Peter Pike

California Bound Peter Pike

California Bound tracks three generations of my family from the Gold Rush of 1849 through the Great Depression of the 1930s. Seeking adventure in the Golden State, they sailed around Cape Horn, crossed the Plains in a covered wagon, and traveled by paddlewheel steamer and transcontinental train. They searched for gold in the Sierra foothills, camped in Yosemite Valley in 1857, built a lumber and shipping empire along the Pacific Coast, and developed "the largest diversified farm in the world." In lives filled with grand schemes and broken dreams, they reached for the stars and fell back to earth. California bound them together.