It is, however, a settled thing that these, and other individuals with whom he was immediately connected, were more intimately connected with the horrors of the sunken valley which was given its name by them, than were any other persons who ever crossed that desert region.
It will be considered that this was the most favorable time of year possible, and that during the spring or summer not one would have lived to tell the tale.
The Author, to his best, has done his duty to all, and concludes with the hope that this mite may authenticate one of the saddest chapters in the history of the Golden State.
CONCLUSION.
This story is not meant to be sensational, but a plain, unvarnished tale of truth--some parts hard and very sad.

It is a narrative of my personal experience, and being in no sense a literary man or making any pretense as a writer, I hope the errors may be overlooked, for it has been to me a difficult story to tell, arousing as it did sad recollections of the past.

I have told it in the plainest, briefest way, with nothing exaggerated or overdone.

Those who traveled over the same or similar routes are capable of passing a just opinion of the story.
Looking back over more than 40 years, I was then a great lover of liberty, as well as health and happiness, and I possessed a great desire to see a new country never yet trod by civilized man, so that I easily caught the gold fever of 1849, and naught but a trip to that land of fabled wealth could cure me.
Geography has wonderfully changed since then.

Where Omaha now stands there was not a house in 1849.