Gold Rush Diary

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: MC.1954.76

Staff Only

Collection Overview

The Gold Rush Diary is a typed 18 page diary from Phineas U. Blunt traveling to California for gold. The journey transcribed accounts for his travels from Fort Smith to Sante Fe. The final part of the journey to California is not recorded here. The travels recorded in this diary occur March 26-May 29, 1849.

Dates

1849

Language of Materials

Materials in English

Access Restrictions

Available by appointment only at the Helmerich Center for American Research (HCAR) with the exception of materials with donor restrictions. Contact Library staff in advance to inquire if materials exist pertaining to your research interests.

Use Restrictions

Please contact the Rights and Reproduction Department for information on publishing or reproducing materials included in these records. Permission will be granted by the Gilcrease Museum as the owner of the physical materials, and does not imply permission from the copyright holder. It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain all necessary permissions from the copyright holder.

Biographical / Historical

The author of the “Extract from California Diary” is not noted in the primary text; however, in Marcy and the Gold Seekers by Grant Foreman, the name Phineas U. Blunt first appears in correlation with the Knickerbocker Company and Captain Ebbetts. Blunt is described as a member of the Knickerbocker Company who kept a journal, and the Knickerbocker Company is referenced in the primary text. A further search of Phineas U. Blunt’s story can be found in the book Precious Dust: The Saga of the Western Gold Rushes, two quotes from the Phineas U. Blunt Diary are mentioned on pages 63 and 77, and these quotes correlate with two entries from the “Extract from California Diary”: May 5 and 7, 1849. Paula Mitchell Marks, author of Precious Dust: The Saga of the Western Gold Rushes, does state the Phineas Blunt Journal is located at the Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley. There is another resource from the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly which also references the diary of Phineas U. Blunt located at the Bancroft Library, but the title of the Blunt diary is officially recorded as “Notes of Phineas U. Blunt”.

Foreman, G. (1939). Marcy and the Gold Seekers. University of Oklahoma Press.

Marks, P. M. 1994. Precious Dust: The Saga of the Western Gold Rushes. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=F-aF-lQSuywC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ViewAPI#v=onepage&q&f=false

Starrs, P. Connecting the Continent: Esmeralda County Nevada and the Atlantic and the Pacific Railroad Survey. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, 40(3), 232-252. https://epubs.nsla.nv.gov/statepubs/epubs/210777-1997-3Fall.pdf

Extent

1 item(s)

Additional Description

Provenance

The Gilcrease Foundation acquired these materials before 1964 and is housed in the Helmerich Center for American Research (HCAR). The library currently receives most materials through community donation, board members, artists and the acquisition of manuscript collections.

Processing Information

Staff, interns, and volunteers of the Thomas Gilcrease Library and Archive have contributed to the organization and maintenance of the files since the collection passed to the City of Tulsa in the 1950s.