This is two memoirs in one volume. The first by Gen. John Bidwell occurs slightly earlier detailing his overland journey from Missouri to California and gold exploration during the early days pre-rush. He became quite wealthy, with extensive land holdings and a long career in politics. The second memoir by Rev. John Steele starts as a very young man of about nineteen arriving in the gold fields to try and get rich. He goes into the details of how the gold mining process worked, but he was also a keen observer of his fellow man and sensitive to the plight of those around him. He speaks of the rough and cheap life of those earlier Californians with many eyewitness stories of the toll alcohol took on the native Americans, the extreme violence and lawlessness that pervaded the area and the hardships faced by all. These kind of details never turn up in the movies. It's a very worthwhile look at the early west particularly for those interested in California. ( )