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Which Gold Rush artifact did you find most interesting?
The stern, or back end, of the ship Nyantic. She was the first
ship to come from New England to San Francisco in 1848. Like many ships she was
abandoned, because the crew took off for the gold fields. Some businesspeople
pulled her up to the shore and stored goods in her. And later they built a
hotel on top of her. But in 1851, a huge fire destroyed San Francisco. The top
of the Nyantic was burned off. The ship sank into the mud and was buried
in debris. People filled in that part of the harbor and built buildings on it.
In 1979, when people excavated to build the great Transamerica Pyramid
skyscraper in San Francisco, they found the Nyantic again. They brought
up her stern, with the copper sheathing and the rudder still attached. And they
also recovered unopened bottles of champagne and other goods that were inside
the ship. I discovered the Nyantic in a warehouse, and we made it a
part of the exhibition.
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