Mark Twain's Laziness At Jackass Hill

Mark Twain Reenactor In Angels Camp, California

Here's a story that you might find interesting. It's from 1854 and talks about a miner by the name of Bob Dull who struck gold on Jackass Hill in 1854.

Union Democrat (Sonora, 1854), Volume LIII, Number 10, 8 September 1906

Bob Dull Strikes Gold on Jackass Hill.

R. E. Dull, who is working a pocket mine on Jackass Hill, near Tuttletown, last Tuesday cleaned up the last of a $3,OOO bunch of gold. The lucky miner has been trying the mining game for nine years, quitting the joys and sorrows of a printing office to try his luck on historic Jackass Hill, James Gillis’ great piece of mining ground from which enough precious metal has been taken to build a golden roof over Sonora.

Dull secured a claim on the usual conditions a percentage of the gross output to be paid Gillis and then went to work. He has taken out a number of pockets, each of which ran into the thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the little bunches of a few hundreds which the genuine pocket miner accepts as a matter of course, but with characteristic disdain unless grub is running mighty low. Wednesday Bob Dull was in Sonora with 136 ounces of gold, the tail end of the pocket.

--- end of story

That's a pretty good story and a lot of gold. It had to be a lot if he found $3000 in gold when gold only went for about $30 an ounce. And think about this, $3,000 in 1854 is worth $112,607.50 today (2024).

And there's this, the California Gold Rush era cabin that famous American writer Mark Twain stayed in is found on Jackass Hill in Tuolumne County. It is where Mark Twain was a guest of the Gillis Brothers during his stay in the county.

The original cabin was built by Dick Stoker in 1850. The present cabin located on Jackass Hill is a replica of the original, rebuilt a few times over the century and more since Twain was there. It was there that while living in that cabin on Jackass Hill where Mark Twain gathered material and wrote the story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" which made him famous.

American writer Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, spent time in Calaveras County, California in 1864 and 1865. The story of how his laziness stopped him from becoming a rich man is a true story.

On December 4, 1864, Twain arrived at a cabin on Jackass Hill Road between Angels Camp and Sonora, California, to stay with miners Jim and Steve Gillis. On January 25, 1865, Twain traveled from the cabin to Angels Camp to get away from the rain and loaf while he was rained in for almost two weeks. It's believed that it was during his visit to a saloon in Angels Camp that he heard a story about a jumping frog.

On November 18, 1865, Mark Twain published his story titled "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" in the New York Saturday Press. Twain's story about those jumping frogs was republished as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." That story is what launched his career as a writer and brought him national acclaim. But really, if he weren't sitting in that saloon, and had actually kept working his claim, he could have been a fairly wealthy man.

Here's the story behind that as reported in the newspaper, the Truckee Republican, on March 1st, 1911:

THE GOLD WAS THERE. 

But Mark Twain Missed It by Just One Pail of Water.

With Steve Gillis, a printer of whom he was fond, Mark Twain went up into Calaveras County to a cabin on Jackass Hill, where Steve’s brother Jim. a lovable, picturesque character (the “Truthful James” of Bret Harte), owned mining claims. Mark decided to spend his vacation in pocket mining and soon added that science to his store of knowledge. It was a halcyon, happy three mouths that he lingered there.

One day with Jim Gillis he was following the specks of gold that led to a pocket somewhere up the hill when a chill, dreary rain set in. Jim was washing and Samuel Clemens [Mark Twain's real name] was carrying water.

The "color" became better and better as they ascended, and Gillis, possessed with the mining passion, would have gone on regardless of the rain. Clemens, however, protested and declared that each pail of water was his last.

Finally, he said in his deliberate, drawling fashion, "Jim, I won’t carry any more water. This work is too disagreeable. Let's go to the house and wait till it clears up."

Gillis had just taken out a pan of earth, "Bring one more pail. Sam," he pleaded.

"I won’t do it, Jim! Not a drop! Not if I knew there was a million dollars in that pan!" said Clemens.

They left the pan standing there and went over to Angel's camp, which was nearer than their own cabin. The rain kept on, and they sat around the grocery and barroom smoking and telling stories to pass the time,

Meanwhile, the rain had washed away the top of the pan of earth left standing on the slope of Jackass Hill and exposed a handful of nuggets — pure gold. Two strangers had come along and, observing it, had sat down to wait until the thirty-day claim notice posted by Jim Gillis should expire.

They did not mind the rain — not with that gold in sight — and the minute the thirty days were up they followed the lead a few pans farther and took out $20,000 in all. It was a good pocket. Mark Twain missed it by one pail of water.

The above story was originally published by The Chicago Post.

Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties were formed in 1850 when gold was discovered in those areas. Tuolumne County sits on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, with Calaveras County to its north.

In regards to that $20,000 gold strike in 1865 when Twain decided that another pail of water was too much to carry, let's just put that in perspective for today. The sum of $20,000 in 1865 would have the same paying power as $386,872.39 does today. Of course, that would have meant that he would have been considered a very wealthy man -- especially by the standards of 1865.

After all, let's remember that a Cowboy would earn between $20 and $40 a month at the time.

Tom Correa