The Diary of Dr. Thomas Flint Maine to California and Return 1851 - 1855

This diary recounts the day-to-day experience of Thomas Flint who, with several relatives, went from Maine to California to Maine and back to California again between 1851 to 1854. The first three legs of the journeys were via Central America, including a trip back to Maine with a chest of thirty-some pounds of gold.The main part of the diary covers the second trip to California, in 1853, overland and driving more than two thousand sheep, cattle, oxen and horses though the Illinois - Nebraska - Wyoming - Utah route to California. The detailed day by day entries describe distance, difficulties with the herds, crossing rivers, encounters with American Indians, Mormons, and other groups heading west on the same trail. It is full of very specific detail - daily logs of mileage, people they encounter, expenditures, income from trading along the way, and so on. Flint wrote "my pistol, whether awake or asleep was always at my right hand." This is a reprint of the original edition published by the Historical Society of Southern California. The text has been reset, and there are additional introductory material and notes.