California gold fields

Ferguson was from Farmington, Ohio, who at 17 joined a small group from Ottawa, Illinois, and went overland in 1850 to the gold fields of California. They took the South Pass route, detouring through Salt Lake City. Ferguson first mined at Reeces' Bar at Butte Creek. He moved to new claims frequently, wandering in the Northern Mines from 1850 to 1852. He described the mining camps of Marysville, Nevada City, and Grass Valley, and he wrote of the various methods of mining.