Gritty Realism In David Milch's Deadwood

The last of the Mohicans is a film directed by Michael Mann, from a script by Mann and Christopher Crowe. It stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, West Studi, Russell Means, Eric Schwieg, Jodhi May, Maurice Roeves, and Steven Waddington

The daily life of a miner was far from perfect. The way the papers and other means of propaganda had portrayed getting rich quick, but it was far from easy. All the equipment that was needed to start out as a miner was for the most part outrageous. The earning wages from gold was” sixteen dollars an ounce” pg.8. Even so, the work was backbreaking. There was swarms of minors trying to get rich quick. To many miners that traveled to get a piece of the precious metal they where resorted to taking land from previous land owner just to get ahead in the Gold Rush. Not to mention that the living conditions where also outrageous. The “rentals of hotels and other business structures, whether of boards or of canvas, reached even dizzier heights than did commodity prices” pg.8. This spaces where set prices at 3,000 dollars a month or 40,000 dollars for a year, there was also other prices around the area of San Francisco. And in some cases miners where resorted to living in a room filled to the brim with other miners. This lead to very poor conditions for any one to live in. But nothing was better then being rich in a few months or

The placer miners mined by washing silt in stream beds, and this was done by individuals hoping to get rich. This cheap way of mining rarely brought riches. Quartz and hydraulic mining were done by either using machinery to crush the rock, or high-powered streams were used to “wash out” gold. This was orchestrated by corporations who hired individuals to do their dirty work. However, in eight to ten years most lodes played out. This resulted in communities changing or corporations abandoning towns and leaving behind ghost towns. The miners were significant to the shaping of America, largely because minerals mined were used for war and to industrialize the U.S. The actions of the miners also focused interest in the West, and brought organizations to the mountain regions they left

There was many challenges individuals faced such as harsh punishments for stealing a miner’s gold, or someone else’s gold. If a miner’s piece of gold was stolen or someone decided to claim the miner’s gold then that person would

miners who seeked to become rich, which gives the reader a better understanding of the disappointing

Not only did the Gold Rush create a prosperous mining climate, it also indirectly lead to an even more booming agrarian economy; that in 1869 surpassed mining in employment and then later in 1879 became the leading element to the California economy10. By the late 1870’s, there was nearly 600,000 thousand people living in the Golden State11. In order to feed so many mouths so quick, many people that could not make it as a miner or in the now blooming cities decided to settle on plots of land and become farmers. Most preferred the farming lifestyle opposed to a miner’s life because it was safer. In addition, due to California’s vast natural resources, fertile abundant land and great weather, growing food and raising livestock was easy compared to the eastern United States and other parts of the world. The Gold Rush also permitted the cattle industry to once again flourish in the west as a cattle boom from the north was guided to California for sale to the

[1] The silent film, With Daniel Boone Thru the Wilderness, was produced in 1926: a time of prosperity, an era without the skepticism of the modern American mind. People were not yet questioning the stories and histories they had been taught as children. The entertaining story told in this Robert North Bradbury film is loosely based on the life of an American hero. However, the presence of several insidiously inaccurate historical representations demonstrates how an entertaining film might not be as innocent as it initially seems. This film fails to question certain key issues concerning the Daniel Boone legend. In fact, it does quite the opposite. The creators of this

Gold was found in the capital of California today Sacramento also called the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 to around 1857. The Mexican province governor gave John Sutter 50,000 acres of land to make a place his was going to call New Switzerland this land stretched from the Sacramento and the American Rivers (“Gold Rush”). John Sutter the owner of the new asked a man by the name of James Marshall to help him build a sawmill that would be located 50 miles east on Sutter's land. (Blashfield 1). So Marshall and his men went to work when Sutter came by to check the progress he found something sparkling in the water of one of the rivers near the sawmill and extracted a lump of gold from a nearby gorge and shouted Gold! Gold! We have found it! But Marshall didn’t really believe him until he threw down a handful of golden flakes on the table. This is how the gold rush started and had them thinking how to keep it a secret.

