Manuscripts
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Manuscripts
In this 33 page document, John Wesley Hillman relates his travels and colorfully details life mostly in California and Oregon from 1849-1854. Beginning with the journey from Louisiana to St. Joseph, Missouri over the Oregon Trail to Oregon City, by ship to San Francisco and then to the mines in Mariposa County. Hillman returned to San Francisco after his father returned home to Louisiana. He describes the San Francisco fire of 1851, a trip to Mt. Shasta and Yreka and environs and then to his home base for many years in Jacksonville, Oregon. After driving pack and wagon trains, Hillman signed on to be a member of a party contracted to search for a shorter route to the gold fields in Florence Basin and the Salmon River in Idaho. After engaging in their own prosperous mining, the contact was fulfilled. Back in Jacksonville, he learned that a party of Californians were going on a search for the Lost Cabin Mine and decided to follow them. It was on this journey that he expectantly stumbled upon Crater Lake, a place that he said cannot be described in mere words, but one of the six wonders of the American continent that must been seen to be fully appreciated.
mssHM 19977