The Luck of Roaring Camp is a short story by American author Bret
Harte. It was first published in the August 1868 issue of the Overland
Monthly and helped push Harte to international prominence.The story is
about the birth of a baby boy in a 19th-century gold prospecting camp.
The boy's mother, Cherokee Sal, dies in childbirth, so the men of
Roaring Camp must raise it themselves. Believing the child to be a
good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck. Afterwards,
they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and
fighting. At the end of the story, however, Luck and a villager,
Kentuck, perish in a flash flood that strikes the camp.Roaring Camp
was a real place. It was a goldmining settlement on the Mokelumne
River in Amador County, California. It was home to forty-niners
seeking gold in and around the river; it is now a privately owned
tourist attraction. The story's flood theme may have been inspired by
California's Great Flood of 1862, which Harte witnessed.The story
takes place in a small struggling mining town located in the foothills
of the California mountains at the time of the gold rush. The camp is
suffering from a long string of bad luck. With only one woman in their
midst, it seems as though the miners have no future. However, the tide
turns when a small boy is born. "Thomas Luck" is the first newborn the
camp has seen in ages; things are looking up. The miners become
cheerful, foliage begins to grow, and there is talk of building a
hotel to attract outsiders. Unfortunately, the hope is wiped out by
the sudden death of Luck in a flood. Water brought gold to the
gulches, giving miners their first glimmer of hope. And water takes
away what seems their last glimmerâ€"Luck. The Luck of Roaring Camp Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter