It is not clear exactly why Charbonneau left Auburn, California, but the recessionary local economy was certainly a motivation. Before leaving he visited the "Placer Herald" newspaper and visited with an editor, who wrote later in his obituary, "...he was about purpose was returning to familiar scenes". Some of those "familiar scenes" may have been where he had lived and worked as a mountain man east of the Great Basin. His destination also may have been the Owyhee Mountains, where rich placer deposits were discovered in May 1863. Or perhaps he sought to reach Alder Gulch near Virginia City, Montana, because it had produced $31  million in gold by late 1865. Other possible destinations were the Bannock, Montana gold strikes or—as noted above—the mines at Silver City (formerly Ruby City), Delamar or Boonville.