Delmonico,
Thanks for the suggestions, and I just added the online book to my 'favorites'
Right now I am reading 'Ramona' by Helen Hunt Jackson, a fiction avout the Californio and Indian life in Southern California ....and nest on the list is 'The Squatter and the Don', a thinly veiled 'fiction' about Mariano Vallejo and his interaction with the Yanquis ....
In the wings is 'Gold Rush Saints', about California Mormons, and 'Antonio's Journey', the fictional tale of an Italian who comes to America, joins with a wagon train to California in 1816. Because it is a fiction, the author places him in touch with the Gold Rush, the Pony Express, the Transcontinental Railroad, etc .... all books suggested by the Sacramento Museum folks ...
Looks like I am going to have to bone up on my speed reading ....LOL