Pacific Mail Service between Panama and San Francisco, 1849-1851

During the period of slightly more than two decades, which opened with the beginning of the great migration from the eastern United States to California in the late months of 1848, and which lasted until the completion of the Central PacificUnion Pacific Railroads in the spring of 1869, the most desirable route by which to make the journey to the Pacific Coast was that across the Isthmus of Panamai. Not only was it the shortest in point of time required to make the trip, but it could be accomplished, on the whole, with less of hardship, danger, and discomfort than either the journey by wagon across the plains from the Missouri River, or by sailing vessel around Cape Horn. It was in particular the obvious route for residents of the Atlantic states, and its popularity over the others is shown by the fact that it was usually the one chosen by persons of circumstance who could afford the greater expense. It may have been the one preferred by the gambler, but it was even more the choice of the good citizen, and the passenger lists of the early Pacific Mail steamers read like a Who's Who of the great and near-great in the early years of American rule in California

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• Opening a New Frontier

  G Allen Greb•Pacific Historical Review•1978

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• The Pioneer Steamer California, 1848-1849

  Charles Ambler, C H Ambler et al.•The Mississippi Valley Historical…•1932

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