“The first vessel to carry argonauts to San Francisco was the steamship California. In October 1848, before the gold rush started, the California had left New York and headed for San Francisco. By the time the vessel rounded Cape Horn and reached Panama City — on January 17,1849 — about 1,500 American gold-hunters were waiting to board. However the ship, which had berths for 210 people, was already transporting many South Americans.” (Saffer, 14) Most of the men that traveled to California didn’t make much profit at all. Many of the 49ers missed their opportunity for fame and fortune because they came at a later time during the gold rush when there was nothing left. A majority of the miners missed their chance to become rich during the California Gold Rush. Only a very small amount of miners became rich. Most miners had to return to their families with nothing with them. Some miners couldn’t even return home to their families. "Brannan became a millionaire selling mining goods, real estate, and his publications. Many men wound up plying the trades they had practiced back home, serving as carpenters, shopkeepers, doctors, lawyers, and blacksmiths.” These people became very wealthy and all they had to do was play the system. So many minors failed to become rich and only really just lost

Humphrey Bissell, of Charleston, bought part of the McCombie Mine and brought with him not only new technology but also men experienced in South American mining. Many of the immigrants who came to North Carolina during the gold rush were single men young or middle aged, ambitions, and hardworking. Unaccompanied by women or children, they were able to move freely from one mining area to another. When gold was found in other southern states and then in California in 1848, many moved out of the area. The Cornish miners, however, had often moved with their families. They were known to be skilled, superstitious, clannish, and strongly Methodist. Unlike the single prospectors who followed the gold to California, the Yukon, and beyond, many of these Cornish miners and their families stayed in North Carolina, in the lode mining centers of Charlotte and especially Gold Hill in Rowan County.

Approximately 200 people would die there, many disfigured by the soldiers. According to the Lone Wolf, a novel by Kevin Cahill, “When the smoke cleared, Colonel John M. Chivington’s troops returned to Denver, waving Indian scalps and body parts to an adoring crowd that hailed the conquering heroes as saviors of the territory”. The chiefs that were killed were, Standing-in-the-Water, Ochinee and War Bonnet, White Antelope, Tall Bear, Bear Robe, Little Robe, Spotted Crow, Big Man, Bear Man and Old Yellow Wolf. After this, the entire camp was burned. Many of the natives were left behind to be identified by their family members. Several men tried to stop the massacre, mainly a CPT. Silas, who on Apr 23, 1865 was found shot to death in Denver. According to the National Park Service, “The citizens of nearby Denver welcomed the troops when they returned as having helped to rid the Plains of hostile Indians, but Chivington’s actions were controversial almost

Then they ran into a man by the last name of Kleiman. He warned the group that the road ahead was very tough and that Hastings had trouble on the route himself. Kleiman told Mr. Donner NOT to take Hastings route, but the Donner party continued despite their warning. Mr. Hastings promised the party that he would wait for them at a fort along the way to California. When the party reached the fort, Hastings had already gone ahead a week earlier with another group. He left simple instructions for the Donner party to follow telling them it would not take long to get to Salt Lake. Then they turned off track into the wilderness. It took 6 days to chop through to Big Mountain and one month to reach Salt Lake rather than the week they had been promised. After 3 days they ran out of water and Reed’s oxen ran away and could not be found. Thirty-six oxen were lost and wagons had to be left behind in order to get over the mountain. Then Reed killed Schneider because he was whipping the oxen. Everyone was going mad. Indians killed 21 more oxen and then the Donner axle broke on the first wagon. To make things worse, they encountered blizzard like snow and sleet. If they had rested 4 days instead of 5 they would have made it through to California safely without having to deal with any of the conditions mentioned above. It turns out that Hastings “shortcut” was actually

Even though there was a rich diversity in the ethnicity, there was a small diversity in gender as nine out of every ten forty-niners were male. Gold mining reached its highest point by 1852 and by then, about 81 million dollar worth of gold was taken out of the

Tools in the Gold Rush was very important like a pan, but don't mistake it with a kitchen pan because the pan were talking about is also called a washbowl. A washbowl is a pan in the Gold Rush use to find Gold by putting gravel in the pan and mix it around till you find Gold. Another tool in the Gold Fields was a pickaxe. The Gold fields was a valley in the mountains that has lots of gold for mining. A pickaxe is a tool with a stick with two endpoints on the top that is hard and it’s use to hit the rocks to get gold.

Gold was used for many different things and it was valued very much during the past and even now it is valued. A common use of gold was when it had been turned into