648 . . . When word of the gold strikes in California reached Oregon in 1848, Alphonso and his boys headed south to make their fortune. On February 1, 1850, Alphonso died at Long's Bar of an illness contracted in the gold fields. Though they lost their father, the Boone brothers did well in the mines, and Alphonso's sons gradually dispersed across the Northwest with their fortunes assured: Jesse returned to Oregon and ran the ferry for 26 years, until he was murdered by a neighbor in a dispute over access to the river; Alphonso (junior) briefly ran the ferry before selling it to Jesse and going into the steamboat business; Joshua settled in Benton County, Oregon; and James moved to Idaho and ran the Morning Star Silver Mine.

The only son of Alphonso Boone who didn't accompany him to Oregon was George Luther Boone. Many years later, he told his story to fellow Oregon Trail emigrant Eva Emery Dye: