Crown of Dust by Mary Volmer
Summary by Chapter
Chapters 1 and 2: Character notes in separate file
Chapter 3:
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Emaline imagines her dream kitchen (American dream as part of Gold Rush)
Hard living and traveling: fetching and sanitizing water; rodents getting into the food; trails
muddy and steep (blisters on feet, cold nights, oppressive sun, outhouse use)
Limpy stakes a claim for Alex
Heavy rain leads to indoor storytelling. Stories change over time
Alex wishes she had the privileges of a man. She is isolated, hiding who she is
Due to heavy rain, miners leave.
Alex stakes her claim and finds nugget with size and shape of an egg
Chapter 4:
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Emaline recalls time as a prostitute in San Francisco, taking a shirt as payment from a young
man, wondering if he is still alive after the San Francisco snow froze many people
 Emaline encourages Alex to hide the gold nugget in her room, but Alex ties a line around her
waist and keeps the nugget hanging in the fabric between her legs
 Alex joins men in the Victoria Inn, who are excited about the find. (It could mean finds for
others.) Alex is the “golden boy.”
 In discussion, several miners, including Limpy, suggest Alex should share her good fortune.
John Thomas is particularly resentful, *checkchapterlocation trips Alex, who falls and is
rendered disoriented. Emaline cares for Alex.
Chapter 5:
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John Thomas announces that Alex did not deserve the strike. He trips Alex, who hits her head
and is disoriented.
Emaline and then David help Alex. Alex holds David tight and David has a nervous response.
The narrator dwells on David’s sexual feelings toward Emaline, then invokes Alex as a “conceit
[fanciful or imaginative train of thought] lingering and polluting his mind” (63).
The undeserved luck of Alex in finding the nugget of gold quickly is further developed
David is restless, and seeks relief.
David follows a figure into the Victorian Inn. It is John Thomas, dagger in hand, at Alex’s door.
David and Jed force John Thomas to relinquish the knife and then leave.
Chapter 6:
 The chapter opens with vivid, tactile images (human washing, hens and chickens roaming
free).
 Emaline’s history of crossing the plains of the country to reach San Francisco is noted, as is her
founding of the town of Motherlode. Emaline might be a Mormon, which explains her
emphasis on the Sabbath (despite the “ungodly” life she leads)
 Emaline and Jed wake Alex, who comically throws up on Emaline’s Sunday dress
 Emaline and Jed attend Sunday service, but the rest of the town, including David, go to the
creek to mine for gold.
 Preacher John addresses “envy,” which has surfaced in John Thomas’s resentment that Alex, a
newcomer, has struck gold. But the scene is comical with “passing wind” and the “raw-butted
hen” whose “toenails click down the aisle” (78)
 Emaline gives up on the usual seriousness of the Sabbath, leaves the chapel, and meets a man
from her past, Jackson Hudson.
 Emaline and Jackson Hudson know each other from two years ago in Sacramento, when
Emaline was a prostitute. Now, he’s offering Emaline “protection” (81) against bandits,
thieves, foreigners, celestials (Chinese). Most of all, he is looking for escaped (fugitive) slaves.
He leaves before Jed exits the chapel.
 Unclear passage suggests gay sex on ship.
 Limpy awakes David from a dream (about Alex?) to recount a profitable day at Alex’s claim.
Ch. 7:
 Tension between Jed and Emaline, perhaps due to Jackson Hudson’s raising of the race issue
 Alex develops blisters from the hard work of mining. An analogy is made between the
hardening of watery blisters and Alex’s dilemma of being true to her nature while maintaining
a hard, male exterior
 Argument over claim settled by Emaline
 Alex reflects on the comfort of the kitchen, drawing the contrast between the ambition
exercised by Alex the miner and the comfort and satisfactions of fulfilling a traditional role in
the kitchen
 Three strangers arrive in town, who we later find is Mr. Dourity, Mrs. Dourity, and her
daughter Lou Anne.
Ch. 8:
 Alex works hard, but David acts as if he made the gold strike.
 Time has passed. Water supply is an issue. Many are coming to Motherlode because of the
presence of the creek.
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The town is changing, particularly with the arrival of three families: the Douritys (husband is a
lawyer), the Erkstines (husband is a pastor), and the Wallers (husband runs a grocery
store/livery)
In a long scene, Emaline visits Mrs. Dourity, where she meets Mrs. Erkstine and Mrs. Waller. It
seems the women have heard Emaline “works” at the Victoria Inn but not that she owns it.
