Alcade Colton's trip to the mines

• By mid-September, Alcade Walter Colton had heard enough of the gold rush from second-hand sources and had felt the effects enough, that he resolved to make a trip to the mines. Before the gold rush began, Colton, Colonel Mason, and Lieutenant Lanman of the navy were quartering together. After the rush to the mines began, their living situation became more difficult as every last one of their servants left. They were compelled to do everything for themselves.

  "Saturday, July 15. The gold fever has reached every servant in Monterey; none are to be trusted in their engagement beyond a week. Gen. Mason, Lieut. Lauman, and myself, form a mess; we have a house, and all the table furniture and culinary apparatus requisite;but our servants have run. This morning, for the fortieth time, we had to take to the kitchen, and cook our own breakfast. A General of the United States Army, the commander of a man-of-war, and the Alcade of Monterey, in a smoking kitchen, grinding coffee, toasting a herring, and peeling onions! These gold mines are going to upset all the domestic arrangements of society."(16)

• Colton made the trip to the mines with three other distinguished gentlemen. Upon their immediate arrival, Colton picked up an ax and within minutes had found gold. The rest of his six week visit was filled with examples of those around him finding gold. He also noted the outrageous prices in the mining towns, where flour was selling at $400 per barrel, sugar at $4 per pound, and whiskey at $20 per quart. (17) Still, as soon as the supplies would come in, they'd disappear.