The Gold, an old claim!

      A river off another river drove me to a claim that I had recorded as mine.  It had not been visited for a length of time!  I was distracted by a  hard desire to find a dream that would free my family from the bondage of a world that forms people into a desire of wealth.  I found wealth and lost it but for a minute.
      I understand, now, a greater thing.  In the course of my life, to lose and win a fortune is in the eye of
the beholder?  What is wealth?  It is for you to decide.  I lost and won back my wife and children.
      As I returned to the Columnes River, past Latrobe, which wasn't even a city but a far cry from
even a country house, positioned by a railroad track, where a train never passes to ship the unshipable!
My gold is not far from Latrobe in California.  A place of scrub oaks and very little water.
     I hired a new hand to replace Mr. Donner.  They're five of us and two horses and three donkeys.
I am having a hard time recognizing my claim.
     Admittedly, I am so wealthy, I would never have to work a day of my life, again!
I have never thought that that is what  life is about! How about yourself?
     I can not believe that after all these years my claim has not been violated!  I asked Fearsy, " Can you believe it?" His answer was," Yes "!  Simple question, simple answer!  When we all noticed that the canyon
wall had collapsed, we realized that the gold that I had discovered, way back, just might have a chance ot surviving the hunters that killed chinese, mexican, indians, that knew about gold. They, the greedy white guys, established rules, called government!  Long story short.
       This time in San Francisco is a lot different than when I was shanghighed out of the city!
Not only have I left my daughter and wife in the city, I have allowed them, with the grace of wealth, and an unlimited currency exchange, to establish culture, ideas, spirit and friendships that only can be established when
there is nothing to fear.  If there is something to fear, let it be San Francisco, pre 1906!   How does one
spell, vigilantes?

Shanghaiied (cont) Fearsy and Sitsu

      I was a lucky one.  I survived a period of California's history that has never seen the like until today!  My three claims were so remote and early and so far removed from the hungry, greedy, jackels that feed off the works of the successful that I thought I just might have a chance of finding what I was trying to provide for my family.  I did! But the ravenous dogs who stalk, thought they won, again!  At every step of the way I was taken.  When my shovel broke, I walked six miles to an outpost, hiding my trail to purchase another.  I paid two onces of gold for that shovel.  Sixty dollars!  Can you believe it?  They tried to follow me back to where the gold originated from.  I was too Ohio for them.  They were cityfied people, thieves and I was a farmer//hunter that fed a large family by what we grew and what we shot or raised on our farm and it's surrounds.  I learned from Sitsu ( that's how you pronounce it ) how to walk with no sound and no trail when I was friendly to a people that were here before us.  My father taught me that people are great but that sometimes the governments that pretend to control the people lose touch that they also are the people!  Kind a hard to get but I did!  Sitsu is my friend and always has been.  He is one of the reasons that I survived being " Shanghied " in San Francisco.  He is a major reason I didn't lose my claims in the " Gold Country ".  While Sit was showing me the ways of his tribe he was studying the ways of our tribe.  A way of thinking from both parts is the way I see it.  While I'm studying him, He is studying me.  I knew it, He knew it!  So I guess friendship is a mutual exchange of something!  Because here is what I got from my friendship with Sitsu.  First, I survived being shanghaied.  When I returned, I was richer, emotionaly and financially and intellectually than when I began!  Why do I attribute this to my friend Sitsu?  When I walked with my friend in the wilderness, he allowed me to take the time to listen to forest sounds and let the sights and sounds lead me to the actions that would determine survival of not just myself and family but all that are part of that forest.  No one ever found the gold that I had claimed in California.  I came back years later knowing what I would find.  It is all still there.  I knew because of my friendship with an American Indian (Sitsu) that in a crisis situation I could accept my spiritul destiny but not without asking  the Great Spitit is this what it appears to be?  When I woke on that nightmare from hell called, " The Reefer " bound for China, I could have called all the gods that be to have nothing to do with me-ever again!  Fearsy ( Joesph Israel Jacobson ) only kicked me once and became a best friend as did Sitsu ( he never kicked me )  who taught me how to wait for the meaning of things before stricking out.  But stricking out is neccessary when your claim has been jumped.  Or when your family is under attack.  Or when ever you decide that justice is not being served.  Or !!!!!   Friendship is priceless.......

Today and yesterday, Maybe tomarrow!

Saturday, today, I am provisioned to the ten's! My canoe is( as I speak ) loaded! I walk out of my garage! I have wheels on my 15 foot canoe. I go over the levee and launch into the American River! Sutter historically anounced " Eurecka ", from this very river that connects to the Sacramento River The Feather River also joins the Sacramento. This connected waterway made Gold what it is today! Ha! Only joking! Everyone knows San Francisco is the capital of California! Ask Arnold? If it had been left up to Ronnie, the capital would have been Santa Barbara! I wonder if canoes are allowed at the Saint Franscis Yacht Harbor? I just might find out!!!