Sketches of travels in South America, Mexico and California

A native of Frederick, Maryland, Luther Melanchthon Schaeffer sailed around the Horn to California in 1849. He spent most of the next two-and-a-half years in the gold fields, mining on the Feather River, Deer Creek, Grass Valley (Centerville) and other Nevada County sites. Sketches of travels in South America, Mexico and California (1860) gives an excellent picture of the international, interracial community of miners, with comments on social patterns, creation of local government, vigilance committees, and legal disputes in this society. Schaeffer also describes visits to San Francisco and Sacramento, Mexico, and Panama before his return to the East in 1852.