Everything in this book is taken from 1848 and 1849 Eastern newspapers. Articles, editorials, sermons, poetry, songs, advertisements -- and letters from the multitudes who were striving toward California via the Isthmus of Panama, around Cape Horn, through the Strait of Magellan, across the plains, the Gila River route, and via Mexico and Nicaragua. Here is the California Gold Rush -- upheaval, adventure, suffering, death, wonderful success, and tragic failure -- the record of the great event of the age.
