Thursday, June 02, 2016

Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson

I finished reading Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson. Written in 1883, the book is Robert Louis Stevenson's travel memoir of his two-month honeymoon trip to Napa Valley, California, in 1880.

I picked up the book after Sharon and I visited the Schramsberg Winery [California Historical Marker #561). As noted on the historical marker at the site, Stevenson devoted a chapter of Silverado Squatters to Schramsberg and its wines.

The book also details Stevenson's visit to a local Petrified Forest [California Historical #915]. I stopped there briefly, but need to go back and spent more time at the site.

Stevenson spent the unconventional honeymoon in an abandoned three-story bunkhouse at a derelict mining camp called "Silverado" on the shoulder of Mount Saint Helena. Sharon, Jack and I visited this site in Robert Louis Stevenson State Park [California Historical Marker #710].

While the book offers some interesting views of California during the late 19th century, I don't recommend it. The most interesting part of the story for me was Stevenson's description of watching the fog roll into the Napa Valley.

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