Death Valley In 49

William Lewis Manly (1820-1903) and his family left Vermont in 1828, and he grew to manhood in Michigan and Wisconsin. On hearing the news of gold in California, Manly set off on horseback, joining an emigrant party in Missouri. Death Valley in '49 (1894) contains Manly's account of that overland journey. Setting out too late in the year to risk a northern passage thorugh the Sierras, the group takes the southern route to California, unluckily choosing an untried short cut through the mountains. This fateful decision brings the party through Death Valley, and Manly describes their trek through the desert, as well as the experiences of the Illinois "Jayhawkers" and others who took the Death Valley route. Manly's memoirs continue with his trip north to prospecting near the Mariposa mines, a brief trip back east via the Isthmus, and his return to California and another try at prospecting on the North Fork of the Yuba at Downieville in 1851. He provides lively ancedotes of life in mining camps and of his visits to Stockton, Sacramento, and San Francisco.

William Lewis Manly wrote a book titled "Death Valley in '49" that details his harrowing expedition to Death Valley in California in 1849. Manly was among a group of prospectors that traveled to California during the gold rush in search of their fortune. However, because of their guide's poor choices, they ended up stranded in Death Valley and had to deal with severe hardships like a lack of food and water. Manly took command of the situation and emerged as the party's leader. He led the group through the mountains to safety, where they were able to get assistance and make their way back to civilization. Their adventures in Death Valley are vividly described in "Death Valley in '49," which emphasizes the terrain's challenges and the group's survival problems. The book is regarded as an essential primary source for comprehending the history of the American West and has grown to be a classic of American Western literature. It has been read and researched extensively, and it has contributed to the development of the American frontier myth.

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1894 Edition.

Bonded Leather binding

A survivor’s true account of death, despair, and heroism in Death Valley in the heat of the California Gold Rush. At the height of the California gold rush in 1849, a wagon train of men, women, children, and their animals stumbled into a 130-mile-long valley in the Mojave Desert while they were looking for a shortcut to the California coast. What ensued was an ordeal that divided the camp into remnants and struck them with hunger, thirst, and a terrible sense of being lost beyond hope—until a twenty-nine-year-old hero volunteered to cross the desert to get help. This young hero, William Lewis Manly, was one of the survivors of the tragedy, and he lived to tell the tale forty-five years later in this gripping autobiography, first published in 1894. In a time of unmarked frontiers and wilderness, Manly lived the true life of a pioneer. After being hit by gold rush fever Manly joined the fateful wagon train that would get swallowed up by the barren, arid, hostile valley with its dry and waterless terrain, unearthly surface of white salts, and overwhelming heat. Assaulted and devastated by the elements, members of the camp killed their emaciated oxen for food, ran out of water, split up, and lost and buried their own kind who perished. When Manly’s remaining band of ten came across a rare water hole, he and a companion, John Rogers, left the rest by the water and crossed the treacherous Panamint Mountains and Mojave Desert by themselves in search for rescue. In a true act of heroism against all odds, the two finally returned twenty-five days later with help, rescuing their compatriots, including four children, even when it seemed all hope was lost. Told at the end of the nineteenth century, Manly’s compelling and stirring account brings alive to modern-day readers the unimaginable hardships of America’s brave pioneers, and a chapter in Californian history that should not be forgotten.

"Death Valley in '49. Important chapter of California pioneer history" by William Lewis Manly. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

Excerpt from Death Valley in 49: Important Chapter of California Pioneer History; The Autobiography of a Pioneer, Detailing His Life From a Humble Home in the Green Mountains to the Gold Mines of California; And Particularly Reciting the Sufferings of the Band of Men, Women and Children The place where the maples were thickest was reserved for a sugar grove, and from it was made all of the sweet material they needed, and some besides. Economy of the very strictest kind had to be used in every direction. Main strength and muscle were the only things dispensed in plenty. The crops raised consisted of a small flint corn, rye oats, potatoes and turnips. Three cows, ten or twelve sheep, a few pigs and a yoke of strong oxen comprised the live stock - horses, they had none for many years. A great ox-cart was the only wheeled vehicle on the place, and this, in winter, gave place to a heavy sled, the runners cut from a tree having a natural crook and roughly, but strougly, made. In summer there were plenty of strawberries, raspberries, whortleberries and blackberries growing wild, but all the cultivated fruit was apples. As these ripened many were peeled by hand, cut in quarters, strung on long strings of twine and dried before the kitchen fire for winter use. The had a way of burying up some of the best keepers in the ground, and opening the apple hole was quite an event of early spring. The children were taught to work as soon as large enough. I remember they furnished me with a little wooden fork to spread the heavy swath of grass my father cut with easy swrings of the scythe, and when it was dry and being loaded on the great ox-cart I followed closely with a rake gathering every scattering spear. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Get the Summary of William Lewis Manly's Death Valley in '49 in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "Death Valley in '49" is an autobiographical account by William Lewis Manly, detailing his experiences during the California Gold Rush. Born into a modest farming family, Manly's early life was characterized by hard work and self-reliance. In 1829, his family moved westward to Michigan, where they continued farming...