The Journey of the San Francisco 49ers

Settlers usually awoke before sunrise and managed to quick breakfast, often just coffee Then they hitched up their wagons or loaded their mules and tried to make as many miles as they could. Most people walked alongside the wagons, mile after endless mile, choking on dust kicked up by the animals' hooves and the rumbling wagon wheels. Men might come to blows over the last pad of butter with a way someone smelled Other times, travelers were outright spiteful Alonzo Delano, emerging from Illinois, noted that most 49ers were forced to abandon possessions to lighten their load But would often deliberately sabotage what they left They might soak a sack of sugar and turpentine