A Tramp Through the Bret Harte Country
Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
The river sang below;
The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting
Their minarets of snow.
—Dickens in Camp.
The Chapters
Foreword
Preface
Reminiscences of Bret Harte. “Plain Language From Truthful
James.” The Glamour of the Old Mining Towns
Inception of the Tramp. Stockton to Angel’s Camp. Tuttletown and the “Sage of Jackass Hill”
Tuolumne to Placerville. Charm of Sonora and Fascination of
San Andreas and Mokelumne Hill
J. H. Bradley and the Cary House. Ruins of Coloma. James W.
Marshall and His Pathetic End
Auburn to Nevada City Via Colfax and Grass Valley. Ben
Taylor and His Home
E. W. Maslin and His Recollections of Pioneer Days in Grass
Valley. Origin of Our Mining Laws
Grass Valley to Smartsville. Sucker Flat and Its Personal
Appeal
Smartsville to Marysville. Some Reflections on Automobiles and “Hoboes”
Bayard Taylor and the California of Forty-nine. Bret Harte and His Literary Pioneer Contemporaries
The Illustrations
Ruins of Coloma, a Name “Forever Associated With the Wildest
Scramble for Gold the World Has Ever Been”
The Tuttletown Hotel, Tuttletown; a Wooden Building Erected in the Early Fifties
Mokelumne River; “Whatever the Meaning of the Indian Name,
One May Rest Assured It Stands for Some Form of Beauty”
“A Mining Convention at Placerville”
South Fork of the American River, Coloma. The Bend in the
River Is the Precise Spot Where Gold Was First Discovered in
California
Ben Taylor and His Home, Grass Valley, Showing the Spruce He
Planted Nearly Half a Century Ago
E. W. Maslin in the Garden of His Alameda Home
Angel’s Hotel, Angel’s Camp, Erected in 1852, as was the
Wells Fargo Building Which Faces it Across the Street
Main Hoist of the Utica Mine, Angel’s Camp, Situated on the
Summit of a Hill Overlooking the Town
The Stanislaus River, Near Tuttletown, “Running in a Deep and Splendid Canon”
Jackass Hill, Tuttletown. The Road to the Left Leads to the
Former Home of “Jim” Gillis
Home of Mrs. Swerer, Tuttletown. The Hotel and This Dwelling
Comprise All That Is Habitable of the Tuttletown of Bret
Harte
Main Street, Sonora, “So Shaded by Trees That Buildings Are
Half-hidden”
Sonora, Looking Southeast. “No Matter From What Direction
You Approach It, Sonora Seems to Lie Basking in the Sun”
Main Street, San Andreas, “During the Mid-day Heat, Almost
Deserted”
Metropolitan Hotel, San Andreas; in the Bar-room of Which
Occurred the “Jumping Frog” Incident
Mokelumne Hotel, on the Summit of Mokelumne Hill, and at the
Head of the Famous Chili Gulch
Placerville, the County Seat of El Dorado County, From the
Road to Diamond Springs
The Cary House, Placerville. “It Was Here That Horace
Greeley Terminated His Celebrated Stage Ride With Hank Monk”
Middle Fork of the American River, Near Auburn, and Half a
Mile Above Its Junction With the North Fork
An Apple Orchard, Grass Valley, “The Trees Growing in the
Grass, as in England and the Atlantic States”
The Western Hotel, Grass Valley. “The Well and Pump Add a
Quaint and Characteristic Touch”
A Bit of Picturesque Nevada City, Embracing the Homes of Its
Leading Citizens
Preface
A Tramp Through the Bret Harte Country
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Appendix