The Rock

In addition to his daily entries in his diaries, Alf Doten also wrote a regular column in the form of letters to his home town newspaper, The Plymouth Rock, summarizing his Western experiences for Massachusetts readers. He began this practice in 1854 when he was mining in Calaveras County, California and ended it in 1867 when he was working long hours as a reporter for local papers in Virginia City and journalism had become his profession. He published a total of 93 letters that began “Dear Rock.” Eighty of the letters originated in California, with 13 from Nevada. After his first 50 letters, Doten began numbering a “new series,” beginning with NS1 and ending with NS43.0. He saved the clippings for 81 of the letters, and for the rest, he saved his handwritten drafts. Two photostat copies of missing clippings were added to the collection later. The letters were transcribed during the process of editing Doten’s journals for publication in the 1960s, and Walter Van Tilburg Clark included 42 of them in their entirety within the three-volume publication. For most of the rest, Clark included summaries or partial transcriptions. We now present a complete and searchable archive of the entire collection of transcripts of Doten’s letters to The Plymouth Rock, alongside the clippings or handwritten originals. Our assistant Challen Wright digitized the clippings and prepared the transcripts for the project. We hope this online collection will be useful to researchers of the West as the region unfolded during a pivotal time.

Rock01 No. 1. California Letter. The following letter from a highly esteemed friend in California, we believe to contain a reliable statement of “matters and things in general,” in that State, together with other matters of interest to Plymouth people, at least. A residence of some five years in the “Land of Gold,” should enable him to form a pretty correct opinion of the “elephant” which he assures us, in a private note, he has positively seen: Double Springs, Calaveras Co., Cal., June 4th, 1854. DEAR "ROCK:" - In compliance with your request, I embrace the present opportunity of addressing you a...
Rock05 No. 5. From our California Correspondent. Fort Grizzly, Feb. 22d. 1885. "Oh, why does the white man follow my path, Like the hound on the Tiger's track, Does the flush on my dark cheek, waken his wrath, Does he covet the bow at my back? He has rivers, and sees where the billows and breeze, Bear riches for him alone; And the sons of the wood, never plunge in the flood Which the white man calls his own. Then why should he come to the streams where none But the red skin dare to swim, Why, why should he wrong the hunter, one Who never did harm to him." THE INDIAN HUNTER. FRIEND ROCK: - The above...
Rock06 No. 6. From our California Correspondent. Fort Grizzly, Cal. March 24th, 1855. "The Father above, saw fit to give The white man, corn and wine; There are golden fields, where they may live, But the forest shades are mine. The eagle hath its place of rest, The wild horse where to dwell; And the spirit that gave the bird its nest Made me a home as well. Then back, go back from the red-man's track, For the hunter 's eyes grow dim, To find that the white man wrongs the one, Who never did harm to him." THE INDIAN HUNTER. FRIEND ROCK: - It is but a few short years since the Digger...
Rock08 No. 8. From our California Correspondent. Fort John, Amador Co., Cal., May 28th, 1885. “Moving on.” FRIEND ROCK:- You probably perceive by the date of this letter that I am no longer a citizen of "Fort Grizzly," but since writing you last I have pulled up stakes and emigrated to this place [Fort John], where my partner and myself are snugly ensconced in a "summer residence" of cloth, sticks and boards. Fort Grizzly had become, in our estimation, rather of a poverty stricken locality, so, therefore, we sought a place more congenial to our feelings as regards mining and digging for gold. But...
Rock09 No. 9. From our California Correspondent. Fort John, Amador Co., Cal., June 10th, 1885. "The summer days are coming, The blossom decks the bough, The bees are daily humming, And the birds are singing now." FRIEND ROCK: - Summer is revisiting California, the word "summer" generally signifying here clear unclouded sky week after week - hot broiling sun - thermometer often up to 110 deg. in the shade and a great consequent demand for cool places and iced drinks. The hottest part of the season is not yet. August, I think, is the hottest, but it is very warm here in the mines even now, and the...
Rock11 No. XI. From our California Correspondent. Fort John, Amador Co., Cal., July 20th, 1855. "My native country! thee, Land of the noble free, Thy name I love; I love thy rocks and rills, Thy woods and templed hills; My heart with rapture thrills, Like that above." DEAR ROCK: - I intended to have written sooner, but the Atlantic mail left here for San Francisco earlier than I had expected, so I was belated; but, as the old saying is, "better late than never." The "glorious fourth" passed off as usual here in California. A most unreasonable amount of powder was burnt, and the thunder of big guns...
Rock12 No. XII. From our California Correspondent. Fort John, Amador Co., Cal., Aug. 11th, 1855. FRIEND ROCK:-- Again I greet you, but unlike my last letter, I have now to give you an account of a scene of blood. Lower Rancherie, near this place, was on Monday night last, the scene of a horrible tragedy. A murder most diabolical, inhuman, and fiendish in execution, and details ever before known in the history of California, since the days of the famous mountain bandit Jaaquin. A band of Mexican desperadoes, entered the town about ten o’clock in the evening and with pistol and knife, butchered all...
Rock13 No. XIII. From our California Correspondent. Fort John, Amador Co., Cal., Aug. 27th, 1855. FRIEND ROCK: - I attended an Indian "fandango" the other day, and presuming that an account of the "doing" on that occasion may not prove uninteresting to your readers, I'll make it the subject of this letter. A large party of us went together from here to the place where the fandango was held, which was about five miles from here, on the Cosumnes river, and arrived there just at dusk in the evening. Here on a small knoll or elevation of the plain, the Cosumnes tribe were dancing around a pole about...
Rock14 No XIVFort John, Amador Co., Cal.,Nov 1st 1855 Friend Rock Two months have elapsed since I wrote you last not from any intentional neglect on my part but from injuries received by the “caving in” of a bank of earth – one of the many accidents incidental to a mining life. I have been confined under the doctor’s care for the past eight weeks, so pleading this as my excuse, we’ll take a fresh start. We have had less rain this summer and fall, than has been known for the past six years, therefore river mining this season is being carried forward to much better advantage than ever before and river...
Rock18 No. XVIII.From our California Correspondent.San Francisco, Feb. 3d, 1856. FRIEND ROCK: Not much news of interest to you has transpired during the past fortnight. We have had a great deal of rain, and the papers of the interior are rejoicing much at the great quantities of rain that have lately fallen, affording a full supply of water for all mining purposes. Nearly every gulsh has a tom-head of water running through it, and every ditch is filled to its utmost capacity. The Shasta Republican, says that the bountiful rains have given such an intense impetus to mining operations, that gold dust...

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