William L. Manly

Who was William L. Manly?

William Lewis Manly was an American pioneer of the mid-19th century. He was first a fur hunter, a guide of Westward bound caravans, a seeker of gold, then a farmer and writer in his later years. He wrote an autobiography, first published with the title From Vermont to California, then a second edition with the title Death Valley in '49, that tells of the Pioneer conquest of America's Far West, in particular the 1848 California Gold Rush.