Sierra Stories: Tales of Dreamers, Schemers, Bigots, and Rogues

The Sierra Nevada has long been the domain of dreams, attracting the heroic and the delusional, the best of humanity and the worst. Along with towering granite mountains, crystalline lakes, and spiky conifer forests, the Sierra is also home to tales so outlandish and outrageous that they have to be real. Could the human imagination have invented someone like Eliza Gilbert? Born in Limerick. Ireland, she transformed herself into Lola Montez, the Sevillian aristocrat who brought the provocative Spider Dance to the Gold Country. Or the fifteen two-humped camels that were imported from Asia to transport goods to the mines. Or the newspaper reporter who, on a dare, careened down the Bonanza Flume so fast that "mountains passed like visions and shadows." Or the eight-day-long automobile race over snowy Donner Summit. Or multimillionaire George Whittell Jr., who was frequently spotted driving around Lake Tahoe in a luxurious convertible with his pet lion in the front seat. These stories, and scores more, spill out of the pages of this well-illustrated and lively tribute to the Sierra by a native son.