California as I saw it
Subtitle: pencillings by the way of its gold and gold diggers, and incidents of travel by land and water. With five letters from the Isthmus
By: by W.H. Hecox. Edited by Dale L. Morgan.
Contributors: Hecox, W. H.; Morgan, Dale Lowell, 1914-1971.
Publisher: Talisman Press
Published: 1960
Place of publication: Los Gatos, Calif
Language: eng
Number of pages: 219
Subjects: Voyages to the Pacific coast.; Ethnic groups -- California.; Women -- California.; Urbanization -- California.; Real estate development -- California.; Law and politics -- California.; Mines and mineral resources -- California.; Business -- California.; California -- Description and travel.; California -- Gold discoveries.
Description: Dr. William S. McCollum (1807/1808-1882) was born in Pennsylvania and grew up in Niagara County, New York. He went to California in 1849, returned to New York the following year and then paid a second visit to California as a physician for the Panama Railroad Company. California as I saw it (1960) reprints McCollum's 1850 book describing his first visit to the West: San Francisco in 1849, a journey to Stockton and the Southern Mines and to Sacramento and the Northern Mines, prospecting near Jacksonville, and medical practice in Stockton and San Francisco. After describing his return voyage east via Panama, McCollum closes with advice and reflections on the law of the mines, Native Americans, the life of women in California, etc. The book's Appendix include letters written from Panama by H.W. Hecox, McCollum's fellow passenger on the voyage to the Isthmus, February-March 1849. Hecox was so disheartened by his wait for passage to California that he returned to the United States without ever seeing the Pacific Ocean.
Notes: No known restrictions on publication. No copyright renewal found.
Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site.