Kelsey Rudinski

My name is Diamond Jackie. Jack for short. You are reading this because I am now famous. I traveled west in 1849 and robbed people of their gold money. This is my story.

I am going West to rob the gold miners of all their gold. Now, you might wonder why I don’t just get my own gold instead of robbing people, and the answer is simple. I am a young girl and not very strong. There is no way I could go out and mine gold. It is just much easier to steal other people’s.

This is a dangerous journey for a girl like me to take. I am taking it anyway. When we first heard about the gold rush I told my parents I wanted to go. They immediately said it was a terrible idea and that I should just forget about it. There was no way I could forget about an adventure like this, though. That is why I am going to California. My parents will just have to get over it.

I live in Nauvoo and will take the Mormon trail until I get to the Platte River. Than I will switch over and take the Oregon Trail for a while. Once I get to Fort Hall I will take the California Trail. The California Trail will get me all the way to California where I can start to steal people’s gold.

I am a little nervous about this trip. Not even the stealing part because that will be easy. I am more worried about the actual journey. Like I said before, I am young and not strong at all. So if any other people are looking to do the same thing as I am, we might run into some trouble.

Tomorrow I will be leaving for my journey. Tonight I have to make sure I have everything for my trip. My horses need to be rested because we have a very long journey ahead of us. I already bought all of my supplies from town. Now I just need to make sure my Conestoga wagon is ready.

I have been planning this trip for a very long time. It has taken me a year of hiding the money my parents give me for clothes to be able to buy all the supplies. The biggest thing I bought was my wagon. I already own the horses I will be taking. Their names are Sugar and Honey.

The supplies I will be taking are a gun, ammunition, things to trade, lead, tent, bedding, cooking utensils, matches, candles, and soap. The food I will be taking is salted meat, bread, water, flour, bacon, coffee, lard, tea, sugar, rice, dried fruit, and salt and pepper. I am hoping this will be enough to get me to California.

My parents went away for the weekend on business so this is the perfect time to runaway. They just left today, which is Friday, and will not be back until Sunday. By the time they get home I will be long gone. I still have not decided if I want to leave them a letter or not. There are more important things to worry about. I’ll have to decide tomorrow.

I have heard great stories about people that lived in Nauvoo and left to mine gold. They are all wealthier than they were when they left. That is what I want to accomplish. I am not exactly poor, actually my family is one of the wealthiest around. That is why my parents thought this was such a silly idea; me going west to “mine gold”. I just really want to make a name for myself. Not use my parents name for anything.

Everything is packed so now I will be going to sleep. I need to be rested because who knows when I will get a good rest again. I will be leaving very early tomorrow. I don’t want any of my neighbors to see me leave. This will be the last night I will ever see my house again.

(morning) It is very early. The sun isn’t even beginning to come out yet. This is very exciting. I like being the only one up. I just double checked to make sure everything was packed and it was all there. It’s time to leave Nauvoo forever. (night) I did not make it as far as I would have liked today. My horses were not ready to travel for this long. I am staying outside of a very small town, too small to mention. I have been here before so this is not very exciting.

(morning) I left at 6 this morning. It is around noon and I have made it about 75 miles already. I am going to take a break for about an hour and hopefully we can make it another 75 miles. (night) I did very well today. I made it all the way to the beginning of the Platte River. Today on my way to the river I robbed some people. They were cooking food but I didn’t see them anywhere so I just stole their food. It was very good and I am very proud of myself. Now I know I can do this.

(night) I left very early this morning. I wanted to try and make it to to the Rocky Mountain area and I did. My horses are very tired now so I am thinking we will not leave until noon tomorrow so they can rest. There is not much farther for me to go. I am about halfway there so a half days rest won’t hurt us too much. I am moving much faster than all of the other people coming west. They have many more things than me and most only have one horse per wagon. I have two which also helps.

(night) I left at noon today and that made my horses very happy. We made it all the way to Fort Hall. Now we will be taking the California Trail. I am so close I can almost taste it. Today two men stopped me. We started talking and I found that they are outlaws too. They asked if I would like to travel with them and help them once we get to California. I told them yes so now I am with them. I am planning on leaving them once I get to California. I can rob people on my own but, for now they are good protection. Hopefully they won’t slow me down.

(night) I am very upset. We did not even leave Fort Hall today. The boys stayed up all night and did not wake up until 4 pm. I can now see why they have been traveling for 20 days and have only made it about 100 miles. Tomorrow if they are not up I will leave without them. I confronted them about this when they woke up and they assured me it would not happen again but I have my doubts they will keep their promise.

(morning) The sun is still not up. I got up extra early because I want to make sure the boys get up today. I will not just sit around for another day. I am walking around and making a lot of noise at camp to wake them. So far it has not, they’re up. We are leaving now. (night) Again, we did not make it as far as I would have liked. I’m going to guess we made it about 100 miles today. We only stopped for an hour so I guess we did pretty good. I think we will only have about a week left. Which is good because my food is almost gone. I only have one piece of meat left, bread, water, and dried fruit.

(night) The boys were slow again today so I left them. I could not handle all the waiting around. It was just too much and I am dying to get to California. I waited until the sun came up and when they did not wake I left. I hope they will not be too upset with me but even if they are I don’t think I will see them again anyways.

(night) I am so close to California now. There are people everywhere around here. This is so exciting. A lot of people I can tell have money. I think tomorrow I will start stealing things from them. I will get up early, take the money and run. People have come up to me and asked what I was doing here. I never thought about what I was going to tell people. I didn’t think it would be an issue. I pretended I couldn’t understand them and started to talk German. No one knew what I was saying so I was safe.

(afternoon) I stole about $1,000 this morning. My plan worked perfectly. No one noticed I did this either. I should be very happy because this is a lot of money but, I actually feel terrible. I don’t think I am going to be able to do this. I am going to have to mine for myself and get my own money. I should take this money back but with the risk of being killed I think I’ll just keep it. I learned my lesson and I will never be able to steal again. I thought I wanted to be famous for stealing but, now I realize it was a horrible idea.