Journal Notes

In the summer of 1849 Dr. Fayette Clappe from New Jersey arrived in San Francisco. With him was his small, blonde, vivacious wife. Louise Ameila Knapp-Smith Clappe was a published writer, but her most famous works were yet to come. For, as “Dame Shirley,” she would write a series of twenty-three letters from the gold mines which would become classics. Her descriptions of the very location where I currently live is riveting. I’m pleased her story will be included in the new book about women miners of the Old West.

My research on the new book about women miners of the Old West took me to Tonopah, Nevada today. I spent time poring over information about a tenacious prospector named Ellen Nay. On March 31, 1909, she discovered a 75 pound boulder full of gold at the base of the Sugarloaf Mountains near Salsbury Washington, Nevada. “Oh, Lord,” she proclaimed after learning about the depth of her discovery, “I never supposed there was so much gold in the world.”

Another day in the Old West. I am currently working on a book entitled A Beautiful Mine, Lady Miners of the Old West. Included in this work is a chapter about Baby Doe Tabor, the Silver Queen of Colorado. She is the least likeable character I’ve written about to date. A manipulative woman who, from the age of four, knew how to “work” the opposite sex to get what she wanted. She wanted to marry a rich man and set her sights on Horace Tabor. It made no difference to her that he was a married man with children. She wanted what she wanted and would have it regardless of who was hurt in the process. In the end she had few friends, was deserted by her children and died alone. When they found her body in her run down shack outside the Matchless Mine she only had a small cache of food in her pantry and a few sticks of wood to keep her warm. I guess some people do get their “come-upings.”