To 49ers and those who followed, no expression characterized the rush to California better. They announced they were "going to see the elephant," an unusual experience in those days before zoos and wild animal parks. Those returning from the west claimed they had seen the "elephant's tracks" or the "elephant's tail" but not the elephant -- meaning they had seen a hint of the gold but not the riches. Many confessed they'd seen more than enough of the animal and returned home empty handed.

The expression predated the Gold Rush, arising from a tale current when circus parades first featured elephants. A farmer, so the story went, hearing that a circus was in town, loaded his wagon with vegetables for the market there. He had never seen an elephant and which he very much wished to do. On the way to town he encountered the circus parade, led by an elephant. The farmer was thrilled. His horses, however, were terrified. Bolting, they overturned the wagon and ruined the vegetables. "I don't give a hang," the farmer said, "for I have seen the elephant."

For gold rushers, the elephant symbolized both the high cost of their endeavor -- the myriad possibilities for misfortune on the journey or in California -- and, like the farmer's circus elephant, an exotic sight, and unequaled experience, the adventure of a lifetime.