The Journey

Gold seekers could take several different routes to California. They could make a dangerous overland journey, sail around Cape Horn or stop in what is now Panama. In his first letter from California, Skelton describes his passage from New York to Panama and through the isthmus to the Pacific. He talks about landing in the city of Chagres (top) and a journey through the isthmus in which he encountered “many handsome flowers, coconuts and alligators (sic).” (bottom). Skelton wrote later that he spent a week passing through Panama in carts, on foot and in small boats.