Jayhawker Party Collection of Materials

The collection contains letters, narratives, and eight large volumes of clippings related to the members of the Jayhawkers, their overland trip to the California gold fields through Death Valley, and their annual reunions held between 1872 to 1918. It also contains diaries by Asa Haines and Sheldon Young of the Jayhawkers' route and a map of Death Valley by William Lewis Manly, approximately 1889. The collection was assembled by John B. Colton (1831-1919), a member of the Jayhawker party. Participants in the collection include: John Wells Brier, Reverend James Brier, William Frederick Dody, Jessie Benton Fremont, John Groscup, Eliza Poor Donner Houghton, Charles Fletcher Lummis, William Lewis Manley, Charles B. Mecum, and Lorenzo Dow Stephens. The collection also includes items related to Mary Hunter Austin, Frederic Remington, and Theodore Roosevelt.