The Gold Discovery Journal of Azariah Smith

Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1990. First Edition. 159pp. Octavo [23.5 cm] Black cloth with the title silver stamped on the backstrip. Near fine/Near fine. Ex-libris Will Bagley, with his notes, underlining, and, sticky notes, throughout. Warmly inscribed by the editor to friend, and fellow historian, Will Bagley, on the front free endsheet. "To my young friend, and fellow Utah Westerner, Will Bagley, with best wishes and warmest regard. Dave Bigler 5/19/90." Additionally signed by the editor on the title page. Excellent association copy.

As a teenager, Smith marched with the Mormon Battalion of Stephen Watts Kearny's Army of the West from Fort Leavenworth to the Pacific, one of the longest infantry marches in recorded history. As an employee of James Marshall at Sutter's Mill, he was an eyewitness to the gold discovery of January 24, 1848, that touched off a massive population shift west. And was a member of the company that opened the Mormon-Carson Pass Emigrant Trail over the Sierra Nevada, to become the major route of the gold rush. These writings reveal a hopeful young man, literate, sensitive to his environment. Always optimistic and filled with wonder at the world around him, he finds pleasure in small things, unaware of the momentous nature of the events he chronicles.