At the risk of promoting my own book and research--which I am--here are some observations on gold rush songs.

The well known song "Seeing the Elephant" published by John Stone was not the earliest gold rush song. This idea results from widespread confusion with the play, "Seeing the Elephant" that appeared in San Francisco during 1850. That play was probably a reworking of P.T. Barnum's "Gold Mania" that appeared in New York during 1849. The hit tune from Barnum's show was "California As It Is" a parody of Jeannette and Jeannot with lyrics by Thaddeus Meighan.

This very popular song by Meighan seems to have popularized the expression--to see the elephant.

A review of Meighan's writing suggests the origins of this phrase. The expression "to see the elephant" appeared in the song and perhaps, to a limited extent, outside the song because of P.T. Barnum. Barnum was exhibiting a mastodon bone. In advertising this bone with "see the elephant", he was bilking people.

Meighan used the phrase to indicate that seeking gold in California was to be bilked by humbug. The song also implicitly criticized Barnum, whom Meighan continued to ridicule. After "Gold Mania" Barnum resolved to quit burlesque and put on only "moral drama". He returned from Europe a year and half later, parading Jenny Lind through New York with a group of real elephants--the first to appear in America.

References from a California book suggest that Old Put was a lawyer--hence "Put" as in putting a case. Stone himself helped confuse the issue by citing his effort to put things together.

There were reasons for Stone to soft pedal his effort. The "case" appears to have been his championship for the earliest stereotype of a western hero-- "Pike". In California, the name Pike applied to Missouri immigrants. Pikes were initially disdained. By 1853 they had come to be regarded as heros--at least in the gold country of the Sierra Nevada. Stone deserves much credit, at least for his willingness to champion Pike.

For Stone and others, the characterization of Pike was often modeled on the English saloon theater and minstrel show comic heros of that time. The social political subtleties of these characters are too complex for discussion here.

Whether Stone wrote all the songs in his collections is questionable. But we may never know.

Published in 1858, "Sweet Betsey From Pike" seems to have been inspired by the 1857 California play, "A Live Woman in The Mines". This play featured High Betty Martin, nicknamed Betsey, a Pike girl modeled on High Betty Martin in the song of that name.

Chris Bayer: "The Miner's Farewell, on the trail of gold rush song and dance."