Download or read book The Plains Across written by John D. Unruh and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 590 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most honored book ever released by the University of Illinois Press, The Plains Across was the result of more than a decade's work by its author. Here, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Oregon Trail, is a paperback reissue that includes the notes, bibliography, and illustrations contained in the 1979 cloth edition.
Download or read book California Gold written by James Stephens Brown and published by . This book was released on 1894 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book McNeils Travels in 1849 To Through and from the Gold Regions in California Columbus Ohio written by Samuel McNeil and published by . This book was released on 1850 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book From Lead Mines to Gold Fields written by Henry Taylor and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2015-11 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Henry Taylor's long life (1825-1931) gave him an unusual perspective on change in American society. During his lifetime, the West was largely settled. America fought wars with Mexico and Spain, was nearly torn apart by a civil conflict, and then joined allies across the sea in World War I. Inventions proliferated (trains, cars, airplanes, to name a few), and twenty-six presidents served in office. Taylor's life also exemplifies the mobile American lifestyle. His family moved several times before he left the lead mines of Wisconsin for the gold fields of California during the early 1850s. Taylor's account of his journey across the western continent in search of fortune provides an arresting and detailed look at the dangers of the trail. His account of his move to western Nebraska in 1878 offers insight into the problems and successes of the early homesteaders and settlers. The latter portions of the autobiography concern his later travels and his reflections on his long life. With wit and a keen sense of character, Taylor began to record his life story when he was 80 and completed it at the age of 103. Donald L. Parman has organized and annotated Taylor's story, supplying an introduction and information on people, places, and events in the text.
Download or read book Westering Women and the Frontier Experience 1800 1915 written by Sandra L. Myres and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 1982 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contains letters, journals, and reminiscences showing the impact of the frontier on women's lives and the role of women in the West.
Download or read book So Rugged and Mountainous written by Will Bagley and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of America’s westward migration is a powerful blend of fact and fable. Over the course of three decades, almost a million eager fortune-hunters, pioneers, and visionaries transformed the face of a continent—and displaced its previous inhabitants. The people who made the long and perilous journey over the Oregon and California trails drove this swift and astonishing change. In this magisterial volume, Will Bagley tells why and how this massive emigration began. While many previous authors have told parts of this story, Bagley has recast it in its entirety for modern readers. Drawing on research he conducted for the National Park Service’s Long Distance Trails Office, he has woven a wealth of primary sources—personal letters and journals, government documents, newspaper reports, and folk accounts—into a compelling narrative that reinterprets the first years of overland migration. Illustrated with photographs and historical maps, So Rugged and Mountainous is the first of a projected four-volume history, Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails. This sweeping series describes how the “Road across the Plains” transformed the American West and became an enduring part of its legacy. And by showing that overland emigration would not have been possible without the cooperation of Native peoples and tribes, it places American Indians at the center of trail history, not on its margins.
Download or read book Letters from the Corrugated Castle written by Joan W. Blos and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-12-03 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dear Cousin Sallie, I begin with words I never thought to write: I am not an orphan! Thirteen-year-old Eldora has always believed that her mother died when she was very little, and for nine years she has lived with people that she calls Aunt and Uncle. The year is 1850, and all three have exchanged their quiet lives in New Bedford, Massachusetts, for new ones in San Francisco, the rapidly growing city that is the heart of the California Gold Rush. Shortly after their arrival, they receive a letter from an unknown woman who believes she is Eldora's mother. She is eager to meet her long-lost daughter, and a visit is arranged. As Eldora deals with her conflicting feelings about this news, she must also adjust to the challenges -- and dangers -- of living in a brash and growing city. She finds herself teaching English to two Mexicano children and beginning to learn Spanish, and an unlikely friendship with a boy named Luke introduces her to the hard, sometimes humorous, and often violent world of the mining camps. Every day seems to bring something different and new to consider. But can Eldora discover where -- and to whom -- she belongs? Told in letters that ring with the voice of the times, Letters from the Corrugated Castle is an intriguing adventure set in a fascinating time in California's history -- a worthy conclusion to the geographical trilogy begun with A Gathering of Days, winner of the Newbery Medal, and Brothers of the Heart.
Download or read book Life in California Before the Gold Discovery written by John Bidwell and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Santa Fe Trail to California 1849 1852 written by H M T Powell and published by Hassell Street Press. This book was released on 2021-09-09 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book Path of Empire written by Aims McGuinness III and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people in the United States have forgotten that tens of thousands of U.S. citizens migrated westward to California by way of Panama during the California Gold Rush. Decades before the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, this slender spit of land abruptly became the linchpin of the fastest route between New York City and San Francisco—a route that combined travel by ship to the east coast of Panama, an overland crossing to Panama City, and a final voyage by ship to California. In Path of Empire, Aims McGuinness presents a novel understanding of the intertwined histories of the California Gold Rush, the course of U.S. empire, and anti-imperialist politics in Latin America. Between 1848 and 1856, Panama saw the building, by a U.S. company, of the first transcontinental railroad in world history, the final abolition of slavery, the establishment of universal manhood suffrage, the foundation of an autonomous Panamanian state, and the first of what would become a long list of military interventions by the United States.Using documents found in Panamanian, Colombian, and U.S. archives, McGuinness reveals how U.S. imperial projects in Panama were integral to developments in California and the larger process of U.S. continental expansion. Path of Empire offers a model for the new transnational history by unbinding the gold rush from the confines of U.S. history as traditionally told and narrating that event as the history of Panama, a small place of global importance in the mid-1800s.
