since all those who knew it first-hand are dead and
since it has apparently not been recorded and is not
remembered by their descendants.
It is possible to get books of the songs of each of the
American wars, and even presidential campaigns have
produced their separate books of ballads, like the rol
licking Tippecanoe minstrelsy and The Grant Song
ster. But you will not find a volume devoted to the
songs of the great trail to Oregon, or those sung during
the first two decades of settlement.
The California Trail and the forty-niners, yes.
There are at least three of these: California Songster ,
1855; The Gold Digger's Song Book, no date; and
The Pacific Song Book, 1861. These songs were not
always very refined, but they were marked by origin
ality. In many instances, they were not merely para
phrases or adaptations, but fresh ballads springing out
of new experiences. Does this mean that the gold-
hunters were a group with creative outlook, while
those coming out for homes in the great earlier cara
vans of 1843, 1844 and 1845 were not? Or did the
latter likewise have a collection of original songs,
which have simply been lost?
We have plenty of evidence that they sang and
played the fiddle around the campfires but what, ex
actly, were the songs they sang? Were any of them
composed en route that were popular not only with
that train but with the trains that crossed later? Was
there one of them spontaneously provoked by all situ
ations — while fording the streams, from dusty throats
through the alkali, in the descent of Laurel Hill?