Tension builds as the women argue over who will preach at “Emaline’s chapel.” The dialogue
suggests the disapproval of the newcomers for Emaline’s way of life, metaphorically conveyed
in their digging into Emaline’s pie as they imply the need for change.
A comment suggests Emaline has been the only woman in Motherlode (not counting the
hidden Alex), so perhaps she is still working as a prostitute.
The chapter ends with a narrative on the value of freedom and ambition, leading to
accomplishment, associating these features with California.
Chapter 9:
* Limpy, Alex, and David dig into the mountain, using timber to secure the opening from collapse.
Environmental degradation noted.
* David's arrival touched upon. Chinese immigration as part of international migration is noted.
* David's situation explored. He now makes as much in a day as his father did in six months--a
success. He sends gold home with terse (containing few words) letters.
* As Alex sits in a quiet spot by the inn, Lou Anne, the 13-year-old daughter of Mrs. Dourity, arrives.
She is testing boundaries. She talks with Alex about Lou Anne's mother's comments about Emaline's
sinfulness.
* The contact with a young girl inspires a flashback in which Alex recalls Gertrude, a mature childhood
friend. Compared to Gertrude, Alex as a young girl is boyish, wanting to be a grown woman.
* Alex's "conversations" in the attic with her dead mother is described, and then her wearing of her
mother's wedding dress.
* Wearing the dress, Alex meets Peter in the rabbit hutch, where they consummate the relationship,
but the dress is torn and dirtied.
* Ultimately, Peter turns away from a pregnant Alex. At the top of page 127 is an unclear reference
to, "Her insides pinch and curl themselves. A man's breath bourbon. A man's weight. The Golden
Boy, Alex. I remember nothing. I feel nothing." There was a previous reference to Alex's memory of
"the smell of bourbon with the word wife" (103).
* The chapter ends with Lou Anne flirting with Alex, who she thinks is a boy. Lou Anne kisses Alex,
but is interrupted by Mrs. Dourity.
Note: Newcomers include Mr. and Mrs. Dourity, and their daughter Lou Anne; Mr. Waller, Mrs.
Waller and her sister Rose; and Mr. and Mrs. Erkstine ?
Chapter 10:
 Jed recounts the kiss between Alex, who is teased, and Lou Anne. Harry and Fred argue over a
past kiss involving a judge’s wife.
 Harry demonstrates a kiss by surprising David, who has just entered. Fred is outraged, his
“red face revealing . . .something more than surprise” (132); he leaves in a huff. The
suggestion is Fred and Harry have an intimate relationship.
 As a result of the kiss, David smashes Harry to the ground. Alex intervenes. David storms out.
 David goes into the chapel, tortured by his “unnatural desires” and his father’s “power of
condemnation” (135). David decides to return to Cornwall to “marry a nice Methodist girl”
(136), even though his experience in the mines there had been punctuated with the
knowledge that the miners were condemned to lung disease and a harsh death.
 The past of the Dourity family is described. In the trip to San Francisco, Marcus, the son of
Mrs. Dourity, had died. In San Francisco, Mrs. Dourity worked for the local Ladies’
Temperance League (to rid the city of vice). Now, in Motherlode, Mrs. Dourity misses the
refinement of the ladies of San Francisco, notes the coldness of her husband who has “been in
that woman’s place” (138), and most of all is tormented by her daughter’s fascination with
Emaline and the image of her daughter kissing Alex.
 The chapter ends with the note, “In the morning, she [Mrs. Dourity] informs her husband of
her plan for Alex Ford” (139).
Ch. 11:
 David has vanished.
 The mine collapses on Limpy; Alex and David, who has finally returned, rescue him. Emaline
has Limpy taken to the Inn and put in Alex’s bed.
 Micah and Emaline discuss business. Micah has been buying supplies for his general store on
credit, which Emaline criticizes.
 Emaline, and others, has a racist view of Chinese people as drug-induced devil worshippers
and thieves, particularly of Emaline’s chickens. Micah thinks John Thomas would be a good
man for dealing with the Chinese.
 David feels guilty due to Limpy’s injuries. Emaline feels overwhelmed by the life she lives.
 David admits to Alex that Limpy is not his cousin, that they met in Nevada City.
