author
E. Gould (Edward Gould) Buffum
1820–1867
A journalist, soldier, and gold-rush observer, he left behind one of the vivid firsthand accounts of early California. His writing captures the upheaval, ambition, and rough daily life of the late 1840s with the eye of a reporter who was there.
1 Audiobook
Six months in the gold mines : from a journal of three years' residence in Upper and Lower California. 1847-8-9
by E. Gould (Edward Gould) Buffum
About the author
Born in Rhode Island in 1820, Edward Gould Buffum began his career in journalism with the New York Herald. During the Mexican–American War, he went to California as an officer in the 7th Regiment of New York Volunteers, a journey that placed him at the center of dramatic political and social change in the American West.
After arriving in California, he remained there through the years surrounding the Gold Rush, working as a journalist and spending time in the mining country. Those experiences became the basis for Six Months in the Gold Mines (1850), the book he is best remembered for today. It stands out as a lively eyewitness account of California in 1847–1849, blending travel narrative, reporting, and personal observation.
Buffum later returned east and is also described in library records as having served as a Paris correspondent for the New York Herald. He died in 1867, but his work remains valuable to readers interested in the Gold Rush, early California, and the kinds of firsthand stories that bring history to life.