It’s 1850, and something big is happening in the gold mining settlement of Roaring Camp, deep in the wilderness of the American West. Everyone is buzzing about a woman named Cherokee Sal—the town prostitute, who happens to be the only woman at Roaring Camp. Sal is going into labor, and this is monumental at the camp. Death is normal here, as is people being banished from the settlement. But birth—the introduction of someone new into the community—is unheard of.
One of the camp’s men, Stumpy, is appointed to help deliver the baby. He’s fathered two families before, so the other men of Roaring Camp (a collection of 100 criminals, fugitives, gamblers, or otherwise “reckless” men) decide that this makes Stumpy most qualified to help Sal. The landscape of Roaring Camp is as tough and rugged as the men who live there. The camp is nestled in a triangular valley, flanked on all sides by a river or hills; the only way in and out is a steep trail up the summit of one of the hills.
Sal’s health quickly declines after she delivers her baby, and she soon dies. The men aren’t too upset about her death, but they are concerned about what they’re supposed to do with a newborn baby. In the short term, their only option is to have the camp’s female mule nurse the baby.
The men line up to see the baby. One by one, they enter into the cabin in which the baby was born and leave a gift for him. By the time all of the men have had their turn, the baby has amassed a pile of gold nuggets, boot spurs, jewels, and coins. One of the gruffest and most hypermasculine of the men, Kentuck, has a particularly tender moment when it’s his time to see the baby: the baby reaches out and clings to Kentuck’s finger, which delights (and consequently embarrasses) Kentuck. He talks about this moment all night with anyone who will listen.
The next day, the men hold a formal meeting to figure out what to do with the baby. All but one of the men believe that they should adopt him; only Tipton thinks they should send the baby to Red Dog (the next town over, which is 40 miles away), where he could be properly nursed by a woman. This idea is promptly squashed, as is the idea of sending for a woman from another settlement to stay at Roaring Camp to tend to the baby—the men don’t want women here. This, the narrator interjects, may seem harsh, but it’s actually “the first spasm of propriety” at the camp. Eventually, they decide to raise the baby themselves, with Stumpy and the female mule acting as his primary caregivers.
As time goes on, the baby thrives, perhaps because of all the fresh air. Around this time, the men begin to find more and more gold, so they deem the baby their good luck charm and name him Tommy Luck—or “the Luck”—in honor of this. Wanting to make the settlement a better environment for the Luck, the men begin cleaning up the cabins and even themselves—bathing before they hold the baby, for instance, and cutting expletives out of their language. They even begin bringing the Luck wildflowers and other treasures they find, as the Luck has opened their eyes to the beauty surrounding them.
After the Luck has been with the men for several months, they discuss the idea of building a hotel in the camp and inviting a couple “decent families” to live at Roaring Camp and give the Luck some company. The men are still highly skeptical of women, but they want the best for the Luck and think he’d benefit from “female companionship,” so most of them agree to this plan.
Before the plan can be put into action, a powerful winter flood sweeps through the settlement in the night. Chaos ensues, as Stumpy’s entire cabin is swept away into the river and massive trees are uprooted. Roaring Camp is reduced to debris, and Stumpy is killed. Kentuck is found barely clinging to life, with the Luck’s dead body in his arms. He’s contented that he’s following the Luck into death, though, and quickly dies, floating into the dark river and drifting to an “unknown sea.”
