Condition: Good. Packed in a BOX with cardboard backing and padding. (See Photos!) Pages: not written on, clean, bright, odor free. Dust Jacket: clean, bright, bumping to edges, tiny tear at back bottom edge. Same or next day shipping (weekdays and Saturdays)! Ships from California.  ABOUT: THE GOLD CHAIN 

by Regina V. Phelan 

The Gold camps of California needed the circus. The miners led lonely lives, and Henry Lee and his troupe performed with skill and daring for the men. Gold nuggets were thrown at Lee's feet in reward for the excitement he brought to the Sierra foothills. Lee picked them up and later had them melted down and crafted into a beautiful gold chain — a chain which would join three unique frontier families. Henry Lee was an Englishman and a circus man who came west during the Gold Rush to the rough and tumble world of San Francisco, Sacramento, and the gold camps of the Sierras. To the south, in the little Mexican village of Los Angeles, Andrew Weinshank, a veteran of the war with Mexico, contracted to make barrels to hold food-stuffs shipped to the mines. Into the nearby San Gabriel Valley came Thomas Hacket Phelan, an Irishman who had immigrated at age 14 and had fought in the Civil War. The infamous "Lucky" Baldwin had encouraged his move into that fertile valley, where the promise of rich farms and good water lured industrious settlers. Against the backdrop of frontier California, the Lees, the Weinshanks and the Phelans built lives rich in drama and adventure. Through marriage these families joined and the gold chain passed through their hands. This is the story of those families, their adventure, their joys and sorrows, and the gold chain which bound them together.