American Historical Ephemera and Photography

Manuscript letter, unsigned, "Redwoods 35 miles South of San Francisco." 7 September 1851. 4pp, 8 x 10 in. (creasing at folds, toning).

A superb account of one couple's overland journey on a portion of the "California Trail" from Fort Laramie in present-day Wyoming to the Redwoods outside of San Francisco. The letter chronicles the departure from Fort Laramie on 2 June 1851, along the Platte River, to the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt Lake, Humboldt River, through the desert, to the Carson River and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and on to the mining community of Hangtown in California. From there the journey continues to Sacramento and on the 11th of August the party departed for San Francisco. The author gives detailed descriptions of the obstacles encountered including bad roads, mountainous terrain, fever and injury, capsizing wagons, river crossings, and brackish water.

The letter reads, in very small part: "...after passing over them [the "Black Hills"] we traveled over rocks sand and mud till we came to Rocky mountains which we could not tell we rose so gradually up the mountain until we got into that we was taken sick with the mountain fever, first my wife was taken down and after 2 days I was taken down myself with the same Fever, but after 3 days I begun to recover and recoved very fast & my wife was gitting well fast but as bad luck would have it we was capsized with both of us in the Waggon. I did not receive any injury but my wife was so badly hurt that she was not able to step her foot to the ground for 30 days....all along from the head of the Carson River thare is the most beautiful timber I ever saw trees running up 200 feet high...it is a splendid sight. from the mountains we had a very bad road the most of the way at last we arrived safe in Hangtown which we found to be a quite long village containing a number of thousand inhabitants. here for the first time we see them working out gould one man had washed out 25 dollars worth that forenoon which was pretty well but it is not common to find it so plenty...."

For emigrants who chose the overland route to California versus the sea routes, most lived in the Midwest as opposed to the Eastern seaboard. Westward-bound migrants passed Fort Laramie between mid-May and early July, allowing them to reach their destinations before the arrival of dangerous winter weather. Given his June 2nd departure from Laramie, the author of this letter was on track for a well-timed arrival in California. With his wife, he would have been among the earliest gold-seekers in California.