Customer Reviews

Death Valley in '49

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This is both an autobiography and a survival story. As a bonus, you also get a very nice glimplse about what life was like in the middle part of the 1800's. The author, William Lewis Manly, was one of the original 49'ers (the gold seekers, not the football players) who attempted a shortcut to the gold country, by way of Death Valley. Not a good idea! The main party ended up fragmenting into several different groups, all trying to survive, and get through some very rugged country without a map or a guide. Manly does a fine job of painting pictures with words, and he also researched the background stories of all of the different splinter groups, so you get to find out their stories as well. If you like real-life stories of survival and adventure this book is a fine choice.

As the reviewer above noted, this is a priceless first-person narrative of a formative period in US history. Although the writing style may be a bit stilted, in the usual Victorian fashion, I found it highly readable and it kept my interest. The story does tend to wander a little, perhaps because the author was recounting events that he had experienced many years prior, but was not at all difficult to follow. I was especially interested in how he had gone back after the fact to obtain accounts from other members of his and associated parties and included these accounts in his narrative. The story was especially interesting to me, since I've lived in Southwest Wisconsin and the San Jose area, and it was fascinating to get a glimpse of what these areas were like before they were heavily settled. If you're a student of the westward migration this is an invaluable resource and fascinating reading.