 |
 |
 |
Did you find any things you didn't expect to find?
When you start looking, you don't know what you're going to find. We
worked with an archaeologist named Allen Pastron. He had excavated a site in
San Francisco called the Hoff Store. In 1851, that same fire that burned the
Nyantic burned the store, which was built on a pier out over the water. The
pier burned and the store fell into the water. And all the goods Mr. Hoff had
in the store fell into the mud and were buried.
Allen Pastron excavated the Hoff Store. And all sorts of things were still
preserved there. Jars full of Spanish olives. Mustard from France. Churns of
butter. Jars of Chinese vegetables. I think what we learned is not just that
things from the Gold Rush still exist, but also that things came to the Gold
Rush from around the world. Hoff's Store was really a treasure trove, not of
gold, but of information--and of things that survived the Gold Rush.
|
|
|