 David stays at Victoria Inn; Alex goes to David and Limpy’s cabin to sleep.
Ch. 12:
 Alex, in David’s cabin, looks around, examining a small set of scales balanced by two stones,
perhaps a symbolic reference
 Victorian Mine Corporation is formed, bringing in new shareholders in Alex’s claim.
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Mrs. Dourity invites Alex to come live with her family as an apprentice to Mr. Dourity’s law
practice, to which Alex does not respond.
Jed is indeed a runaway slave, as established on page 166. Emaline speaks against the
Temperance League and Mrs. Dourity.
At the Second Service, miners from the First Service keep their seats; newcomers must stay in
the back, including the Douritys. Emaline sticks it to Mrs. Dourity by announcing free drinks
are available at the Victoria Inn.
Ch. 13:
 Several topics discussed, including the importance of names and the common practice of
renaming
 A journalist/reporter named Mr. James comes to town and holds forth on the chaos and
lawlessness in the gold country, blaming outsiders (minority races and ethnicities). Emaline
remains focused on the killing of her chickens. Several notable historic figures, including
Emperor Norton and feminist Eliza Farnham, are mentioned. Most importantly, Mr. James
relates the hold-up of a stagecoach by a group of young boys, a “hooting gang of bandanamasked bandits” (181).
 John Thomas is just outside the town of Grass Valley, attending a fight between a bull and a
bear. His history, including his whipping of slaves and his killing of a Native American Indian,
is noted.
 At the end of the fight, which the bear wins, John Thomas sees a “familiar face” on a wanted
poster, with a reward enumerated, but the narrator does not reveal who it is.
Ch. 14:
 Slips of paper reciting Biblical passages that describe God’s wrath at the sinful behavior of
humankind appear, presumably as a condemnation of the town’s moral failings. The
suggestion is Mrs. Dourity is behind the postings.
 Emaline’s path to California is described, particularly focused on her Aunt Florence (Flo), who
would not approve of the changes in Emaline’s life since her husband Harold died on the trip
west.
 In Emaline’s exchange with Lou Anne, it becomes clear Lou Anne wishes to pull away from her
mother’s conservatism, but ultimately Lou Anne flees in fear of her mother’s reaction
 Emaline and Alex just touch briefly upon the suspicion that Alex is the “Boy Bandit” (198).
 Mr. James plans to stay to do work for the newspaper and is put to work fetching water.
 After speaking with Micah about hydraulic mining and with Lou Anne, Alex remembers the
previous night sleeping in David’s cabin, with David sleeping on the floor. Alex wishes to wrap
herself up within David’s body, but then thinks “Golden Boys didn’t think about men in this
way, or ponder dresses” (203). Is she trapped in her disguise?
 Lou Anne is upset that Alex does not respond enthusiastically to Micah’s prodding of Alex with
the question, “Doesn’t she [Lou Anne] look nice?” (202). Micah misunderstands Alex’s
hesitancy and suggests Alex practice being intimate with Emaline, who can teach Alex a thing
or two.
Ch. 15:
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A Chinese man, accused of stealing and killing Emaline’s chickens, is dragged into town.
Everyone from the town is present. Emaline plans to force the Chinese to leave town.
A posse, including Jackson Hudson and John Thomas, join the scene and make clear that they
are looking to arrest Jed, whose face is on the “wanted” poster scene earlier by John Thomas.
Emaline uses a shotgun to force the posse to leave without Jed.
In the meantime, Alex, perhaps afraid she is to be arrested as one of the young boy bandits,
runs off and take refuge in the outhouse, where memories of the past arise even more
powerfully than before. In those memories, first Alexandra is condemned by Gran as a sinner,
and later she is called a barren (unable to have children) whore and physically assaulted by a
drunk San Franciscan businessman named Hanson Minford.
Finally, back in the present in the outhouse, Alexandra sits undressed. A note suggests
Alexandra has killed someone. (Is it the baby?) Then Emaline opens the outhouse door and
sees the Golden Boy is in fact a woman. Alex runs away and disappears.
Ch. 16:
 Preacher John tells Emaline that he knows the Chinese person did not steal her chickens.
 Emaline convinces Alex to stay. Jed is still free.
 David feels guilty for not protecting Alex because “a man protects those he loves” (222). He
resolves to tell Alex of his true feelings, but lacks the courage to follow through.
