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1848: She was warned not to go after him. That no woman could survive alone in gold rush California.
The Mountains Between Us
What you need to know before your trail
California, 1848. She was warned not to go after him. That no woman could survive alone in gold rush California. That her missing husband was surely dead.
But Grace Randolph knows James isn’t just missing, he’s being held captive by one of the most powerful men in the territory. And her marriage – forged on the perilous Oregon trail, tested by her husband’s war service and the lawlessness of the gold fields – is worth fighting for.
As she saddles up her horse and frets over the plan a final time, she reminds herself she has shot a man before, survived the hardship of the trail, rebuilt their life after a fire destroyed everything they had. She has never stopped loving her husband, even on those nights when he lay beside her, inches away but somehow unreachably distant.
Now she must cross mountains to rescue him – and save her marriage.
Travel Guide
The Gold Rush in California
What a great way of discovering the trials and tribulations of the American Gold Rush.
By August 1848, it is thought that around 4,000 gold miners were in the area, and within a year about 80,000 “forty-niners” (as the fortune seekers of 1849 were called) had arrived at the California goldfields. By 1853 their numbers had grown to 250,000.
The novel is largely set in San Francisco but there are key sites in and around California such as the first transatlantic railroad on the map as these were key to the time and history as well as the story!
San Francisco experienced the largest economic boom at the time. As well as rapid modernization and economic development, it was chosen as the site for the western terminus for the first transatlantic railroad, which linked the East Coast with California through Omaha.
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Mountains Between Us
Destination/location: California, San Francisco, Oregon Author/guide: Imogen Martin Departure Time: 1848
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