Adventurous Woman Led Prospectors to Baja

By Greg Niemann

The anticipation of gold riches became a compelling attraction for many who made their way to Baja California. The golden vision became a reality as placer gold was discovered in several areas in the latter half of the 19th century.

The earliest Baja gold discoveries, from about 1850 to 1970, were not that significant but still drew California miners following the petering out of the famous 1848-49 placer mines of the Golden State. Miners from around the globe followed their dreams and descended upon Baja California every time a new strike was announced. Gold had become an exciting Baja lure.

It was the later claims, from 1870 to about the turn of the century, that drew the most attention and motivated argonauts to head for the unknown wilds of Baja to seek their dorados. Among them was one interesting group led by a plucky and adventurous prospector/businesswoman who originally hailed from Ireland, a living legend named Nellie Cashman.

Before Nellie’s group arrived in Baja, gold was discovered in an area east of Ensenada called Real del Castillo. Over the next decade a town of over 500 people emerged and Real del Castillo became so important it became the territorial capital until 1882. About that time gold was being discovered elsewhere in Baja.

It was the later exciting 1882-83 boom in the Calmali area to the south that drew Nellie Cashman and her group. Rich placer gold deposits were found in Calmali and nearby El Arco and Pozo Aleman, just north of the territorial boundaries between Baja Norte and Baja Sur. Over 400 enthusiastic miners immediately converged on Calmali seeking their riches.

More large deposits were unearthed in the nearby Sierra el Arco with mining continuing for a quarter century. In its heyday, Calmali boasted 20 stamp mills. (It is estimated that the Calmali District ended up producing over 130,000 ounces of gold from 1882-1910).

Nellie Cashman was one of the miners attracted to the Calmali gold frenzy. The phenomenal woman was no stranger to the harsh realities of mining. A petite Irish lass (barely 5 feet and weighing 100 pounds), Nellie was born in 1845 in County Cork. At age 5, with her widowed mother, she arrived in the states, first settling in Boston, and then San Francisco.

In 1872 she relocated to the silver-mining district of Pioche, Nevada, where after a little prospecting, she opened a boardinghouse, thus securing a steadier income. Then she joined the gold rush to Canada, trekking with 200 miners to Cassiar, B.C., where she again opened a boardinghouse for miners.

After she rescued 70 fellow miners who became trapped in a snowstorm, she became widely known as a genuine heroine throughout the West. She gathered supplies, hired six men, and trekked through bitter mountain weather before finally reaching the trapped miners.

Nellie was a shrewd entrepreneur, prospecting, and running businesses the rest of her life. Her M.O. was to arrive at a mining camp early on, maybe stake a claim, set up a business, usually a boardinghouse, make a profit, and then move on. A lifelong and devout Catholic, throughout her life she gave most of her money to charity.

Arriving at the great silver strike in Tombstone, Arizona in 1880, she opened a boot and shoe shop, a grocery, and hotel and dining room. She lived in Tombstone until 1889, buying and selling claims and amassing a fortune. The town loved her as she helped establish the first hospital and Catholic Church in Tombstone. She also provided free meals and lodging to the needy.

On numerous occasions she organized and led expeditions into the wilderness seeking another fortune. Thus she was definitely intrigued when Baja beckoned.

In 1883, when news of the Calmali gold strike in Baja California spread over the West, Nellie organized a prospecting expedition that consisted of Milt Joyce, owner of the Oriental Saloon, Marcus A. (Mark) Smith, an active young lawyer who would later become one of Arizona’s first two U.S. Senators, and 19 other hopefuls.

What was noteworthy about this expedition was the willingness of the 21 Tombstoners, all veteran frontier men, to put themselves under Nellie’s leadership.

They took a train south to Guaymas, Mexico’s main port in Sonora, and sailed across the Gulf of California. The plan was to trek inland from where they landed at the Trinidad Bay area (Bahia San Carlos) across the deserts of Baja California to Calmali.

She and five or six of the party went ahead as a reconnoitering party, but quickly were endangered by the harsh desert conditions. They almost died from the extreme heat and lack of water before giving up and returning to Arizona.

However, what’s a good gold-mining story without legends? And there are several about this Baja excursion. It was said the advance party got lost in the desert themselves and Nellie was the only one fit to go for water. She made her way to an old mission (The only one in the area would be Misión Santa Gertrudis) where the kindly padre helped fill her canteens with water. Nellie was all that saved twenty prospectors from dying in that searing Mexican desert.

Another version of the story is that she found gold near the mission and could have started a rush but the padre told her it was the mission’s only source of wealth and so she kept the secret. Nellie never told that story but her admirers did and it became another Baja legend.

Another story yet that became part of folklore is that an angel guided her to a mission, where she was able to obtain supplies, saving her companions.

Regardless, even though the Tombstoners never found the gold they sought, they all survived the journey under Ellie’s leadership. Back at Trinidad Bay they boarded a small Mexican boat that Nellie had booked passage for.

On the way across the Gulf of California the captain got drunk and was unable to control his drinking. So Nellie and some of the prospectors tied him up to sleep it off. When they arrived in Guaymas, the now-sober skipper pressed charges and the prospectors and crew were arrested for imprisoning the captain, but were released a few days later. One legend says it was Nellie’s charm that convinced the authorities to release them. Other stories indicate the American consul came to their rescue. In reality it was probably a little of both, Nellie charming the consul.

Back in Tombstone Nellie became a dynamo, always displaying empathy and trying to help others. In 1884 she thwarted a plan to turn the hanging of five convicted robbers into a public spectacle. She recruited a group of miners to help her dismantle the newly erected “necktie party grandstand.”

Another story adding to her legacy is when she heard the local mine superintendent, E. B. Gage, was to be kidnapped and hanged by protesting miners, she snuck him in her carriage and drove him out of town.

Nellie is credited with being the first female prospector in Alaska, mining claims and running businesses in several locales, including Coldfoot where she established her last 20 claims. At age 70 she was a champion musher, setting records and earning awards. She died at age 80 in the Victoria. B.C. hospital she helped found and establish 40 years previous.

Nellie was not forgotten. The television series “The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp” featured a fictional character based on Nellie Cashman. She was also “The Angel of Tombstone” in the western series “Death Valley Days.”

In 1982, the Puget Sound-based group Women Business Owners established the Nellie Cashman Award, or the “Nellie,” now known as the Women Business Owners of the Year Awards. In 1984, Cashman was inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1994, Nellie Cashman was featured on a United States postage stamp as part of the Legends of the West series.

In 2006, Nellie Cashman was inducted posthumously into the Alaska Mining Hall of Fame. In 2014 a monument in Nellie’s honor was erected near her home in Midleton County Cork, Ireland.

The go-getter Nellie Cashman was in Baja California for a very short time; she was unable to stake a claim there, but she earned the respect of not only those miners who traveled to Baja with her, but miners and prospectors throughout the West. She rightfully earned the admiring sobriquet “The Miners’ Angel.”