Historic Hood River
“The Love of Gold”
Notes
The same volume which included the transcription of Polly Coon Oregon Trail journal included a transcription of T. L. Coon’s “gold rush” notes (mostly letters to Polly). Two years before Polly Coon headed across the Plains, T. L. Coon and company headed to California in search of fortune. We’ve run his journal through the same OCR software as Polly’s to obtain this searchable version of the manuscript. His writing style is a bit harder to get through than Polly’s (especially the first page!), but the story is a good read. I encourage you to read it here.
Polly and T.L. reunited in Oregon, though he unfortunately died just a few years later at age 31 without ever seeing his son, T.R. Coon. T.R. went on to marry Delia McNeal, and they would be residents and historians of Hood River county for the many decades of their lives.
This image of a chalk drawing is the only likeness of T.L. Coon I have ever seen. We have several images in our collection of T.R. which are mislabeled as T.L., but given the year of T.L.’s death (1854) it’s not surprising he didn’t leave many images behind.
L. E.
Thank you for the link to the journal. I skimmed through it, and will read more thoroughly later.
Coon wishes he could wield the pen like Washington Irving, but I think he has done quite well with his descriptions of the sights.
Wonderful descriptions of Scotts Bluff and Chimney Rock. He thought Chimney Rock was doomed to soon fall, but it is still a landmark.
Jeffrey Bryant
Too bad he stopped writing at Ft. Laramie.
Arthur Babitz
Agreed, Jeffrey. I was enjoying his firsthand description of the well known Oregon Trail landmarks. Hard to imagine taking a “side trip” to site-see when you’re on such an arduous journey.