Motivations varied by family and individuals. And the Baker-Fancher party really shouldn’t be considered as a single homogeneous group. There were a couple dozen Arkansas families going to California that season, and they at various times formed larger trains or broke apart to make smaller trains as seemed appropriate to them at the time. Staying with the well armed and equipped Bakers and Fanchers probably seemed like a good idea to a lot of the smaller and poorer trains. But only about half the Arkansas immigrants were still with the main body when the massacre happened.

So let’s talk individual motivations, as a tldr though the most common motivation was to get into or expand cattle ranching.

Bakers

George Baker had been a gold seeker in 1849 and apparently had fallen in love with the state. He had returned to Arkansas in 1850. I haven’t seen any record of if he had struck it rich in the gold fields. But his dad had money and he was able to marry well. By 57 he was ready to strike out and wanted to get his own ranch in California. He took with him his wife their kids, and several younger nieces, nephews, cousins, and siblings. He also had several wagons and about 140 animals (mostly cattle). Most of this group was going to settle.

His father John Baker also came along with another 130 cattle and a few hands. John was going solely to sell the cattle in the hot California market and to help get George settled. He always intended to return to Arkansas where his wife and most of the Baker family remained. It’s possible that some of the other Bakers would have returned to Arkansas with John.

George’s sister Sarah was married to Charles Mitchell. His dad was a state senator and Charles and Sarah appeared to be going to settle. They had with them the two Pruitt brothers working as drovers who may have been planning to move on to the gold fields.

The Dunaps were related to the Bakers and and Mitchells. They also were convinced to travel by George Baker. And were fairly middle class. Jesse was a small store owner, while his brother Lorenzo was a small site farmer with some business interests. The Dunlaps seemed to have intended to do the same things in California, mixed farming and ranching to support commercial businesses and make investments as opportunities arose.

There were a few one offs, hired cattle hands and the like that accompanied the Bakers. We don’t have records of what all their intentions were. Allen Deshazo brought a dozen cattle and may have been intending to settle or to return with John. Robert Fancher was heading for the gold fields. Silas Edwards and Milum Rush’s motivations are a lot more opaque. They may have been going to settle, mine, or may have planned to return with John.

Fanchers

The Fanchers were the other properly wealthy family in the group. John Fancher had settled in California in 1850, where he had set up a successful ranching operation. Alexander Fancher had made at least two runs to California to deliver cattle to his brother John and was doing the same thing this time, bringing about 200 cattle with him. He sold most (but not all) of his Arkansas land and was bringing his family with him. So he was finally looking to settle in California and join John. His remaining Arkansas property was put into the hands of an uncle. And it seems like he intended to make another run sometime in the future to again bring cattle to California, using the remaining land as either collateral or to straight up trade for cattle.

Peter Huff was a neighbor of Alexander Fancher, and appears to have been convinced of the richness of California by him. Peter didn’t make it to the massacre. He died of an infected insect bite in Wyoming. But the rest of the Huff family was at the massacre.

The Other Families

Information on the other families is sparser. I don’t know anything about the Camerons or the Miller’s aside from names and ages. They didn’t seem to have any survivors or relatives who wrote about them. The Jones were smaller scale farmers. The Tackitts were also small scale farmers. Cynthia Tackitt was a recent widow and appears to have wanted to start over somewhere new. But also wasn’t from a wealthy family.

Interestingly the Poteet train had broken off from the main train to investigate a recent gold find in Nevada.