Same year as -----

We think in terms of events linked to years - the famous Antiques Roadshow question, "Do you remember what year you bought this"?

Wandering around the picture archives from this Village of Greenport (it was Greenport at this time), we came across a train schedule from 1849. It is pretty nifty to look at and even niftier to think about.

The presidential election was over and President Polk (remember him???) just came into office.  Noticing the Sutter's Mill gold find in California from late the year before, he supposedly coined the phrase Gold Rush and from that 49'ers for those hearty souls - some 200,000 of them, who made the journey.

We have read that an alternate route to California from here required going to Panama and hiking/canoing over to the Pacific - shorter but we are thinking of snakes and bugs - perhaps not ideal for us.

Some 2 months before this train schedule went into effect, the Sabina, a merchant ship from Greenport started the journey to the Gold Fields leaving in early February perhaps about the time that David Ives, the railroad superintendent was drawing up the schedule for spring. The Sabrina's journey took about 8 months and they returned in May of 1850. That Log exists so we need a day trip to Mystic to read it.

The passengers would have missed the great Greenport Fair of 1849 which seemed to spout from efforts of the railroad to promote their service but we just don't know much about it.  That seems like a good project....an interesting excursion to the records.

All in all, 1849 was an interesting year in these parts and all over. Good to know.