 People in the bar talk against Jed. Emaline appears at the top of the steps, looking more
womanly than ever before. Perhaps Alex’s hiding has inspired Emaline to reveal this part of
herself. The men argue over who gets to spend time with Emaline. But Emaline takes Alex
upstairs. David walks out into the night.
 Emaline and Alex speak. Emaline describes her journey to California, during which her
husband died, as well as meeting Jed in San Francisco. Then she confesses she loves him,
though she had not said that to anybody, including Jed, before. This brings up dark memories
for Alex, who pours forth her story of the miscarriage, Gran’s condemnation, and Alex’s
ultimate trip to California as a “maid [virgin] and fit for a bride” (231). (This point might relate
to Eliza Farnham, a real-life historic figure who brought marriageable women west in the
1800s.) But she didn’t have her period and the intended husband, Hanson Minford, assaulted
her with his fists. In Alex’s telling of the story to Emaline, it becomes clear she killed Hanson
Minford, in her mind out of necessity: for her, Minford’s attack is interwoven with Gran’s
laughing condemnation.
 Alex indicates “Gran is silent and [she is] bleeding again” (232). Emaline too bleeds every
month.
 It is noted that “people don’t change like clothing. Not that easy. Mostly, we just discover
parts of us we never knew we had, maybe never knew we needed, maybe never wanted.
People don’t change at all. We just unfold parts of ourselves while we fold other parts away,
hide ‘em” (233).
 Alex plans to head north. Emaline does not want to know where, stating, “The only person
you can trust is yourself” (234).
Ch. 17:
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Alex examines herself in the mirror, trying to reconcile her present situation with her past,
including Gran.
In front of the Victoria Inn, six men on horseback scream obscenities at Emaline, related to her
relationship with Jed. A description of a “piebald excuse for a horse” suggests this is the same
posse from the earlier chapters. They leave behind bloody, dead chickens, defacing Victoria
Inn.
The miners argue over hydraulic mining, and forming a water company to take advantage of
its preciousness.
Ch 18:
 The town celebrates the anniversary of its establishment by the creek. Roast pig, drinking,
and dancing.
 The scene shifts back to town. Jed and Emaline are killed by Jackson Hudson. Alex mortally
wounds Jackson, who orders the burning of the town.
Ch. 19:
 Much of the town is burned down, including Victoria Inn and the Chapel. Three bodies
described: Emaline, Jed, and a third identified as having “a blue bandana covering the face
and a bloody red hole through the heart” (260). Emaline and Jed are to be buried together.
 Preacher John speaks of Emaline: “She saw things different from most. Saw me different,
better than I was, am. Saw the man I was trying to be. Think that’s how she was with
everyone” (261).
 Alex wishes she had hugged Emaline, and remembers Emaline as “not bent on understanding,
just accepting” (262).
 Preacher John remembers that Emaline taught him to read and gave him his Bible. And she
told him it was dangerous to “read before thinking, before feeling” (263). Then he quotes a
passage: “`In my father’s house are many dwelling places, I go to prepare a place for you’”
(263). Finally, he notes that “this land don’t settle for nobody who ain’t both a dreamer and a
worker” (263-4).
 John Thomas’s body is picked at by vultures.
 David thinks of staying to acquire land. The Chinese, it is noted, helped save part of the town
from burning.
 Limpy, Alex, and David go to David’s cabin, where David tells Alex to take David’s bed.
 Alex’s memories of her mother, her Gran, and David mix; ultimately, she awakes to David,
who touches her, finally discovering Alex is a woman. They explore one another’s body.
David shivers and says, “Alex” (269).
Ch. 20:
 Alex awakes in the morning and decides to leave town. First, she takes one of David’s green
stones and leave her gold nugget in his boot. The narrator notes, “David gave Alex her body
back, and she won’t ask any more of him” (271).
 On her way out, Alex finds the remains of the picture of Queen Victoria, then remembers
Emaline “descending the stairs in that lavender dress nearly three weeks ago” (272). Alex
then “lays the portrait of the queen like a mantle” over Emaline’s grave (272).
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Alex reflects that if she meets Jackson Hudson again, “there will be bullets in her gun” (272),
so he seems to have survived.
David tracks her down and offers her the nugget of gold. She does not take his offer. She and
David imagine the valley flooded if the creek is dammed up.
Alex continues out of town, David follows, and then the two hold one another as they head
into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.