Letters written between 1852 and 1868, vividly describe the overland journey and excitement of settling in the evolving California mining towns of Fiddletown and Volcano in the Sierra Nevada foothills. A native of Vermont, Dennis Townsend marveled at the wonders of California, writing about changes in Fiddletown as it transitioned from its rough and violent beginnings to a more stable community. A man of many talents, Dennis Townsend contributed to the educational and musical development of the region. Letters link him to his large and closely-knit family of fourteen siblings as they migrated from Vermont to the Midwest and South during a frenetic time of national growth, change and the Civil War. Family remaining in New England helped him realize his dream of inventing Townsend's Folding Globe for the classroom. The book spans a tumultuous and fertile period in the U.S., conveying local, state, and national tensions and developments.