The California Gold Rush blew open the west for many to make their fortune while destroying others dream and spirits, but it also had a destructive effect on the California’s environment. Hydraulic mining throughout Northern California, inundated rivers and streams with thousands of tons of sediment and mining debris, redirecting rivers and streams, leaving pollutants and scars on the land that are still promenade today, not to mention the hordes of gold seekers from around the world flooding into Alta California almost eradicating some of the most majestic and longest-living creatures on the planet: sea turtles and Galapagos tortoises.
In “Galapagos Tortoises and Sea Turtles in Gold Rush-Era California,” an article that appeared in the Summer 2014 issue of California History, Cyler Conrad and Allen Pastron tell this little-known story. Sea turtles and Galapagos tortoises had the misfortune of living in the path of thousands of Forty-Niners on ships bound for El Dorado. Initially these argonauts simply devoured the great creatures where they found them, but they soon realized there was a highly profitable market for them in San Francisco and throughout Northern California. The result was the mass capturing and slaughter of the great reptiles.
In the article “Galapagos Tortoises and Sea Turtles in Gold Rush-Era California” published in the Summer 2014 issue of California History, authors Cyler Conrad and Allen Pastron argue that that whaling ships and sailors of the late 18th and early 19th century had a dramatic effect on sea turtle and Galapagos tortoise populations. It was the large migration of Argonauts into Alta California during the Gold Rush of 1849, who had brought these animals to near extinction through habitat destruction, consumption, and commercial utilization[i]. Conrad and Pastron’s article looks at a relatively unknown and tragic chapter of Gold Rush Era, Alta California history, which focuses on the ecological destruction of California, through sea turtles and Galapagos Tortoise as a survival food to those on ships heading to fulfill their California Dreams, to a delicacy in the form of turtle steaks and turtle soup, in the restaurants and saloons of San Francisco (AKA as Yerba Buena 1835-1847) and Sacramento (est. 1849), with no regard to conservation until the late 19th century.
In the early 19th century, Alta California was populated by Native Americans, Spaniards, and a few American fur traders who survived mostly on the flora and fauna of the area, and only hunted the wild game as a necessity for food, clothes, and trade. Groups of Anglo-Americans from the Eastern part of America first came to Alta California overland by way of the Oregon Trail in around 1843, but it was the discovery of gold in the American River on January 24th 1848 at Sutter’s Mill by James Marshal, which led to the California Gold Rush and flooding of Anglo-Americans into Alta California. In short time the Anglo-Americans would nearly wipe out the entire 500,000 head of Tule Elk in just 30 years, kill off some 10,000 California Grizzly Bears into extinction, introduce non-native species of plants and animals that would over whelm and destroy the native species and habitats of California[ii]. Today we are still feeling the negative effects of the California Gold Rush of 1848.
There were two ways for Americans to travel to the gold fields of California, overland or by sea. Sea travelers struggled to stay health and eat properly due to no refrigeration and sea travel was not luxurious. Food would spoil or grow mold, so when sea turtles were found on the Pacific, they solved this problem. Sea turtles could survive out of the water for months and also stored water in their necks. So travelers had fresh meat and water on the long voyage. Conrad and Pastron refer to an eye witness account made by William Swain, who was on his way home after seeing the elephant and giving up his California Dream. “If the bread was bad, the pork was worse. Not that it was wormy. No, no, it was too strong for that. Worms know what is palatable and take good care not to get into such pork barrels.”[iii]. Director Ken Burns highlighted William Swain’s overland adventure in his documentary The West: Speck of the Future. Once sea turtle and Galapagos tortoises that were used to keep sea travelers alive became a must have delicacy in San Francisco and Sacramento, making the reptiles highly profitable throughout Northern California. The result was the mass capturing and slaughter of the great reptiles. which led to their over exploitation.
These animals were a large part of the Market Revolution that was going on at the time of the Gold Rush Era. The turtles were another way of “Mining the Miners”. Author Ken Starr gives us a glimpse into the beginning of the economic boom of the Gold Rush, in his book California, “…together with such newly arrived entrepreneurs as Mormon leader Sam Brannan to develop California as a forward looking, money making American place.” It was the entrepreneurs such as Sam Brannan and others who were smart enough to stay out of the gold fields and let the gold come to them.
Conrad and Pastron note, large numbers of green and loggerhead sea turtles, and smaller populations of hawksbill, olive ridley and leatherback sea turtles, could be found along the sea routes to Alta California. The Galapagos Islands off of Ecuador, were home to the largest and longest-living tortoise species on Earth, weighting in over 900 pounds and living up to 175 years.
Sea Turtles and Galapagos tortious went from a necessary food source to a well tasting luxury in the cities of San Francisco and Sacramento until their dramatic decline in the late 1860’s, when it was becoming difficult to spot a sea turtle or Galapagos tortious off the coast of California and Mexico.
Lucky for the sea turtles and Galapagos tortoises a few influential individuals in the late 19th and early 20th century believed in conservation and protection, like naturalist G.M. Green, John Muir, and President Theodore Roosevelt.[Iv] It was not until 1970 when California enacted the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), followed by the U.S. Government in 1973.
Bibliography
Conrad, Cyler and Pastron, Allen. “Galapagos Tortoises and Sea Turtles in Gold Rush-Era California.” California History Journal Vol. 91 No.2 (2014): 20-39. Accessed Summer 2014. DOI: 10.1525/ch.2014.91.2.20.
Starr, Kevin. California. New York: The Random House, 2005. Kindle Edition.
“Webster’s New World College Dictionary,” LoveToKnow, Corp., 1996-2015: http://www.yourdictionary.com/argonaut
[i] Argonauts are people who took part in the California Gold Rush of 1848-1849, according to “Webster’s New World College Dictionary,” LoveToKnow, Corp., 1996-2015: http://www.yourdictionary.com/argonaut
[ii] Conrad, Cyler and Pastron, Allen. “Galapagos Tortoises and Sea Turtles in Gold Rush-Era California.” California History Journal Vol. 91 No.2 (2014): 20-39. Accessed Summer 2014. DOI: 10.1525/ch.2014.91.2.20. p. 21
Grizzly Bears where killed due to the fact the Anglo-Americans saw them as a threat to their lives, and when they were killed it was for their furs and the meat just went to waste, much like the Buffalo in the Great Plains.
[iii] Conrad, Cyler and Pastron, Allen. “Galapagos Tortoises and Sea Turtles in Gold Rush-Era California.” California History Journal Vol. 91 No.2 (2014): 20-39. Accessed Summer 2014. DOI: 10.1525/ch.2014.91.2.20. p. 22
[Iv] Naturalist G.M. Green was one of the first to study Galapagos Tortoises, on the Galapagos Island and help protect and preserve their environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment