Source: The Record-Courier
http://www.recordcourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040109/OPINION /401090202
On January 9, 2004 The Record-Courier ran a feature article on the role of Jewish pioneers in settling the western frontier, "The search for religious freedom and economic success played a big part in the settlement of the western frontier. When word of the California gold strike spread like wildfire in 1849, it unleashed a massive migration of adventurers, merchants, and entrepreneurs to the Pacific Coast. The lure of riches and opportunity inspired the greatest voluntary migration in world history. Forty-Niners encompassed many ethnicities, races, and religions. Among the masses that rushed to California, and later to the Virginia City mines, were Jews from Europe...The California gold rush and subsequent Comstock boom were noted for their transient populations and get-rich-quick attitude. The mining districts were crawling with young men who wanted nothing more than a sack of gold and a ticket home. But it was often the Jewish merchant, not the fly-by-night seeker of instant wealth, who helped stabilize and settle urban areas in western mining regions. These intrepid pioneers took advantage of the West's physical environment and unprecedented ethnic and cultural diversity to fashion a form of Judaism unique in the American experience."