Troubadour on the Road to Gold

by Leroy Johnson

"Troubadour on the Road to Gold is a true, western adventure story with lots of action and rich detail. William Lorton's spritely, detailed, and insightful journal is a delight, yet moving at the same time. He gives insight rarely found in a young man into daily trail life from the Mississippi River to southern California, by way of Salt Lake City, in the early gold rush of 1849. Additional information is added in his letters from the trail to The New York Sun newspaper. Only a couple other diarists approach Lorton's deep level of detail about the Southern Route from SLC to LA. He is an...