Chapter 9

Day 20 - Thursday, May 20, 1847

Sam and I woke up with Cassie between us. Somehow, during the night, Cassie had managed to get across Sam. Since we were awake first, we just laid there looking at each other and stroking what we could reach of each other.

Finally, Cassie opened her eyes and smiled at both of us. "Good morning," she said.

"Good morning, Cassie," I said. "Young lady, we need to get something straight. Sam is my wife and I sleep next to her."

Cassie just grinned and said, "I like sleeping next to you, Ed. You feel so studly."

"Studly?" I asked as Sam giggled.

"He is studly, isn't he Sam?"

"Yes, he's studly. The solution to this problem is that you just sleep on the other side of him."

"I could do that," Cassie grinned.

"Don't I get a say in this?" I asked.

Both girls said, "No," in unison.

Okay, so who was I to argue. "Ladies, we need to get up and get dressed. I think we need to make a trip into town this morning."

As we walked into town, I noticed a large clock on what must have been the town office building. Just on a whim, I set the clock on the GPS, which I was still carrying for some reason.

We walked down the street until we came to the blacksmith's shop. He was a huge man with bulging biceps. We watched him as he pounded out a horseshoe, working the bellows with one foot, while his muscles bulged with every swing of his hammer.

He set the partially formed shoe back in his fire and looked up at us. "Mornin' folks," he said. "I'm Jim Buchanan."

"Good morning. I'm Ed Hill and this is my wife Samantha and her sister Cassie. We're looking for someone who might be willing to sell or trade us a mule and packsaddle."

Jim thought for a minute, then said, "There are a couple of people who might sell you what you need. A pack mule and saddle will run you around twenty dollars."

"We were hoping we could find someone we could work a trade with. Our mule ran off and took almost everything we had, including what money we had."

Another man had walked up behind me while we were talking. Uninvited, he joined in the conversation. "What's that thing hanging on your belt?" he asked.

He was referring to the GPS, so I said, "It's a special kind of clock." I pulled it off of my belt and handed it to him. "Push that button right there," I said, pointing.

The man pushed the button and when the LCD display showed the correct time, his mouth fell open. He stared at it for a couple of minutes and when the display kicked off, he pushed the button again.

"Where did you get this?" the man asked.

"We've been living in Montreal. I got it there."

"Would you sell it?"

My brain started to click. The man was dressed much nicer than the blacksmith. He looked like he might have money. "Gee, I don't know. I really like that clock and I think it may be the only one in the country."

"I'll give you fifty dollars for it. That'll buy that mule you were asking Jim about."

"I'm afraid I'd need more than that. I also need a rifle, powder, lead, a bullet mold, and some food stuff."

"Okay, what would you take for it?" the man asked. I could see the lust he had for the unusual clock.

"I'd take a hundred dollars for it. Even then, I'd feel like you got the better end of the deal."

He thought for a minute then dug in his pocket and counted out ten gold eagles. He clipped the GPS to his belt and took off down the street. I didn't feel bad about holding out for a hundred. After all, I had paid a lot more than that for it. If he didn't hit that button more than twenty times a day, the battery should last him a year or more.

Jim told us where we could find one of the people who might have a mule he'd sell us. When we went to see the guy, he had a fine young mule he let us have for fifteen dollars. For another five dollars, he sold us a packsaddle, some tying ropes and laces, and a set of hobbles.

He told us his brother's widow had a nice Kentucky rifle she'd probably sell. His brother had died last fall and she really didn't have a use for the rifle. We went to see her and she said she'd let everything go for twenty dollars.

I loaded up the rifle and tried it out. I was amazed at how well the gun fit me and how close I came to the mark I was shooting at. I gave her two gold eagles and we headed for the general store.

Sam bought some pots and pans for cooking over a camp fire. We also picked up a grate to set the cooking pans on. We bought a tarp and a couple of large canvass sacks, a coffee grinder, coffee, sugar, and salt. We also picked up a twenty pound sack of flour, some baking soda, a ten pound sack of corn meal, ten pounds of beans, and ten pounds of bacon. I bought powder and lead and caps for my new rifle while we were there.

