California
California, the Golden State. It was the discovery of gold there in the late 1840s that started a mass migration across the North American continent and indeed, across the world. This migration eventually enabled the “sea to shining sea” development of the United States. This set covers some of the highlights of the Golden State, including the Gold Rush and the fantastic landscape.
John Muir was one of the foremost American conservationists. In 1869 he went with a group of shepherds who were taking a flock of sheep to summer pasture in the Sierra Nevada mountains. In this passage, the shepherds try to get the sheep to cross a river. The man named…
California was forever changed the day James Marshall saw flakes of gold sparkling in the American River. Between the years of 1848 and 1855, the discovery of gold would inspire more than 300,000 people to move to California. This “gold rush” helped California to officially become a state. James Marshall…
Famed naturalist John Muir went with a group of shepherds into the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1869. The shepherds were taking their flock to summer pasture. It was Muir’s first trip into these mountains, and he would return many more times. This passage is from his diary of the trip.…
John Muir was a famous naturalist who would later organize the Sierra Club as a conservation organization. Prior to his fame, Muir went to California and was hired for the summer to travel with shepherds and their flock to pasture in the Sierra Nevada mountains. He kepy a diary of…
In 1869, naturalist John Muir was hired by a California sheep owner to accompany the flock and shepherds to a summer pasture in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Muir recorded his adventure in his diary which was published in 1911. This passage is from the beginning of the trip. —————————————————— June…
John Muir (1838 – 1914) was an American naturalist and conservationist. Shortly after he arrived in California in 1868, he was hired to oversee shepherds taking a flock of sheep to summer pasture in the Sierra Nevada mountains. He kept a diary of his trip, and he published it in…
On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill near present-day El Dorado County, California. At that time, California was a new territory of the United States and sparsely populated. It took a while for the news to reach the established parts of the U.S. The first publication of…
In 1879, Scottish author and poet Robert Louis Stevenson took a train from New York City to San Francisco. He wrote about this trip in his travel memoir Across the Plains. This passage is about his arrival in San Francisco after a long and difficult trip across the Great Plains…
John Muir wrote a series of essays on the U.S. national parks. A noted naturalist, his essays were published in 1901. Muir was the founder of the Sierra Club which organized in 1892. He would come to be known as “the Father of the National Parks.” The Muir Woods near…