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Many of the miners did not find gold in the days of the Gold Rush, yet they continued to wander from strike to strike across the West: California, Arizona, Nevada, and Montana.
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Except for the lucky few, the men who prospered most were those who settled down in the new Western states and began to make stable communities of the shanty towns the miners had thrown together.
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California gold prospectors sang this song as they headed north.
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The lyrics may have been written by Judge Francis D. Henry in 1849.
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The tune is the old Irish air Rosin the Beau, which has been parodied repeatedly, including use in four presidential campaigns
(see Lincoln and Liberty).
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When Washington became a state in 1889 this was its official song.
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