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Bidwell, John / Guadalupe Vallejo / John S. Hittell : The First Emigrant Train To California / Life In California Before The Gold Discovery / Fremont In The Conquest Of California / Ranch And Mission Days In Alta California / The Discovery Of Gold In California

The Century Company, NY, 1890

8vo. 1890-1891, 85pp, printed in double columns, illustrated with 50 drawings, including 20 by Remington, one of which is a full-page plate on heavier gloss paper, and 12 portraits that include Bidwell, Kit Carson, Father De Smet, General M. G. Vallejo, General John A. Sutter, Jacob P. Leese, Governor Juan B. Alvarado, Governor Manuel Micheltorena, James W. Marshall (who first discovered gold at Sutter's Mill), Henry Bigler, Azariah Smith, and Samuel Brannan, and 3 maps (Western Territories In The Forties Showing The Principal Routes Of Exploration / The California Coast Under The Mexican Regime / Placer Regions Of California In The Fifties), salvaged from damaged issues of Century Magazine, Volume XLI, Nos. 1 - 2, November / December, 1890, and No. 4, February, 1891. The first 3 articles are by Bidwell, the fourth by Vallejo, the fifth by Hittell. Bidwell's third piece presents Fremont's second expedition, Autumn, 1845. Bidwell (1819 - 1900) went West in 1839 and spent time in Missouri and Kansas before joining a wagon train bound for Oregon in 1841. At Fort Hall, Idaho, half the group including Bidwell decided to change course and cross the Rocky Mountains to California in what became the first major overland journey to California. This is the first appearance of the Bidwell articles which were published together some time later as Echoes Of The Past, printed by Chico Advertiser, Chico, California, 1914, from these Century articles, with the addition of a chapter on Early Reminiscences that had originally appeared in the magazine Out West, 1904. The book was issued in printed wraps. See Howes B-432, Graff #253, Wagner-Camp #88. Bidwell's previous book, A Journey To California, circa 1842 - 44, of which a single copy is located, at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, was the first published account of an overland journey to California for the purpose of settling. See Howes B-433. Also noted in the present item are the shorter pieces, Trading With The Americans, by Prudencia Higuera, The Date Of The Discovery Of The Yosemite, by Julius H. Pratt, who reports in his letter to the editors of Century that he was part of the original party who discovered Yosemite on January 10, 1851, Grizzly And Pioneer, by Charles Howard Shinn, James W. Marshall's Own Account Of The Gold Discovery, by Marshall and Charles B. Gillespie, and Confirming The Gold Discovery, by E. C. Kemble. Illustrations include the Missouri River at Weston, Westport Landing, Kansas City, a view of O'Fallon's Bluffs, Fort Laramie in 1849, the Laramie Range, Platte Canyon, Bridger's Ford, the Old California Trail, Monument Point, Salt Lake, Humboldt Palisades and Humboldt Sink, Truckee Meadows, Sutter's boot, the Sacramento Valley, a distant view of Fort Ross with an inset of an old Russian building, Sutter's Fort past and present, the first California jail at Monterey, the Canyon of the American River, on the Summit of the Sierra, a view of the Anchorage of Monterey, the old Cuartel at Monterey, a Spanish-Californian woman, a Spanish window, San Francisco Bay, a view of San Francisco in March, 1847, a view of Sutter's Mill, the Marshall Monument at Coloma, and others of general interest. This is an exceptionally important piece of Western Americana that includes the several additions, the 50 text illustrations including 20 by Remington, 3 maps, and 12 portraits. Item is housed in a protective mylar report cover. Very Scarce.. Book. Book Condition: VG. Binding: Soft cover

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