like you had an Awesome trip Caryl. Well, for the question, would I have followed my husband? I would have followed my husband if we didn’t have children at the time, but if we had children, I would have stayed to care for them, it is bad enough that the husband had to be out there working so hard, but for children to have go through that, would not be right, and I don’t think the husband would want that for the children either. So , if we didn’t have children at the time, yes, I would follow my husband, but if we had children , I would not. Thank you so very much for this post. I loved reading it Have a Great weekend. God Bless you .
And thank you, Alicia! I hadn’t thought about the children and the gold rush, although I do have a widowed father who sets out to the Napa Valley via covered wagon to start a vineyard with his two daughters elven and eight in UNIQUELY COMMON and REMI.I think you’ve already read those. Many children were taken by covered wagon to settle and live in the West. Hugs and Blessings! I appreciate your comment!
Welcome Caryl. What a wonderful post. Ohh so glad you and your husband made that extra stop. I would have followed my husband if he truly was set on finding gold. I would make things as easy as possible for him to follow his dream.
HELLO, Lori! It was definitely a “God-ordained” addition to our trip “Carylin’ on the Oregon Trail” in December. Hadn’t planned it at all, but was so blessed God took us there! The whole trip was amazing–there’s a day-by-day account at Sweet Americana Sweethearts–but stopping at Sutter’s Mill was truly the icing on the cupcake! Love and hugs! Thanks for your comment!
Hello My Sister to the North! I don’t know that I would have caught gold fever. I don’t have the adventurous spirit.
My other-Caryl-with-a-Y sister! I’m so glad you stopped by Petticoats & Pistols! I know you would have only gone if God said to, but if He did, you’d be on your way for whatever His plan and purpose turned out to be! Love and blessings!
In my youth, chances are good I would have accompanied my husband to the gold fields. I am not as sure that I would have gone off by myself. Today, age and health issues would prevent either one of us from setting out, but you never know. We might still want to try it.
I tend to agree with you, Particia! That journey was definitely for the young and strong! The travel just getting there was arduous and life-threatening, then making “a living” after arriving couldn’t have been easy. I can testify to the wonderful temperatures and gorgeous scenery, although a part of my findings were that the gold miners stripped the beauty along the American River. I suppose you can’t have that many people descend on any area and not have an impact, negative or otherwise. Thanks for coming by and your comment! Blessings!
I want to thank Karen Witemeyer for inviting me to visit Petticoats & Pistols again! I always enjoy being a guest here! Blessings to you, Karen, and to the awesome group you’re a part of! Love and hugs!
Hi Carol! I have read some of your books, and I happen to be your neighbor! I live right in the middle of the big city of Bogata! Interesting information! Thank you!