In the years after the discovery of gold in California, thousands of fortune seekers made their way west, joining the greatest mass migration in American history. "Seeing the Elephant" they often called the journey, r.
The gold fields were only one destination, as emigrants pushed across the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Oregon Territory in unprecedented numbers, following the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails to the verdant Willamette Valley or Mormon settlements in the Salt Lake Valley.
In the years after the discovery of gold in California, thousands of fortune seekers made their way west, joining the greatest mass migration in American history