“Overland to Los Angeles, by the Salt Lake Route in 1849,” by Judge Walter Van Dyke

Abstract

Walter Van Dyke, a young lawyer, headed overland to the California gold rush in 1849 with a large party that started late, traveled through Salt Lake City and over the Old Spanish Trail, and finally arrived in Los Angeles after an eight-month odyssey. He gives his first-hand impressions of the limited opportunities Los Angeles offered in 1850 and credits California’s progress four decades later to American settlers like himself.