Belfast Historical Society Presentation

Your Father Fears New England Will Be Depopulated: Belfast and the Rush to California

Jan Eakins, a cultural historian who has researched, written, taught, and lectured on Maine in the West for more than two decades, will present the histories of some of the people who caught California gold fever early and hard. The bark Suliote cleared Marshall Wharf for San Francisco mere weeks into the nationwide rush. Hazeltines, Peirces, Lothrops, Lockes, and Ladds were among more than a hundred locals who headed west that year of 1849. Jan Eakins traces their journeys by sea and land. She relates their successes and sorrows as they kept shop, practiced law, erected buildings, and dug gold on the western frontier. She considers who left home, who returned home, and how gold shaped Belfast’s future.

More information at https://www.belfastmuseum.org/