We put almost everything into the canvass sacks and tied them across the packsaddle. We also tied our backpacks to the saddle. I was left carrying the rifle. Sam decided she wanted to carry the automatic. I told her I'd show her how to use it that evening. We were going out of town by shortly after noon.

We stopped in a grove about a mile out of town and fixed ourselves a freeze dried lunch. As we were eating, Cassie said, "I know how to make johnny cake. From what I've read, that, along with bacon, veggies and meat we've killed was a common diet for people during this time.

"Okay, we've found ourselves in a completely outrageous situation. We know a little about the time period, but we need to learn more and we need to learn it fast. Where do we go from here? What do we do? How do we find out what we need to know?" Sam asked.

"Sam, all you say and all you ask are valid considerations. Our primary objective is just to survive though. We need to put food on the table. We need to somehow earn enough money to buy the necessities," I said.

"How do we earn money quickly in this time period? From what I've read a man can earn about $20 to $30 a month. That might buy the necessities, but we'd just be living from month to month. If we're stuck here, I'd like to start a cattle or horse ranch. Something we could pass along to our kids," Sam said.

"Gold," Cassie said.

"Gold?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, gold is going to be discovered in California in a couple of years. People got rich overnight. We even know where it was discovered. If we got there first, we could find enough to set us up on a ranch."

"You may have a good idea there, Cassie," I said. "I think we'd do better in South Dakota though. Gold was discovered in western South Dakota in the 1870's. Deadwood is the city that comes to mind. It wasn't settled until the mid 70's though. That's where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane met their ends."

"Do you know how to get there?" Sam asked.

"Sure, in 2005 I do. I'm not sure in 1847. I've done a little reading about the South Dakota area and I know Deadwood will be about 200 miles, just north of west of Fort Pierre and it's about fifty miles north of Mount Rushmore. It's all rugged country and I have no idea just where gold was found, even if I knew exactly where Deadwood was going to be."

"What other alternatives do we have?" Cassie asked. "I guess we could think about fur trapping."

"Actually trapping was one of the first things that brought people to South Dakota. It would be a way to pick up some money if we don't find gold."

"What all would we need if we were going out to find gold?" Cassie asked.

"Well, we'd need the basics like salt, sugar, flour and corn meal. We'd need at least one more mule. We'd have to plan for at least a year living in the wilderness, which would mean we'd need to build some kind of shelter to get us through a very cold winter. That would mean we'd need tools like an axe. We'd also need a pick and a couple of shovels. We'd need traps for any trapping we'd do. I don't know, girls. It seems like more than we could possibly do."

"Where would we start from if we did this?" Sam asked.

"I'd say we'd start from St Joseph, Missouri. It should be between six and seven hundred miles from there to Deadwood."

"That'd take about a month to walk. If we went by horse, we could make it in about a week less," Sam mused.

We sat and thought for a few minutes. Prospecting in the Black hills was definitely intriguing, but the enormity of the trip and the thought of all we would have to endure was daunting to say the least.

"Wait just a damned minute," I said. "I know where we can find something of value much closer than the Black Hills. In fact, it's only about four days walk from here."

"What's that?" Sam asked.

"A few years ago, I bought my ex a necklace. It had a gemstone called Tourmaline. I'd never even heard of Tourmaline, so I looked it up on the Internet. It is a mineral found all over the country, but the gemstone quality stones are mostly found in Maine. There's a town called Newry where one of the biggest Tourmaline mines in the country is located, and Tourmaline wasn't discovered there until the late 1800's. There is also gold in the area. I don't know how much, but people are still panning it in 2005."

"Is Newry even there in this time period?" Cassie asked.

"I'm not sure, but I imagine it is," I said.

"Then, what are we waiting for?" Sam asked.

