Lured by "the astonishing accounts of the vast deposits of gold in California," Alonzo Delano (1806-74) of Ottawa, Illinois, bid farewell to his wife and children and joined the rush to El Dorado. For the next five months--April to early September 1849--he persevered in writing his remarkably detailed diary, recounting his experiences among the more than thirty thousand goldseekers representing all thirty states who struggled across half of the continent...