H4668.97

• california gold rush

carpenter and blacksmith's tools. Description: From Mother Lode - 19th Century. Blacksmith's tool. large dutch oven. From the History Information Station: Object: Cast iron pot, with three legs and notched handle. Designed to be placed directly in an open fire or hung over the fire from an iron hook. History: This fireplace pot is out-of-date for this kitchen's cookstove, thus it sits unused at the back of the pantry. Cookstoves needed pots which sat directly on the stovetop or fit into the burners, but this old pot's legs made that impossible. In the 1850s many households found themselves with out-of-date utensils, for at this time many switched from cooking over an open hearth to cooking on a cast iron stove. This was frequently the case with gold-rush pioneers. Most of them brought fireplace pots for camping on the trail, and for cooking over open fires at logging camps, but once they settled down they preferred the cleaner, more efficient and modern stove to the old-fashioned fireplace. Still, many kept their old pots for doing laundry and for cooking outside in the summer.

Used: Mother Lode | Blacksmith