The tale of Californias early days is an epic, an immortal song of daring, of hope, of the urge of youth to unknown trails, of struggle, and of heartbreak. Across the great American plains the adventurers came, scrawling the story of their passing in lines of blood; they came around the Horn in wind-jammers, beating their way north ward in the strange Pacific; they forced their way into the wilderness, awakening California's hills from centuries-long sleep, and 'they pitched their tents and built their cabins by thousands in Chero kee Valley.