Death Valley in 1849

I've read several first-person accounts of Euro-Americans moving west, but this epic tops them all. The author's honorable sensibilities and keen powers of observation and description allowed me to rest in his very capable hands as he rolled out the strenuous adventures that took him from his teenag......more

Skip the second half (3.5⭐️)......more

As a book to research the time period, it was both an enjoyable read and informative. The longest stretch of reading, of course, delves into the author's experience in traveling to California through Death Valley. Needless to say, it's a journey fraught with danger and death, but is also revealing a......more

An excellent account of the group of Americans who left their homes to seek their fortunes in the California gold mines in 1849. The author, who was 28 at the time, was among those who decided to take a short cut through Death Valley in order to avoid getting caught in the Sierra Nevada's during a s......more

I was kind of surprised that this book only has a few reviews. The nineteenth century is one of my favorite historical periods. Before the railroads and the telegraph, the world moved at the speed of a horse. In the case of Manly, his average speed from Salt Lake City to the gold fields in 1849 was......more