A pioneer at Sutter's fort, 1846-1850

Heinrich Lienhard (1822-1903), son of a Swiss farmer, sailed for America in 1843. After three years in the Midwest, Lienhard and four other young European immigrants set off by wagon for California, reaching Johann Sutter's New Helvetia in October 1846. After a few months in the U.S. Army, Lienhard returned to Sutter's settlement. In 1849 Lienhard returned to Switzerland to accompany Sutter's family to the New World. Disillusioned by the changed California he found in early 1850, Lienhard returned to Switzerland in July. A pioneer at Sutter's fort (1941) is based on a diary kept in his years in California and focuses on Johann Sutter, his family, and his settlement on the Sacramento. It also covers Lienhard's experiences as a farmer and a miner and his crossings of Panama and the Atlantic in 1849-1850.