Book excerpt: In April, 1849, a little over six months before he was twenty-one, Kimball Webster caught the gold fever. Characteristic of his methodical ways, he kept a journal of his journey across the country and of his experiences as a miner in California and land surveyor in Oregon. His experiences in the Land of Gold is told in his own vivid language in these pages, and forms one of the most interesting narratives of the days of the gold-seekers of the Pacific Slope. Under trying circumstances that we can't fully appreciate today, the hardy men and women of the Gold Rush, the '49ers, faced danger from disease, accident, Native Americans, other miners, and most likely, poverty. Yet nearly 300,000 came to California to seek their fortune and tempt fate. Kimball Webster didn't strike it rich but went on to make a good life for himself. And he made us richer by leaving his account of those tumultuous years of the 1849 Gold Rush. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.