Howdy, To accompany my "Sailing Around the Horn," I am posting an article that I previously sent on a couple of lists.This post is a little LONG. And I thought about breaking it into two or three. But I just didn't have enough stuff on the Nicaragua or Mexico routes for either to stand alone, or even together. So GoldRushers, away we gooooo:-))),: SHORT CUTS BY SEA to CA in 1849 "Howdy, The California gold discovery revived a centuries old sea route linking the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans as thousands of gold seekers crossed the narrow breath of Central America at Panama and Nicaragua to the Pacific - then booking passage in ships to San Francisco. The Isthmas of Panama had served as a major link in the Spanish trade and commerce since the 16th century. The Spanish empire's 19th century decline reduced the importance of this link until the early 1830s when British and Americans commercial interests renewed the importance of the Panama crossing. The war with Mexico resulting in the Americanization of California in 1846, which further heightened activity that resulted in 1847's subsidizing of two steamship companies to service the Panama route. Initially, it appears that the preponderance of gold rushers chose the longer Cape Horn sea route to California, but many thousands picked the shorter and presumably swifter Panana crossing route. For the statistical: the first two months after President POLK's December 5, 1848, message to Conress a reported 8,098 Americans left East and Gulf Coast ports for Panana's Caribbean port of Chagres. Much like the Cape Horn passage, a journey to California via the Panama route was characterized by common experiences attendant to each. After booking passage on a steamer or sailing ship for Panama's Caribbean shore, the passengers landed at Chagres, a rather forlorn, squalid village of 700 on the shore of an inlet once guarded by the Spanish fortress of San Lorenzo. San Lorenzo was where the Welsh pirate, Sir Henry MORGAN killed some 300 men along the way to his conquest of Panama in 1670(Just a little info bonus :-) With a pestilent climate and a night's shelter in a windowless bamboo hut, the gold rusher rarely tarried in Chagres and immediately sought transport across the isthmus. After some sophisticated price haggling, natives would paddle the travelers in their dugouts, called "bungos," up the 50 or 60 mile trip up the meandering Chagres River to Gorgona, or four miles further to Cruces. From there the rushers then hired transport of mules, horses or porters, for the rugged 20 mile trip to Panama City on the Pacific shore. With the gold rush stampede, Panama City developed into a busy port with American style hotels(??), bars and gambling houses. On the flip side, the cholera epidemic raging in Panama City in 1849 reportedly killed one-fourth of the native population and tolled heavily among the Americans. For the 3,000 mile trip from the Panama bay to San Francisco, the early rushers took whatever ocean vessel - whether sailing ship, whaler, coal ship or anything that floated - they could find. Even if they booked on a steamer, such as the CALIFORNIA who docked there in January 17, 1849 oblivious to the California gold discovery, they were not guaranteed passage - but that's a story for you to read. Later in 1849 and early 1850 additional steamers on both the Atlantic/Caribbean and Pacific sides helped relieve the congestion. The steamers and other San Francisco bound vessels generally made intermediate ports such as Acapulco, San Blas, and Manzanillo, Mexico, and San Diego and Monterey, California (.NOTE:Since some will no doubt ignore the difficulties outlined above and proceed, I plan a companion posting that details PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS for crossing the Isthmus of Panama. For inconsistencies, ignore the above, and follow it :-) THE NICARAGUA ROUTE Throughout the spring and summer of 1849, the news of the Panama crossing problems caused people in the Eastern states to look for an alternate route. Some 500 miles north of Panama, and closer to the United States, the continent again narrows with little apparent physical obstacles between the two coasts. Though the isthmus at Nicaragua was wider than at Panama - the most feasible route was 165 or so miles long compared to Panama's 75, give or take. Also, this route was 1,000 miles closer for the New York to San Francisco travelers - even more for those from New Orleans. More over you water traveled Lake Nicaragua, which was over a hundred miles long and separated by a ridge of hills a dozen or so miles from the Pacific. Lake Nicaragua's outlet was to the east through a meandering San Juan River that emptied into the Caribbean at San Juan del Norte. While some California bound gold seekers crossed Nicaragua in 1849, the route only reached real importance in the 1851-1855 era when "Commodore" Cornelius VANDERBILT, his steamers, and his dreams entered the picture. Naturally, gold seekers crossing in 1849 mainly traversed in various vessels, including steamers, over the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua. But some traveled by mule. After reaching the Pacific with relative ease, many emigrants had assorted difficulties in securing passage north to San Francisco. ACROSS MEXICO In addition to Panama and Nicaragua, another short cut was a 200 plus mile trip across Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Gold seekers, especially from the Gulf ports of New Orleans, Galveston and Corpus Christi - even ships from New York and Philadelphia - sailed on some regularly scheduled packets to Vera Cruz,Tehuantepec (&Tampico?) through 1850 and 1851. From coastal Vera Cruz, the national highway made its way over the mountains to the Valley of Mexico and then to the Pacific. Evidently, this trek was no piece of cake judging from the trip accounts, over mountains and desert - not to mention encountering the prevalant plague that so devastated many Mexican villages. With the Pacific towns of Ventosa or Mazatlan being regular ports of call for vessels, especially steamers, from Panama and Nicaragua, the gold seeker obtained, sometimes with difficulty, passage to San Francisco. POST SCRIPT: Distilling these routes into a posting is like trying to stuff an elephant into the back seat of an ole VW. I know that I left out a bunch of good stuff (the companion posting covers only one). And maybe I have even warped some things. In my defense, I have company because of a marked inconsistency in the research material:-) But I tried to give at least a framework. If you had a relative who traveled any of these routes, maybe you now have a better feel on how/where to research him. Anyway, I hope so." Again, sorry it was so long, Bob Norris in Dallas <BNorris166aol.com>