In the fall we concluded to try another trapping tour, and set out for Prairie du Chien.  We knew it was a poor place to spend money up in the woods, and when we got our money it was all in a lump and seemed to amount to something.  Mr. Brisbois said that the prospects were very poor indeed, for the price of fur was very low and no prospect of a better market.  So we left our traps still on storage at his place and went back again.  This was in 1847, and before Spring the war was being pushed in Mexico.  I tried to enlist for this service, but there were so many ahead of me I could not get a chance.

I still worked in the settlement and made a living, but had no chance to improve my land.  The next winter I lived with Mr A. Bennett, hunted deer and sold them at Mineral Point, and in this way made and saved a few dollars.

There had been from time to time rumors of a better country to the west of us and a sort of a pioneer, or western fever would break out among the people occasionally.  Thus in 1845 I had a slight touch of the disease on account of the stories they told us about Oregon.  It was reported that the Government would give a man a good farm if he would go and settle, and make some specified improvement.  They said it was in a territory of rich soil, with plenty of timber, fish and game and some Indians, just to give a little spice of adventure to the whole thing.  The climate was very mild in winter, as they reported, and I concluded it would suit me exactly.  I began at once to think about an outfit and a journey, and I found that it would take me at least two years to get ready.  A trip to California was not thought of in those days, for it did not belong to the United States.

In the winter of 1848-49 news began to come that there was gold in California, but not generally believed till it came through a U.S. officer, and then, as the people were used to mines and mining, a regular gold fever spread as if by swift contagion.  Mr. Bennett was aroused and sold his farm, and I felt a change in my Oregon desires and had dreams at might of digging up the yellow dust.  Nothing would cure us then but a trip, and that was quickly decided on.

As it would be some weeks yet before grass would start, I concluded to haul my canoe and a few traps over to a branch of the Wisconsin, and make my way to Prairie du Chien, do a little trapping, get me an Indian pony on which to ride to California.  There were no ponies to be had at Mineral Point.  Getting a ride up the river on a passing steamboat I reached Prairie La Crosse, where the only house was that of a Dutch trader from whom I bought a Winnebago pony, which he had wintered on a little brushy island, and I thought if he could winter on brush and rushes he must be tough enough to take me across the plains.  He cost me $30, and I found him to be a poor, lazy little fellow.  However, I thought that when he got some good grass, and a little fat on his ribs he might have more life, and so I hitched a rope to him and drove him ahead down the river.  When I came to the Bad Axe river I found it swimming full, but had no trouble in crossing, as the pony was as good as a dog in the water.