California Revisited. 1858-1897

Book excerpt: Thaddeus S. Kenderdine made his way from Philadelphia to Michigan in 1858, staying only a month before he determined to head west. He remained in California for only a year, returning to New York in 1859. This visit is described in A California tramp (1888). California revisited (1898) recounts his second trip to California after an absence of forty years, an 1897 rail trip to a Christian Endeavor meeting in San Francisco with a stop in Salt Lake City. He contrasts his two journeys west as well as the changes in San Francisco and its neighborhood. He also visits Monterey, San José, Los Angeles, Pasadena, and San Pedro; as well as the missions at San Fernando, Santa Barbara, San Juan Capistrano, and San Miguel. His stay in San Francisco coincides with beginning of Klondike gold fever and he revisits old mining camps in the Sacramento Valley before returning via the northern route with a stopover at Yellowstone Park.