During the early weeks of 1848, as U.S. congressmen debated the territorial status of California, a Swiss immigrant and an itinerant millwright forever altered the future state’s fate. Building a sawmill for Johann August Sutter, James Wilson Marshall struck gold. The rest may be history, but much of the story of what happened in the following year is told not in history books but in the letters, diaries, journals, and other written recollections of those whom the California gold rush drew west. In this second installment in the projected four-part collection The Great Medicine Road: Narratives of the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails, the hardy souls who made the arduous trip tell their stories in their own words. Seven individuals’ tales bring to life a long-ago year that enriched some, impoverished others, and forever changed the face of North America. Responding to often misleading promotional literature, adventurers made their way west via different routes. Following the Carson River through the Sierra Nevada, or taking the Lassen Route to the Sacramento Valley, they passed through the Mormon Zion of Great Salt Lake City and traded with and often displaced Native Americans long familiar with the trails. Their accounts detail these encounters, as well as the gritty realities of everyday life on the overland trails. They narrate events, describe the vast and diverse landscapes they pass through, and document a journey as strange and new to them as it is to many readers today. Through these travelers’ diaries and memoirs, readers can relive a critical moment in the remaking of the West—and appreciate what a difference one year can make in the life of a nation.

In the years after the discovery of gold in California, thousands of fortune seekers made their way west, joining the greatest mass migration in American history. The gold fields were only one destination, as emigrants pushed across the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Oregon Territory in unprecedented numbers, following the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails to the verdant Willamette Valley or Mormon settlements in the Salt Lake Valley. “Seeing the Elephant” they often called the journey, referring to the wondrous sights and endless adventures met along the way. The firsthand accounts of those who made the trip between 1850 and 1855 that are collected in this third volume in a four-part series speak of wonders and adventures, but also of disaster and deprivation. Traversing the ever-changing landscape, these pioneers braved flooded rivers, endured cholera and hunger, and had encounters with Indians that were often friendly and sometimes troubled. Rich in detail and diverse in the experiences they relate, these letters, diary excerpts, recollections, and reports capture the voices of women and men of all ages and circumstances, hailing from states far and wide, and heading west in hope and desperation. Their words allow us to see the grit and glory of the American West as it once appeared to those who witnessed its transformation. Michael L. Tate begins the volume with an introduction to this middle phase of the trails’ history. A headnote and annotations for each document sketch the author’s background and reasons for undertaking the trip and correct and clarify information in the original manuscript. The extensive bibliography identifies sources and suggests further reading.

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Experience the majesty and terror of the Gold Rush firsthand While the seminal California Gold Rush of 1849 produced numerous firsthand diaries and accounts, Joseph Goldsborough Bruff’s—widely regarded as the best and most accurate—provides the basis of this narrative reimagining of a quintessential American legend. Ken Lizzio traces the pioneer’s thrilling adventure from the first rumors of gold, through his crossing of the frontier, all the way to his incredible survival and escape to a prosperous life back east. This is the first book to create a narrative of Bruff’s journey from his meticulously written and preserved diary. And with more than fifty of Bruff’s original pencil sketches and paintings, Forty-Niner provides a new, immersive vision of one of America’s most fabled eras. The American Grit series brings you true tales of endurance, survival, and ingenuity from the annals of American history. These books focus on the trials of remarkable individuals with an emphasis on rich primary source material and artwork.

"Bruff's Wake tells the story of forty-niners who survived hardship with resolve and endurance. The accompanying illustrations, which include a number of Bruff's sketches paired with modern photographs taken at the same sites, give vivid depictions of life and death on the California Trail in 1849. In addition, Bruff's route is correlated to the geography of the modern era, so that the trail can be traced on modern maps. Taken together, the narrative, sketches, photographs, and geological descriptions of the terrain, coupled with generous quotes from Bruff's long-out-of-print journal, allow the reader to follow in Bruff's wake" -- Publisher's description, p. [4] of cover.

A riveting portrait of the Gold Rush, by the award-winning author of Down the Great Unknown and The Forger's Spell. In the spring of 1848, rumors began to spread that gold had been discovered in a remote spot in the Sacramento Valley. A year later, newspaper headlines declared "Gold Fever!" as hundreds of thousands of men and women borrowed money, quit their jobs, and allowed themselves- for the first time ever-to imagine a future of ease and splendor. In The Rush, Edward Dolnick brilliantly recounts their treacherous westward journeys by wagon and on foot, and takes us to the frenzied gold fields and the rowdy cities that sprang from nothing to jam-packed chaos. With an enthralling cast of characters and scenes of unimaginable wealth and desperate ruin, The Rush is a fascinating-and rollicking-account of the greatest treasure hunt the world has ever seen.

In April 1849, Bruff led a party of 66 from Washington, D.C., on the Overland Trail to California. In October 1849, they arrived near Sacramento. Bruff recorded the route and made many natural history drawings. In 1851, he returned to Washington on ship via Panama.

William Shape's dramatic journal and accompanying photographs give a human dimension to the journey undertaken by vast hordes of prospectors who headed north during the Klondike gold rush of the late 1890s. This previously unpublished diary was compiled by a man with a keen photographer's eye and an author's attention to detail.