Leo T. reviewed The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience on + 1775 more book reviews
This is about California only in 1849 and 1850. The author provides evidence it was mostly a changed place by 1852 because there were people coming to start a business or manufactory, to ranch, to farm, and so forth rather than to grub gold from the placer. He does have a section on the much less studied return trips to the East by those who had made their pile, made nothing, or missed their folks.
The numerous letters of Wm. Swain who returned to grow peaches and join in local GOP politics in Niagara County provide a lot of grist to Mr. Holliday's mill. He does find other evidence to make his point that women were not overly hobbled in the State of California and could do well, another reason why the character of the Argonauts changed after 1851. Dr. Holliday began this book at the urging of the antiquitarian bookseller, Edward Eberstadt, who shared the Swain diary with him in March, 1948 (Coe collection at Yale) and he also enjoyed meeting and correspondence with Wm. Swain's surviving daughter, Sara (1860-1953). She generously shared the letters exchanged between Swain and his wife, leading to Dr. Holliday's presentation of the story with the first part of each chapter being from the diary and a last part with news from the 'home front.' Exhaustive research in the days before the Internet allows the author to meld the words of other travelers (citations offered in the end notes) passing through the same area at about the same time and present readers a more complete picture of how it was.
There are a limited number of diaries with detailed information, most such records consisting of comments on the weather, the odometer reading, and problems encountered rather than the larger picture after a day of hard work.
July 6, 1849. "Today we passed the place where the Platte cuts through the Black Hills. We followed a ravine to its source, ascended a very steep hill, and stopped to halt for noon about one o'clock where we had no water and only a poor, dried grass. While here a smart shower of rain began to fall, which laid the dust and cooled the air. If showers will only preceed us on the way to South Passm they will insure the success of our journey... The features of the country are entirely changed. East of Fort Laramie the bare prairie, naked and level, was the feature, but here it is that of a broken, rocky, mountainous country. The broken ledges of bare rock and sparse, scrubby pine rising hill upon hill is the every-changing scene that meets the eye. Our road has been strewn with articles left by the emigrants to lighten their loads. Our camp [in the hills bewyond Bitter Cottonwood Creek, some twenty-four miles west of Fort Laramie] is very healthy, and we enjoy ourselves finely." The brackets are from another source, such additions by Holliday usually being longer and more descriptive. The spelling and punctuation has been edited.
I myself was surprised that they had so little contact with the Plains Indians, how much they admired the Sioux (people that I would have feared), the amount of forage they found even though traveling rather late in the season, and the messages left by the leading parties heading West for the following parties (papers stuck on dry buffalo skulls, abandoned wagons, etc.),
There is an exhaustive list of published sources, letter caches, and newspapers for each section. Mr. Holliday publishes well selected photos and there are a few maps. Index.
The numerous letters of Wm. Swain who returned to grow peaches and join in local GOP politics in Niagara County provide a lot of grist to Mr. Holliday's mill. He does find other evidence to make his point that women were not overly hobbled in the State of California and could do well, another reason why the character of the Argonauts changed after 1851. Dr. Holliday began this book at the urging of the antiquitarian bookseller, Edward Eberstadt, who shared the Swain diary with him in March, 1948 (Coe collection at Yale) and he also enjoyed meeting and correspondence with Wm. Swain's surviving daughter, Sara (1860-1953). She generously shared the letters exchanged between Swain and his wife, leading to Dr. Holliday's presentation of the story with the first part of each chapter being from the diary and a last part with news from the 'home front.' Exhaustive research in the days before the Internet allows the author to meld the words of other travelers (citations offered in the end notes) passing through the same area at about the same time and present readers a more complete picture of how it was.
There are a limited number of diaries with detailed information, most such records consisting of comments on the weather, the odometer reading, and problems encountered rather than the larger picture after a day of hard work.
July 6, 1849. "Today we passed the place where the Platte cuts through the Black Hills. We followed a ravine to its source, ascended a very steep hill, and stopped to halt for noon about one o'clock where we had no water and only a poor, dried grass. While here a smart shower of rain began to fall, which laid the dust and cooled the air. If showers will only preceed us on the way to South Passm they will insure the success of our journey... The features of the country are entirely changed. East of Fort Laramie the bare prairie, naked and level, was the feature, but here it is that of a broken, rocky, mountainous country. The broken ledges of bare rock and sparse, scrubby pine rising hill upon hill is the every-changing scene that meets the eye. Our road has been strewn with articles left by the emigrants to lighten their loads. Our camp [in the hills bewyond Bitter Cottonwood Creek, some twenty-four miles west of Fort Laramie] is very healthy, and we enjoy ourselves finely." The brackets are from another source, such additions by Holliday usually being longer and more descriptive. The spelling and punctuation has been edited.
I myself was surprised that they had so little contact with the Plains Indians, how much they admired the Sioux (people that I would have feared), the amount of forage they found even though traveling rather late in the season, and the messages left by the leading parties heading West for the following parties (papers stuck on dry buffalo skulls, abandoned wagons, etc.),
There is an exhaustive list of published sources, letter caches, and newspapers for each section. Mr. Holliday publishes well selected photos and there are a few maps. Index.
