Eldorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire

Bayard Taylor was among the thousands of young men who spilled into California in the tumultuous year 1849. He arrived not with pick and shovel but with pen and paper, dispatched by Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune to report on the madness, exuberance, and upheaval of the California gold rush. Traveling throughout the state, Taylor witnessed the explosive growth of San Francisco and the instantaneous creation of Sierra townships. He traversed the nearly deserted lands of the Spanish missions and attended the constitutional convention that set the boundaries and forged the laws for the new state. With wit, intelligence, curiosity, and engaging humor, Taylor chronicled the birth of modern California. He had found "the richest material in the world to work upon," and his account -- combining the skills of a gifted author with the freshness and immediacy of a reporter in the field -- is widely regarded as a classic of western literature.