"We're in no hurry," I said. "The weather is starting to get nicer and we'll be going into the mountains."

"Ed, it's almost a month later in the season since we came through there," Sam said. "Overnight, we've already waited almost a month.

"True," I said. "I would like to see if I can kill a deer in the morning though. I hate this freeze dried crap."

The girls had to agree with that. We spent the afternoon talking about Tourmaline crystals and what they look like. We also talked about gold. I explained to the girls that a troy ounce, which is how gold is measured, is slightly heavier than the ounce they are used to. "There are only about fourteen and a half troy ounces in a pound. So, if we found a pound of gold, which I believe sells for around twenty dollars an ounce right now, we'd only get $290 for it instead of the $320 you'd expect."

"When we left home, wasn't gold selling for over $400 an ounce?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, it is over twenty times what is now. You have to remember though, everything else is twenty times cheaper now too."

"You know, I was reading a while back about outfitting for the Oregon Trail. They said if you wanted to figure out what something cost in the 1840s, divide the 2005 price by twenty," Sam said.

"Did it say how much it cost to outfit for a trip to Oregon?" I asked.

"Yeah, it said if you had to buy your wagon and animals and everything, it would cost around five hundred."

"Interesting," I said. "About two pounds of gold or a few good Tourmaline crystals."

"So, you'd rather be a rancher or a farmer than a prospector?" Cassie asked.

"Yeah, right after Sam and I met, we talked about what we'd like to do with our lives. One of the things Sam mentioned was going to Oregon on the Oregon Trail. One of the things I mentioned was having a place where I could be self sufficient."

"Both of those things would have sounded interesting before. Now, we don't have much of a choice but to do something like that. The way I understand it, it was economic pressures that caused so many people to go to Oregon in the first place," Cassie said, and again I was amazed by her intelligence.

"That and the discovery of gold in California," I said. "All of the people immigrating across the Oregon Trail after gold was discovered was what started causing problems with the plains Indians."

"So, if we went on the Oregon Trail this year or next, we shouldn't see any Indian problems?" Sam asked.

"Probably not. There were some problems before the gold rush, but most occurred afterwards. By the time we get a stake, it's going to be too late to go this year. Next spring, early, would be our best bet."

We had another freeze dried dinner and went to bed early.

Day 21 - Friday, May 21, 1847

I was awake before it was even light outside. I managed to slip out of our sleeping bag without awakening Sam or Cassie. I checked the load in my new rifle and made sure there was a percussion cap in place, then I sneaked away from camp.

I had seen a nice little meadow not too far from camp, so I made my way there to see if anything would show up. I took a seat against a tree at the edge of the meadow and sat quietly to watch.

I had never been a hunter, but I knew from reading that deer fed in the early mornings and late evenings. I was rewarded by seeing a nice young buck stop at the edge of the meadow about fifty yards away. He looked around, then walked on out into the grassy area and started to eat. Three does followed him into the meadow.

I moved very slowly, trying not to call attention to myself. I knew there was something special you had to do when you were cleaning a buck, so I selected one of the does as a target. The way they were standing, I couldn't get a good shot at the heart area, so I braced the rifle on my knee and aimed for her head.

Luckily, she went down when I fired. I ran over to her and saw I'd just skinned the top of her head, knocking her out, but not killing her. I quickly pulled out my hunting knife and slit her throat. I guess I felt a little sorry for her, but not too much.

I really didn't know from first hand experience how to butcher a deer, but I had done a lot of reading in my life and it seemed to just come naturally. I cut her open and removed her intestines after having a little trouble in the neck and chest area. I know that a good hunter would have done a more professional job, but I finally got everything out and started dragging her back to camp.

When I got there, Sam was awake and was making coffee. She didn't have any more of a clue as to how to dress a deer than I had. We decided we wanted to make as much use of the flesh as we could without overburdening the mule, so we basically peeled all of the flesh off of the bones. I don't know if anyone else does it this way, but it tasted mighty good to us.