"This Shaft is Where Old Man Smithwick Took Us . . . "
"If the water holds out I think I will find [gold] in a few days . . . "
Interesting two page letter from H.J. Wilkins to his partner Johnny, describing his work to preserve a mining claim between the Carran & Colegrove's Mine and "Old Man Mead", with a hand drawn map illustrating the location.
Emigrant's Gap, 30 miles west of Truckee, was a significant pass on the California Trail, located in the Sierra Nevada, just west of Donner Pass. In the 1840s, pioneers traveling west had to lower their wagons by rope down the steep cliffs to continue their journey. The gap marks the transition from the American River drainage to the Bear River drainage and was part of the Truckee Route, a major segment of the California Trail used by emigrants traveling from the United States to California, then part of Mexico until it was annexed after the Mexican-American War (1846–1848).
The first covered wagons crossed the Sierra Nevada in the spring of 1845, with pioneers using ropes to lower their wagons into Bear Valley. This difficult stretch of the trail was traversed by many during the California Gold Rush and afterward. The first group to successfully navigate the Emigrant Gap was the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844–45.