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REVIEW:
The Great Depression of 1929 brought many unfamiliar problems and unusual situations into the lives of the families and individuals who were caught up in its terrifying grasp. The day-to-day worry of how to put a roof over their heads and put food in their mouths was always foremost in their minds.
Most of the families who found their way to Goldroad when it reopened in March 1937, after its closure in 1924, were grateful for the opportunity, for the first time in five or more years, to once again feel secure in their ability to provide for their families. Day-to-day living in Goldroad offered many varied experiences. One historical happening was the great Okie migration that made its way along the famous Hiway 66 through Goldroad. Desperate families in old worn-out cars and trucks with all their earthly goods tied on top, made their way to California, the promised land, which was just a few short miles from Goldroad across the Colorado River at Topock. The Grapes of Wrath movie passed before their eyes almost on a daily basis. They had seen it in real life.
The author lived the Golden Years in Goldroad from age 5 until she was 11. The surprise attack December 7, 1941, by Japan on Pearl Harbor threw our country into World War II and quickly put an end to her life in Goldroad and sealed the fate of Goldroad as an operating gold mine for fifty years. The closure in early 1942 sent the supervisors and most of the miners and other workers in Goldroad to the company's new lead-zinc mine they had been forced to develop in Vanadium, a mining district around Silver City, New Mexico.
The nightly troop convoys the summer of 1942, before her family left Goldroad in November 1942, was one more reminder that the country was at war. The laughter and talk of these young soldiers bounced off the high, rock cliffs as their noisy troop carriers wound their way on steep grades and winding curves through a silent, dying gold mining camp on their way to who knows where or what.
The author will never forget the experiences she shared in Goldroad with family and friends--memories so vivid and deep they would last a lifetime.
--Norma Jean Richards Yount
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