Luck in the Gold Rush One of the best-known historical events in American history is the California Gold Rush. The main source I write about today, just like my last one, is a fictional retelling of the time period. The story is titled "The Luck of Roaring Camp" by Bret Harte, published in late 1868. The story begins with Cherokee Sal, the only woman in town, giving birth to Tommy Luck in a gold panning camp that It's starting to dry up. . They believe that his birth, and by extension Sal's death during childbirth, is a sign of good luck for the camp, hence the name. For a while, the belief that the boy's birth brought them luck was true; many parts of the city have been repaired, people's personalities change for the better, and more gold is found. The men in town begin to talk about the future and progress for the booming city, but the merciless winter has different plans. It caused the deaths of many men and, eventually, Tommy as well. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Since the author was not a miner and lived in the East, there are some differences between reality and his writing. During this time period, the gold rush miners were mostly men, but the main way the towns grew was surprisingly prostitutes. Since Sal was the only woman in the city and died quite early, men were tasked with both mining and maintaining the city directly. While it cannot be said for certain whether the story was a truthful version of the experience, it was interesting to people of the time because it reinforced the belief that anything was possible in the western half of the continent. Given that the miners only mentioned God when Timmy was born, one might also assume that God was the driving force of both the gold rush and the survival skills needed to be in this new land..