Personal Recollections

Harvey Wood (1828-1895), a young clerk in a New Jersey store, joined the Kit Carson Association of would-be California miners that set out from New York in February 1849, sailing to Texas and crossing Mexico overland to find passage north to San Diego. Wood reached the Southern Mines in July 1849, spending the next seven years searching for gold on the Merced and Stanislas Rivers. In 1856 he purchased an interest in Robinsons Ferry across the Stanislas River, a business he maintained the rest of his life. Personal recollections (1955) reprints a memoir written in 1878 and first published in 1896. Wood describes his voyage to California and his experiences as a miner in modern Calaveras and Tuolumne Counties, 1849-1850.