2021 Nano Prep

Oct. 23: - CONTEST ROUND: Setting Description ֎

Describe a setting in words. Use all five senses and make your reader experience the setting as if he or she were there.


The California Gold Rush began in 1848 and drew over a quarter million prospectors from around the world.

The camps were very primitive. The prospectors lived in tents along side the rivers and streams they were panning. Bathing and laundry was done in the cold mountain water. Laundry was hung to dry on tree branches or a line.

Wooden sluice boxes carried water and material over a distance to sort the gold from the earth the men shoveled into the boxes or from their wooden buckets. Some men swirled finer material in pans looking for the elusive gold.

There was little in the way of sanitation. The prospectors dumped their trash and their bodily waste a short distance from their living and working location. The smell was unpleasant and the location was usually set downwind. A shift in the breeze would set the miners into fits of gagging.

The higher altitudes possessed lower humidity. You could taste the dust. A man's hands were dry and cracked from the rough work. This wasn't a place for women, but there were some that were pretending to be men in the camps.

There were pick axes, shovels, and buckets that were integral parts of this labor intensive process. Saw to cut down trees and make the sluice boxes and buckets. There were donkeys that hauled the prospector and his load up the mountain if the wagons could not make it. There were general stores that cropped up near the trailhead. If the camp stayed there for long, some storekeepers would venture up to the camps to sell their wares. They charged three to five times the normal cost because they could. For most, not having to venture back down the dangerous mountain range it was worth paying the extra money. The storekeeper had to bear the cost and time to ferry items from San Francisco or Sacramento via wagon and then up to the camp via donkey.

There were people from all walks of life descending on the goldrush. Office workers from London, Asians from across the Pacific, South Americans that trekked north, and new Americans that forged west all in search of the mountain of gold.

Once the sound of the shovels and pick axes quieted down at sunset, it was replaced with the pleasant smell from crackling campfires and the laughter of the men.



Oct. 23: - CONTEST ROUND: Setting Description ▼

Describe a setting in words. Use all five senses and make your reader experience the setting as if he or she were there.

*Contest Round entries may be any rating. Follow these instructions ("IMPORTANT: How to compete in a Contest Round" ) by 1200 noon WDC time on Sunday to compete. WDC time is New York City time and can be found at the top of the IM Console. If you miss this deadline or choose not to compete, you must still log the assignment complete (without linking your work) for the grand prize, per the standard Prep guidelines.