Download or read book California written by Kevin Starr and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 2007-03-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco
Download or read book A Store Almost in Sight written by Jeff Bremer and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2014-04-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Store Almost in Sight tells the story of commercial development in central Missouri from the early days of American settlement following the Louisiana Purchase to the Civil War. Focusing on those counties near or on the Missouri River, historian Jeff Bremer confirms that the history of the frontier is also the history of the spread of capitalist values. The letters, journals, diaries, and travel accounts of Missouri settlers and visitors reveal how small decisions made by Missouri’s rural white settlers—ranging from how much of a certain crop to plant to how many eggs to take to the local store—contributed to the establishment of a market economy in the state. Most Missourians welcomed the opportunity to take part in commercial markets. Farmwomen sold eggs or butter to peddlers and in nearby towns, while men took surplus corn or pork to stores for credit. Immigrants searched for the most fertile land closest to waterways, to ensure they would have large harvests and an easy way to ship them to market. Families floated farm goods downriver until steamboats transformed rural life by drastically reducing the cost of transportation and boosting farm production and consumption. Traders also trekked west across the plains to trade at the inland entrepôt of Santa Fe. The waves of migrants headed for Oregon and California in the 1840s and 1850s further encouraged commercial development. However, most white settlers lacked the necessary financial means to be capitalists in a technical sense, seeking instead a “competency,” or comfortable independence. This fresh reinterpretation of the American frontier will interest anyone who wants to understand the economic and social significance of westward migration in U.S. history. It gives the reader a gritty, grassroots sense of how ordinary people made their livings and built communities in the lands newly opened to American settlement.
Download or read book The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War written by Leonard L. Richards and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-02-12 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning historian Leonard L. Richards gives us an authoritative and revealing portrait of an overlooked harbinger of the terrible battle that was to come. When gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill in 1848, Americans of all stripes saw the potential for both wealth and power. Among the more calculating were Southern slave owners. By making California a slave state, they could increase the value of their slaves—by 50 percent at least, and maybe much more. They could also gain additional influence in Congress and expand Southern economic clout, abetted by a new transcontinental railroad that would run through the South. Yet, despite their machinations, California entered the union as a free state. Disillusioned Southerners would agitate for even more slave territory, leading to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and, ultimately, to the Civil War itself.
Download or read book Growing Up with the Country written by Elliott West and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated study shows how frontier life shaped children's character.
Download or read book Sixteen Months at the Gold Diggings written by Daniel B. Woods and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel B. Woods of Philadelphia sailed to California in February 1849, crossing Mexico to San Blas, and arriving in San Francisco in June. Sixteen months at the gold diggings (1851) recounts those travels as well as his experiences as a prospector in the Northern Mines on the American River and at Hart's Bar and other camps in the Southern Mines before starting home in November, 1850. His book offers an exceptionally realistic picture of the drudgery of mining and the business side of miners' companies.
Download or read book South Pass written by Will Bagley and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wallace Stegner called South Pass “one of the most deceptive and impressive places in the West.” Nowhere can travelers cross the Rockies so easily as through this high, treeless valley in Wyoming immediately south of the Wind River Mountains. South Pass has received much attention in lore and memory but attracted no serious book-length study—until now. In this narrative, award-winning author Will Bagley explains the significance of South Pass to the nation’s history and to the development of the American West. Fur traders first saw South Pass in 1812. From the early 1840s until the completion of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads almost forty years later, emigrants on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails used South Pass in transforming the American West in a single generation. Bagley traces the peopling of the region by the earliest inhabitants and adventurers, including Indian peoples, trappers and fur traders, missionaries, and government-commissioned explorers. Later, California gold rushers, Latter-day Saints, and families seeking new lives went through this singular gap in the Rockies. Without South Pass, overland wagons beginning their journey far to the east along the Missouri River could not have reached their destinations in a single season, and western settlement might have been delayed for decades. The story of South Pass offers a rich history. The Overland Stage, Pony Express, and first transcontinental telegraph all came through the region. Nearly a century later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated South Pass as one of America’s first National Historic Landmarks. An American place so rich in historical significance, Bagley argues, deserves the best of historical preservation efforts.
Download or read book California 1849 1913 Or The Rambling Sketches and Experiences of Sixty four Years Residence in that State written by L. H. Woolley and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-09-07 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
