Chapter 10Day by day, more men poured into Alder, as news of the richness of the discovery spread rapidly. Men from all across the West made tracks for the new El Dorado as the news reached them, and every day dozens arrived. None were disappointed. Newly constructed sluice boxes yielded phenomenal amounts of gold on some claims, and the poorest claim still yielded double what the average claim back in Bannack had. In the span of a few weeks, the men who had arrived with the initial stampede, including those who had been burned out in the brush fire, were wealthier than they had ever dreamed possible. Every square foot along Alder Creek's fourteen-mile length that wasn't bare rock had been staked within the first few weeks, and the men now pouring in from all over the West either bought a
