South Pass, 1868: James Chisholm's Journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush

By James Chisholm

Book Overview

"James Chisholm was a staff writer for the Chicago Tribune sent to report on the gold strike made in the late 1860s at one of the great historical features of the continent-South Pass on the western trails. His journal, illustrated by himself, is a graceful, observant narrative full of the real essence of frontier mining camp life."-Library Journal. "Chisholm had a lively sense of humor, an engaging frankness, and a fine eye for landscape. He was also a candid social critic."-Rocky Mountain News. "Lovers of the Old West will buy Chisholm's Journal and never part with it."-Pacific Historical Review. "If South Pass failed to produce gold in the paying quantities James Chisholm's miners thought it would, Chisholm himself produced finer, more lasting gold in his journal account of Wyoming's short-lived gold rush. His journal exudes the smell of sagebrush and scenic panoramas, of torrential rain storms and night packing, of being small in a big land, and of honest, earthy people who, in business-like fashion, went about the task of risking life, limb, health, and what small fortunes they had, to hit the big one. Chisholm sees with unpretentious eyes. His is an honest appraisal from a detached journalist, leavened with self-effacing humor. His prose is clean and clear. It can be read aloud and remembered."-Charles E. Rankin, editor of Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Lola M. Homsher was director of the Wyoming State Archives and Historical Department.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803258240
• ISBN13: 9780803258242
• Release Date: August 1975
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Must read for anyone interested in the history of the west

This is an invaluable book because it is a first-person account of a moment in history--South Pass, Wyoming in 1868. The writer was sent by his Chicago newspaper to send back stories for newspaper readers in the East and Midwest eager for news and information of the expanding West, and especially any discovery of gold and untold riches. If you like very well written prose that takes you back to a time long gone, and to a subject that continues to resonate in the imagination, you will love this book. It takes you back to that time and that place in a way no history book can because it was written at that time and place by an astute contemporary observer. Put this one on your shelf next to "Journal of a Trapper", "The Santa Fe Trail," and "The Sweet Smell of Sagebrush."

Authoritative, spirited

Except for a few splatterings of philosophical and somewhat impertinent ramblings, James Chisholm's journal of the 1868 Wyoming Gold Rush at South Pass is a colorful first-hand glimpse into life during this time period. Chisholm was a reporter from the Chicago Tribune whose assignment was to report on the activities of the Sweetwater Mines. Traveling by train from Chicago to "end-of-the-track's town" Cheyenne, Wyoming his reports of vigilante hangings, killings and life in Cheyenne are paramount for this time and place. As the railroad advanced westward, he took leave of the train at Green River and continued north by horse and wagon to South Pass in search of the gold mines. Chisholm is very descriptive of geographical landforms, the people he encounters, the demeanor of the miners, experiencing the climatic elements, getting lost, accidently setting the prairies on fire (twice), his callous viewpoints on Indians, glowing reports of the Wind River Valley for future economic potential, his two exploratory trips into these Wind River Mountains and the overall profile of the gold mines. An insightful read.