In 1849 with the
California Gold Rush in progress, John invested his life savings of over $6,000 (~$ in ) to buy a large supply of footwear, and had it shipped to
St. Louis, Missouri. He intended to sell his goods at great profit to the thousands of
forty-niners passing through St. Louis. Through no fault of his own, he lost the entire investment in the
St. Louis wharf fire. Shortly thereafter, John's father committed suicide; – it is possible that he had invested heavily in John's plans. At this point, John felt he had nothing to lose. He had a touch of
gold fever and a yearning for adventure. He knew even if he failed to recoup his lost investment in the mines, he could at least support himself by hunting and trapping in the untapped wilds of California. He left his family and relatives behind in
Massachusetts and joined the
49ers on their way to California. On his journey via the
Santa Fe and
Gila trails, he twice survived near fatal illnesses and arrived at the gold fields of California late in 1849. Adams tried his luck at mining, hunting game to sell to the miners, trading, and finally, ranching and farming. At times he was rich and then, just as quickly, broke. Late in 1852, having lost his ranch outside of
Stockton, California, to creditors, he took the few items he could salvage and headed into the
Sierra Nevada mountains to get away from it all. With the help of the local
Miwok Indians, Adams built a cabin and stable and spent the winter alone in the
Sierra. John was an expert hunter and his
New England training in shoemaking and leather craft gave him the necessary skills to fashion buckskin clothing and moccasins (the clothing he adopted as normal attire for the remainder of his life). He also made his own harness, pack saddles, snowshoes and other items he needed. Adams traveled great distances from his California base camp on foot, on horse or mule, or in an ox-drawn wagon. In 1853, he made a hunting and trapping expedition some from his base camp in California to eastern
Washington Territory (what is now western
Montana). While there, he caught a yearling female grizzly that he named Lady Washington. Even though she was already a year old and very wild, he managed to tame her and taught her to follow him without restraint. Later, he trained her to carry a pack and then to pull a loaded sled. She even cuddled up near John to keep him warm in freezing conditions. Eventually, Lady Washington allowed John to ride on her back. In 1854, Adams retrieved a pair of two-week-old male grizzly cubs from the den of their mother near
Yosemite Valley. He named one of them Benjamin Franklin. Ben saved John's life a year later in 1855, when a mother grizzly attacked Adams. John and Ben both bore the scars of that attack the rest of their lives. The head injury John received in the attack led to his demise five years later. In the summer of 1854, John traveled to the
Rocky Mountains to hunt and collect more live animals. He and his hunting companions sold meat, hides and some live animals to the emigrants along the
Emigrant Trails near where the
Oregon Trail and the
Mormon Trail split away from each other (southwestern Wyoming). They also sold and traded at
Fort Bridger,
Wyoming and
Fort Supply. During this expedition, Lady Washington mated with a Rocky Mountain grizzly, resulting in a male cub that was born the next year when she was with Adams in
Corral Hollow on the eastern side of the
California coastal mountains. Adams christened her cub General Fremont, in honor of
John C. Frémont. In the winter of 1854, Grizzly Adams captured a huge California grizzly in the largest cage trap Adams had ever constructed. John named him Samson. When the bear was later weighed on a hay scale, it tipped the beam at 1,500 pounds (one of the largest grizzly bears ever captured alive). During 1855, Adams and his companions hunted and trapped game in the California Coast Range mountains, journeyed to the Kern River mines, then proceeded southward to the
Tehachapi Mountains and
Tejon Pass. Returning from the Tejon Pass area, Adams followed the
Old Spanish Route via
San Miguel and
San Jose. Due to interest of the curious people the group met, John set up impromptu shows of his bears and other animals he had collected on his summer excursion. These shows, a precursor to his circus career, were conducted in San Miguel,
Santa Clara,
San Jose, the
redwoods and finally San Francisco. In 1856, John retrieved all of his animals from
Howard's Ranch near
Stockton, California, where he had left them to be cared for while he was absent. He then opened the Mountaineer Museum in a basement on Clay Street in San Francisco. Due to notices T. H. Hittell printed in the San Francisco daily
Evening Bulletin, Adams' show drew many more patrons. Soon thereafter, Adams was able to move his menagerie and museum, now called the Pacific Museum, to a better location. The new building could accommodate larger audiences and house more animals and displays. By 1858, he was referred to as the "Barnum of the Pacific", in a San Francisco newspaper. In January 1858, tragedy struck when noble Ben, John's favorite grizzly, died of an illness for which no remedy could be found. Adams was devastated at the loss, but continued to show his animals daily. He also continually added more animals and other attractions to his museum. In 1859, due to such overextensions, he lost his museum building to creditors. However, he was able to save most of his menagerie, which he relocated temporarily to another building. Grizzly Adams' health was deteriorating and he knew his life would soon end. Since he had been away from his wife in
Massachusetts for over ten years, he wanted to earn enough before he died to leave her a comfortable sum. He made arrangements to relocate his menagerie and collections to New York, in hopes of joining
P. T. Barnum as a part of his show. On January 7, 1860, Adams and his menagerie departed from San Francisco on the clipper ship
Golden Fleece on their way to New York City via
Cape Horn, a -month voyage. In New York City, Grizzly Adams, still representing himself as James Capen Adams, joined with Barnum to perform his California Menagerie in a canvas tent for six weeks. His health continued to decline and after a doctor told him he had better settle his affairs, Adams decided he would sell his menagerie to
Barnum. However, disregarding his doctor's prognosis, he managed to persuade Barnum to agree to let him perform his animals for another ten weeks for a $500 bonus. Adams' willpower held out for the full contract, though at the end he could hardly walk onto the stage. From the proceeds of the sale of the menagerie and the bonus, he had accomplished his goal of providing a comfortable sum for his wife. ==Death==