Trade paperback,
224 pages,
6 x 9, 44 illustrations,
maps, index.
ISBN: 0-944220-05-3
$12.95

Bright Gem of the Western Seas
California, 1846--1852
Edited by Peter Browning

Early Recollections of the Mines
Tulare Plains
Life in California
by James H. Carson
A Report of the Tulare Valley
by Lieutenant George H. Derby

James H. Carson was the first of the early gold miners to get his recollections into print. The initial three parts of this book were originally printed in a Stockton newspaper in the spring of 1852, and about 70 percent of the content of the articles was published as a book in the summer of that year. That book was republished three times during the following one hundred years, but never by anyone who realized that 30 percent of the original material was misssing. This is the only time since 1852 that Carson's recollections have been reprinted in their entirety.

George Horatio Derby is renowned as California's first humorist—alias Squibob, alias John Phoenix—a wit of great imagination and originality, a legendary practical joker, a satirist, and a drawer of absurd illustrations. But in the sober side of his life he was an army officer, a skilled engineer and cartographer. Herein is his lucid, detailed report of the Tulare [San Joaquin] Valley in the spring of 1850, when there were as yet no towns in the valley south of the San Joaquin River.

• At the gold diggings in 1848 and 1849.
• Gambling, money, crime, the law, strong drink, and Judge Lynch.
• Life in the cities; Satan and the Legislature; fast living; wild horses.
• Indians; religion; progress.
• Exploring the Central Valley in 1850.
• A full-size folded copy of Derby's map, “A Reconnaissance of the Tulares Valley.”

For more information, see:  Contents, Illustrations, Introduction, Index. Ordering information.