# Did San Francisco gold miners ever send their laundry to Asia? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765 "2014-06-01T12:26:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/1 "2014-06-01T12:26:15Z")
I heard a long time ago that there was such a shortage of women during the San Francisco gold rush that miners would routinely ship their clothes across the pacific ocean to be laundered and then shipped back. I did some googling on this recently and found inconclusive and conflicting results. So, was this a thing that actually happened or an urban legend? ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/2 "2014-06-01T12:29:51Z")
Ridiculous. “Shortage of women”? Is there some anatomical reason why men can’t wash clothes? What’s the gold miner’s equivalent of Paul Bunyan? ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/3 "2014-06-01T12:46:55Z")
Laundry was nearly universally done by Chinese immigrants at the time, but they definitely weren’t shipping it back home! ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/4 "2014-06-01T13:06:58Z")
[This piece](http://www.examiner.com/article/the-early-laundry-business-san-francisco) from The Examiner seems to support that it happened while [this discussion](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.folklore.urban/MNj6MEH_gk4) from alt.urban.folklore believes it was passed around as a joke that became believed as truth. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/5 "2014-06-01T13:08:22Z")
When Fred Armisen is on the road, [he Fedexes his dirty underwear home](http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/portlandia/) to be laundered. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/6 "2014-06-01T13:59:06Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > [This piece](http://www.examiner.com/article/the-early-laundry-business-san-francisco) from The Examiner seems to support that it happened while [this discussion](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.folklore.urban/MNj6MEH_gk4) from alt.urban.folklore believes it was passed around as a joke that became believed as truth. It looks to me like the situation being described in the first link is that in the very earliest days of the gold rush, it cost too much to do laundry and so the miners would just sell their soiled clothes to the ships that were heading back after dropping off supplies (which included clean clothes.) I’m not sure I’d exactly call that “sending your laundry to be cleaned” abroad, even if maybe some of the clothes might have made a round trip. At any rate, I don’t think the above situation would have persisted very long since the Chinese laundries were established fairly soon after the '49 rush. ---
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/7 "2014-06-01T15:38:19Z")
In the days of sail the turn around time would have ben months. And the miners would not know when the ship that took their dirties would return. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/8 "2014-06-01T16:05:31Z")
To quote from a newspaper article from July 1849 > [@](#): > > [S.F.] is a small town with very large prices. Board varies from 16 to 21 dollars per week. Washing 5 dollars per dozen. Another newspaper article from Dec. 1849– > [@](#): > > A company of _washmen_ are located at the Fresh Water Pond, doing a driving business in the laundry line. Another from June of 1849– > [@](#): > > I attended a sale, a few days since, where things went off very cheap. Shovels $2 per dozen, Colored shirts $8.50 to $9 per dozen, Flannel at $1.75 to $2[per dozen]. \ Washing is so high that everyone wears his shirt as long as he can, and then throws it away. I vote urban legend factoid. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/9 "2014-06-01T16:12:08Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > In the days of sail the turn around time would have ben months. And the miners would not know when the ship that took their dirties would return. that was the earliest start of nudism in the area. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/10 "2014-06-01T16:14:37Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > In the days of sail the turn around time would have ben months. And the miners would not know when the ship that took their dirties would return. On the other hand, a lot of those old miners only changed their clothes once a year, so it’s plausible. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/11 "2014-06-01T17:05:48Z")
Today 90% of clothing donated to charity in the U.S. gets shipped to Africa and other parts of the Third World: > **[The Truth About Where Your Donated Clothes End Up](https://abcnews.go.com/WN/truth-donated-clothes-end/story?id=2743456)** ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/12 "2014-06-01T17:46:04Z")
I don’t know if this is urban legend, but when I was in Manaus, Brazil, the museum claimed that the rubber barons would ship their clothing back to Europe to be laundered. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/13 "2014-06-01T19:08:59Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > [This piece](http://www.examiner.com/article/the-early-laundry-business-san-francisco) from The Examiner seems to support that it happened … When a website displays headlines like the following, I tend to doubt anything it claims: > [@](#): > > Human animal hybrids created in secret U.S. government alien underground base (Photos) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/14 "2014-06-03T21:17:09Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > When Fred Armisen is on the road, [he Fedexes his dirty underwear home](http://www.dinnerpartydownload.org/portlandia/) to be laundered. But why FedEx, instead of the slightly slower but cheaper USPO? Is there some rush about getting his dirty underwear home? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/15 "2014-06-03T22:34:41Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > I don’t know if this is urban legend, but when I was in Manaus, Brazil, the museum claimed that the **rubber barons** would ship their clothing back to Europe to be laundered. I had no idea that Brazil had elastic nobility. :o ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/16 "2014-06-03T23:12:13Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > I had no idea that Brazil had elastic nobility. :o LOL, but just in case of whoosh, they really were [rubber barons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_rubber_boom), not “robber barons” or some such. (They might have been robber barons too I guess, IDK.) ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/17 "2014-06-03T23:57:40Z")
Also worth noting that the miners weren’t even in San Francisco - they were 100+ miles to the east in the Sierra foothills. I suspect they washed their own clothes in the river, when they washed them at all. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-san-francisco-gold-miners-ever-send-their-laundry-to-asia/689765/18 "2014-06-04T00:06:02Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > But why FedEx, instead of the slightly slower but cheaper USPO? Is there some rush about getting his dirty underwear home? He touched on that: > [@](#): > > \*\*Brendan Francis Newnam: \*\*But I don’t understand. It probably costs just as much money to ship underwear across the country FedEx as to buy a new pair of underwear. > > \*\*Fred Armisen: \*\*I’m loaded.