Prospecting for Gold: From Dogtown to Virginia City, 1852-1864

by Granville Stuart

Book Overview

The Montana Frontier, 18521864 was originally published in 1925 as Volume I of Granville Stuart's classic Forty Years on the Frontier, based on his reminiscences and journals. The opening chapter... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803258690
• ISBN13: 9780803258693
• Release Date: January 1977
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Prospecting For Gold

Originally published in 1925 as Volume I of Granville Stuart's classic Forty Years of the Frontier, this book is based on his reminiscences and journals. The opening chapter reviews his early years in Virginia, Illinois, and Iowa; the narrative proper begins in 1852 when the eighteen-year-old Stuart headed for California with his father and his brother James. ("There was not a habitation from the Missouri river until the small settlement of Salt Lake was reached; nor one from Salt Lake until the Sierra Nevada mountains were crossed.") The volume covers his experiences in California, including an account of the Rogue River War, and describes how - almost fortuitously - he was able to confirm rumors of gold in present-day Montana. Because they lacked equipment and supplies, the Stuart brothers were unable to cash in on their find until 1860; during the interim they were traders along the emigrant road near Fort Bridger. After 1860 Stuart became a permanent resident of Deer Lodge; in 1864, thanks in great part to his efforts, Montana became a United States territory. "Here are the incidents and characters for the making of endless novels - pioneers, trappers, squaw men, braves, prospectors, vigilantes, gold seekers, cowboys and cattle barons, sketched against the tremendous scenic background of the high Rockies." - New York TImes "The odyssey of a nineteenth-century Ulysses." - New York Evening Post Also available in a Bison Book edition: Pioneering in Montana: The Making of a State, 1864-18887 (BB 648) Volume II of Forty Years on the Frontier. Cover design by Jack Brodie