"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" by Bret Harte was first published in January 1869. It reflects the ongoing problems and conflicts in western gold rush and mining towns. The basic heritage of such towns is that they were originally camps set up for single male miners trying to make quick fortunes. Gamblers and prostitutes frequented these areas due to the opportunity for making quick money from miners who acquired sudden wealth and spent it lavishly. Another group, however, followed. Shop keepers and other business people also catered to the miners, and tended to be more settled and "respectable", wanting to clean up the mining towns and make them safe places to raise families. 

The four "outcasts" expelled from Poker Flat were Oakhurst, a gambler, two prostitutes, and Uncle Billy, a thief and drunkard. They did not leave the town willingly but were expelled by a secret vigilante committee who decided to "clean up" the town by getting rid of undesirables either by murdering or exiling them. There is a suggestion, though, that all is not as appears on the surface, and that some of the secret committee have ulterior motives; one member of the committee has lost significant sums of money to Oakhurst.