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In any case, when the gold rush struck Northern Californi a in 1849, the population of Los Angeles declined fro m 6,00 0 to 1,60 0 in just 16 TRAVELING MUSIC one year, as everyone who felt abl e went north i n search of instant riches . (Interesting t o not e tha t by the en d of the Civi l War, $785 million in gold had been mined in California, making the crucial difference by delivering five or six million dollar s a month t o the money men o f New York and keeping the Union solvent. ) By 1884 the population o f Los Angeles had rebounded to 12,000, and it was then tha t th e grea t lan d rus h began , with boosterism , speculation , development, an d outrigh t frau d swellin g th e populatio n t o 100,00 0 i n less than thre e years, and multiplying land values beyond al l reason.

Most comprehensiv e o f al l was Kevi n Starr's six-volum e (s o far) serie s documenting the "California dream" through the 20th Century. (One telling quot e describe d Souther n Californi a by the 1950 5 as a place "where men who had arrived did not fee l it, and those who had failed fel t it too much") Starr's fift h volume , Th e Dream Endures, was the book I was carrying with m e o n thi s Bi g Bend journey , t o b e m y restauran t companion . \ler$c One 2 3 California histor y had com e alive for me a s an endlessly amazing variety of stories, of human drama , achievement, artistry, corruption, cruelty, and nobility.

A. A bit much, but — that's the way it went down, and if Freddie needed me for a few days to "see him through, " then o f course I could d o that for him. Late yesterday morning I finally got away from ther e ("Escap e Fro m Encino") , feelin g prett y use d up , groggy, weak, and tired. So I kept it simple — just angled my way over through Pasadena and Glendale to I-io, and across the desert to Blythe, on the Colorado, which at that point was slow, muddy, and about 50 feet wide (as the early settlers used to say, "too thic k to drink, too thin to plow").