Sharing the culture, history and adventure of the American Southwest.
Jun 2006
Reche Canyon California
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All Types Of Treasure Hunting
I have seen the " Elephant "
What does it mean... and why. California miner's who left from points east were known to have said that they were " going to see the elelphant ". Here is what it means:
The Elephant
I think that I may without vanity affirm that I have "seen the elephant"
Louisa Clapp
To forty-niners and those following, no expression characterized the California gold rush more than the words "seeing the elephant." Those planning to travel west announced they were "going to see the elephant." Those turning back claimed they had seen the "elephant's tracks" or the "elephant's tail," and confessed they'd seen more than enough of the animal.
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 very much wished to. 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.
i was under the impression that the turm came out of soldiers, going down to mexico to fight in the mexican american war, but that war was 1848, i thank , so it would seem to be used as a turm for young men seeking adventure of that period..
According to George Wilkins Kendall, The Texan-Santa Fe Expedition of 1841, Texans were using the phrase "I've seen the elephant" already then. That's the earliest I've ever come across it as a direct quote from an eye-witness. When I first encountered it [Kendall might have explained it this way, or I might have just 'thought that must be what it's about] I figured it was because the elephant was the big attraction in most circuses in those days and once you'd seen that it was just winding down. But the way he quotes others using it usually was at times when things were going badly and they were going through 'I've had it!' moments. I think Captain Matthew [Old Paint] Caldwell was the first person Kendall quoted saying it during the Expedition.
I've come across mountain-man recountings where the phrase was used by mountain men such as "Rendezvous Reader 1805-1850" Edited by James H. McGuire, Peter Wild and Donald A Barclay [Univ of Utah Press 1997] and noticed it and wondered. I suspect the anecdotes of early mountain men using it was a linguistic anacronism... someone later knowing it was an old-timey phrase and putting it into those mouths. Reason being I've never seen it used in diaries or on-the-spot tales of mountain men by mountain men.
boy i just love this kind of stuff . were meny peaple come togather to find the truth about history, i wish are school system worked that way for teaching history,
Hey!
"I have seen The Elephant Too!"
But!
Not For sure!
I was checking out some Spanish symbols thru my binoculars,
on a distant rock ledge
And!
There appears to be an "Elephant" among them!!!!
That is/would REALLY be Strange !
If True! SO!,
On this year's trip, I am going to climb up there a have close look & Photograph it ? !
If! So!
This would predate the above ones, in the 1800's, by a couple of HUNDRED years!
MAN!
That is Strange! (Your Elephant)
Are there any other signs around or in the area?
At any rate...
Even tho The Elephants are about 1200 miles apart
I feel better!
Your photo proves that I DID !
SEE AN ELEPHANT!
I was beginning to think that something was wrong with my Binoculars
Now!
The Question(s) is/are..
1..What do they mean ?
And!
2..Who put them there?
(I would "guessimate" that they're Spanish...because the Spanish would
always leave a "space" ("see thru") under anything that might be mistaken for a Natural Formation
.ps.
Can I call you some evening and get the map coordinates?
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