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A Wealth of Information on Mid-19th-Century Calfornia

First year of publication for this short-lived annual digest on California, published by Henry G. Langley and Samuel A. Mathews. The only other year issued was 1859. Given the State of California had only been founded seven years earlier, this volume stands as an important source book for all manner of information, including gold mining, and other resources and industries, climate, agriculture, and even earthquakes.

The interesting earthquake report (pages 27-36) by Lorenzo Hubbard M.D. includes an account of earthquakes which had occured so far in the 19th-century, and concludes with a prescient warning, "Had the shock been as severe at San Francisco as at Fort Tejon [a recent quake], the whole city would have been in ruins, and thousands of lives sacrificed in the general crash."

Page 203 includes a brief account of grape culture in California, citing the city of Los Angeles as the center of the wines and brandies, with over 400,000 gallons "manufactured during the last year."

A section headed Indian Department of California summarizes the condition of the Native American tribes in the state, including the Indian Reservations.

A description of the California Metallurgical Works operated by Messrs. Uznay and Haraszthy & Co. on page 251.  Each of the main lighthouses of the Pacific Coast is described, from San Diego to Cape Hancock at the mouth of the Columbia River.

The first 4 pages contain interesting advertisements, starting with a bold full-page ad for Samuel Brannan, real estate dealer. Also ads for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, California Steam Navigation Co., and Josiah J. LeCount, stationer and book importer.

The volume is divided into the following sections:

Part I - Calendar and celestial Phenomena

Part II - United States and the Officers thereof (includes details of the Branch Mint in San Francisco)

Part III - California and the Officers thereof

Part IV - Statistics, Etc.

Part V - Resources of the State, Section 2 of which covers Minerals, types of Gold Mining and has a table of Quartz Mills listed by county. Also has a description and table of the Canal and Ditch Companies that comprise some 4,405 miles established for mining purposes.

Part - VI - Counties of the State and the organization thereof.

The preface states:

The plan of the Regiser will be to embrace... full and reliable statistics, concerning each branch of the resources of the State, and a complete exhibit of the finances thereof, including the different county and municipal organizations, carefully prepared and arranged, from information through official and other reliable sources. It contains nearly as much matter as the "American Almanac", and as a State work, will not suffer by comparison with that useful book of reference...