PBA Galleries

Inscribed on the front wrapper: "With Compliments, A.J. McCall". "[McCall] left Bath, New York, with Dr. James Read on March 14th, 1849 and arrived at St. Joseph on April 25. McCall and party followed the Great Platte Route, traveled by way of South Pass, Visited Salt Lake City, and followed the Humboldt-Carson Route into California in Early September. On September 7, McCall came upon one the "Cannibal Cabins" of the Donner Party and, by the 15th, reached Johnson's Ranch. Now at the end of his journey, the dutiful pioneer wrote his mother a letter dated September 18 from Sacramento, assuring her that he had arrived safely." (Kurutz). "No journal better reflects the pageantry of the great migration. (Mattes). McCall's account of his life in the diggings is described in the sequel to the present work "Pick and Pan" published the following year. Cowan II, p. 402; Kurutz 413; Mattes 540; Mintz 311. Not in Howes, Decker, Graff, Eberstadt, Soliday or Streeter. Quite scarce, particularly so signed. No copies appear in the auction records for at least 30 years.