[Rarebooks] DeGroot's Recollections of California Mining Life

[Garry R Austin]

We offer for your consideration the following; trade discounts apply,  
postpaid, Cwo.


DeGroot, Henry. RECOLLECTIONS OF CALIFORNIA MINING LIFE. San  
Francisco: Dewey & Co., Office Mining and Scientific Press, 1884.  
First edition. Octavo, original printed pictorial blue wrappers. 16pp.  
Illustrated. Five black and white wood engraved plates. Very good.   
Very Scarce. Wheat 56; Cowan p162-163; Streeter #2985. Wheat, "Crammed  
with Gold Discovery data." Not in Graff or Howes. "Primitive Placers  
and first important discovery of gold. The Pioneers of the Pioneers --  
their fortune and their fate."
DeGroot's colorful account gives us the vivid particulars of the gold  
find, gleaned from the participants themselves: James Wilson  
Marshall's first sighting of the yellow chunks in his saw mill, his  
excited reports to Captain Sutter, and this homespun confirmation:  
"Peter Wimmer, who was with Marshall when he found the first piece of  
gold, had also gathered a small quantity. Taking a portion of this,  
his wife, who did the cooking, for the men, had subjected it to what  
was considered a crucial test, boiling it in a decoction of strong  
lye. As the stuff stood this trial without tarnishing, it was conceded  
on all hands that it must be gold." The illustrations by Anthony and  
Baker, depicting Sutter's mill, different forms of mining and the  
towns of Rabbit Creek, are from drawings by Charles Nahl. The work is  
scarce, with only four copies sold at auction since 1975, according to  
American Book Prices Current.              $2500.00

Garry R Austin
mail at austinsbooks.com
Austin's Antiquarian Books
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