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The Call of Gold (1936) by Newell D. Chamberlain

Title Page Preface Table of Contents Illustrations Prologue 1. An Indian Wilderness 2. Arrival of Gold Seekers and Establishment of County 3. Arrival of John C. Fremont 4. First Settlers’ Own Stories 5. Beginnings of Hornitos and Coulterville 6. War with Indians 7. Discovery of Something Better Than Gold, Yosemite 8. The First Authorized Mint and Early Mining Code 9. Early Day Justice 10. Lost Gold, Amusements, Hotel Rules 11. Visit of Fremont and Savage 12. Bunnell’s Mining Experiences 13. Eventful Years of 1854 and 1855 14. First Newspaper Description of Yosemite 15. Galen Clark, Outstanding Citizen 16. Fremont’s Political and Mining Activities 17. The Famous Trial of 1857 18. Judge Burke’s Decision and Sidelights

[click to enlarge] Cover 19. Battle of the Pine Tree 20. Bear Valley and the Colonel 21. Final Judgment for Fremont 22. The First White Woman in Bear Valley 23. Autobiography of John S. Diltz 24. Mariposa around 1859 25. Gazette News, 1862 to 1870 26. Fremont’s Great Sale 27. Mismanagement by Wall Street 28. Fremont’s Later Career 29. John Muir, World-Famous Naturalist 30. Diltz, a Real Benefactor 31. John Hite, Millionaire Miner 32. Angevine Reynolds and His Writings 33. Hi-Lights around Coulterville 34. Color around Hornitos 35. The Town with The Holy Name [Santa Cruz, later Indian Gulch] 36. Indian Anecdotes 37. Mariposa Al 38. The Pioneer Spirit Exemplified 39. Re-union of Old-Timers Appendix: the Miners’ Ten Commandments

About the Author

Newell Day Chamberlain was born January 31, 1880 in San Pablo, California. He spent his early years in the hardware and welding business in San Francisco. In the early 1920s he bought 171 acres. In 1926, when the Yosemite All-Year Highway was completed (now Highway 140), he established Camp Midpines. Camp Midpines was so-named because it was “amidst the pines and midway between Merced and Yosemite.” In 1929 a post office was established at Midpines and Chamberlain served as postmaster until 1950.

In the 1930s Chamberlain wrote this history of the Gold Rush in the southern mining camps west of Yosemite, based on newspaper accounts and pioneer interviews. Chamberlain died November 16, 1961 in Midpines, California. Midpines Lodge was razed sometime in the 1970s, but Midpines remains a small community with residences and vacation homes.

Bibliographical Information

Newell D. Chamberlain (Newell Day) (1880-1961), The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite, (Mariposa, California: Gazette Press, 1936). xii+183 pages. Illustrated. 20 cm. Bound in tan cloth boards with black lettering. Dust jacket. Copyright 1938 by Newell D. Chamberlain. Bibliographies: Guns 407, Rocq. 5099. LCCN 36031552. Library of Congress call number F865.C46.

Reprinted in 1972 and 1981 by Western Tanager Press, with additional notes. Reprinted as a facsimile in 1972 (hardbound) and 1977 (soft cover) by Valley Publishers, with additional notes by Bertha Schroeder in 1972 and 1977. Great West Books printed a new edition in 2002, with revisions by Peter Browning. The original 1936 edition is used here.

Converted to HTML by Dan Anderson, August 2007, from a copy at San Diego Public Library. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice is left intact.
    —Dan Anderson, www.yosemite.ca.us

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