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1850 Letter that Gives Lake Tahoe a New Name! Contains Great Content

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:800.00 USD Estimated At:1,600.00 - 2,000.00 USD
1850 Letter that Gives Lake Tahoe a New Name! Contains Great Content
SOLD
800.00USD+ (200.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2018 Oct 22 @ 15:58UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Unique (or at least exceptionally rare) Gold Rush letter about an unnamed lake that would become Lake Tahoe. This is a marvelous 1850 letter about a man (part of a company of 250) who left Illinois for GOLD! Once there he and a party headed to the Eastern Sierras to try their luck there. They didn't find gold, but they found Green Horn Lake. "...we travelled over snow that was 20 and 30 feet deep. We found a lake between the two ranges of mountains which was about 40 miles long and 15 or 20 miles wide. It proved to be the head of the south fork of the Truckee River and as there was no mention of it in the guide books and not laid down on any of the maps, being badly humbugged, we called it the Green Horn Lake." [Lake Tahoe] Other quotes include "I thought we had a sure thing at the diggins...." "fell trees for the mules to cross the streams..." "we are now about 15 miles east of Culoma..." [Coloma] "The emigrants are arriving every day.... They are disheartened to find that gold is harder to get than they expected." There is also a lot of news about Chillcothe (near Peoria, Illinois). The letter was written by R. P. Taylor. Has foxing and heavy folds, and rips. However, it the writing is strong and the paper is still good. The letter has been transcribed. Additional background notes are included. City: Green Horn Lake (Lake Tahoe) State: California Date: HWAC# 99800