Wagon Train to the West

Daniel A. Jenks (1827-1869)
Pretty Camp-Rocky Mountains [1859]
Graphite and ink on paper
Prints & Photographs Division ( 48B.3)
LC-USZC4-9432
[digital ID# ppmsc-04811]

Camp 23rd Arkansas River [1859],
Graphite, ink, crayon, and watercolor on paper
Purchased through the
Ed Cox Americana Fund
(Madison Council)
Prints & Photographs Division (48A.6)
LC-USZC4-9421 [digital ID# ppmsc-04809]

Daniel Jenks traveled to Yreka, California, twice from his native Pawtucket, Rhode Island. In 1849 he joined thousands of '49ers who poured into California by sailing around Cape Horn. In 1859, after a few months at home, Jenks began his overland journey, intending to mine for gold at Pike's Peak. Disillusioned, he returned to Yreka and, on December 24, 1859, bought a mining claim on Long Gulch, where he had mined previously.

These are four of twenty drawings illustrating his travels that Jenks created after he arrived in Yreka, in 1859. He mailed them home to his sister in Pawtucket with a volume of his edited diary.

Cherokee Pass [1859]
Graphite and ink on paper
[Digital ID# ppmsca-04813]
Prints & Photographs Division (47A.4)
Purchased through the Ed Cox Americana Fund
(Madison Council)

Camp 120 Eagle Lake, Sierra Nevadas [1859],
Graphite, ink, crayon, and watercolor on paper
[Digital ID# ppmsca-04821]
Prints & Photographs Division (47A.4)
Purchased through the Ed Cox Americana Fund
(Madison Council)