The Silverado Squatters
Encyclopedia
The Silverado Squatters (1883) is Robert Louis Stevenson
's travel memoir
of his two-month honeymoon trip with Fanny Vandegrift
(and her son Lloyd Osbourne
) to Napa Valley, California
in the late spring and early summer of 1880.
In July 1879, Stevenson received word that his future American wife's divorce was almost complete, but that she was seriously ill. He left Scotland right away and traveled to meet her in Monterey, California
(his trip detailed in The Amateur Emigrant
(1894) and Across the Plains (1892)). Broken financially, suffering from a life-long fibrinous bronchitis
condition, and with his writing career at a dead end, he was nursed back to health by his doctor, his nurse, and his future wife, while living briefly in Monterey, San Francisco
and Oakland
. His father having provided money to help, on May 19, 1880 he married the San Francisco native, whom he had first met in France in 1875, soon after the events of An Inland Voyage
. Still too weak to undertake the journey back to Scotland, friends suggested Calistoga
in the upper Napa Valley with its healthy mountain air.
They first went to the Hot Springs Hotel in Calistoga, but unable to afford the 10 dollars
a week, they spent an unconventional honeymoon
in an abandoned three-story bunkhouse at a derelict mining camp called "Silverado" on the shoulder of Mount Saint Helena
in the Mayacamas Mountains. There they managed to "squat
" for two months during a pleasant California summer, putting up makeshift cloth windows and hauling water in by hand from a nearby stream while dodging rattlesnake
s and the occasional fog banks so detrimental to Stevenson's health.
The Silverado Squatters provides some interesting views of California during the late 19th century. Stevenson uses the first telephone
of his life. He meets a number of wine
growers in Napa Valley, an enterprise he deemed "experimental", with growers sometimes even mis-labeling the bottles as originating from Spain
in order to sell their product to skeptical Americans. He visits the oldest wine grower in the valley, Jacob Schram, who had been experimenting for 18 years at his Schramsberg Winery
, and had recently expanded the wine cellar in his backyard. Stevenson also visits a petrified forest
owned by an old Swedish ex-sailor who had stumbled upon it while clearing farmland — the precise nature of the petrified forest remained for everyone a source of curiosity. Stevenson also details his encounters with a local Jewish merchant, whom he compares to a character in a Charles Dickens
novel (probably Fagin
from Oliver Twist
), and portrays as happy-go-lucky but always scheming to earn a dollar. Like Dickens in American Notes
(1842), Stevenson found the American habit of spitting on the floor hard to get used to.
His experiences at Silverado were kept in a journal he called "Silverado Sketches", parts of which were incorporated into Silverado Squatters in 1883 while living in Bournemouth
, England
, with other tales appearing in "Essays of Travel" and "Across the Plains". Many of his notes of the scenery around him later provided much of the descriptive detail for Treasure Island
(1883).
The Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
now encompasses the area where they stayed. The entrance to the park is at the summit of State Route 29
. A new trail has been constructed in recent years. The "Silverado Museum" in St. Helena, California
is dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson.
Editions
Resources
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's travel memoir
Travel literature
Travel literature is travel writing of literary value. Travel literature typically records the experiences of an author touring a place for the pleasure of travel. An individual work is sometimes called a travelogue or itinerary. Travel literature may be cross-cultural or transnational in focus, or...
of his two-month honeymoon trip with Fanny Vandegrift
Fanny Vandegrift
Frances Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson was the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson and mother of Isobel and Lloyd Osbourne.-Early life:...
(and her son Lloyd Osbourne
Lloyd Osbourne
Samuel Lloyd Osbourne was an American author and the stepson of Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson with whom he would co-author three books and provide input and ideas on others.-Early life:...
) to Napa Valley, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in the late spring and early summer of 1880.
In July 1879, Stevenson received word that his future American wife's divorce was almost complete, but that she was seriously ill. He left Scotland right away and traveled to meet her in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
(his trip detailed in The Amateur Emigrant
The Amateur Emigrant
The Amateur Emigrant is Robert Louis Stevenson's travel memoir of his journey from Scotland to California in 1879-1880. It is not a complete account, covering the first third, by ship from Europe to New York City...
(1894) and Across the Plains (1892)). Broken financially, suffering from a life-long fibrinous bronchitis
Bronchitis
Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks. Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways...
condition, and with his writing career at a dead end, he was nursed back to health by his doctor, his nurse, and his future wife, while living briefly in Monterey, San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
. His father having provided money to help, on May 19, 1880 he married the San Francisco native, whom he had first met in France in 1875, soon after the events of An Inland Voyage
An Inland Voyage
An Inland Voyage is a travelogue by Robert Louis Stevenson about a canoeing trip through France and Belgium in 1876. It is Stevenson's earliest book and a pioneering work of outdoor literature....
. Still too weak to undertake the journey back to Scotland, friends suggested Calistoga
Calistoga, California
Calistoga is a city in Napa County, California, United States. The population was 5,155 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , 99.30% of it land and 0.70% of it water.-Climate:...
in the upper Napa Valley with its healthy mountain air.
They first went to the Hot Springs Hotel in Calistoga, but unable to afford the 10 dollars
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
a week, they spent an unconventional honeymoon
Honeymoon
-History:One early reference to a honeymoon is in Deuteronomy 24:5 “When a man is newly wed, he need not go out on a military expedition, nor shall any public duty be imposed on him...
in an abandoned three-story bunkhouse at a derelict mining camp called "Silverado" on the shoulder of Mount Saint Helena
Mount Saint Helena
Mount Saint Helena is a peak in the Mayacamas Mountains with flanks in Napa, Sonoma, and Lake counties of California. Composed of uplifted 2.4-million-year-old volcanic rocks from the Clear Lake Volcanic Field, it is one of the few mountains in the San Francisco Bay Area to receive any snowfall...
in the Mayacamas Mountains. There they managed to "squat
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
" for two months during a pleasant California summer, putting up makeshift cloth windows and hauling water in by hand from a nearby stream while dodging rattlesnake
Rattlesnake
Rattlesnakes are a group of venomous snakes of the genera Crotalus and Sistrurus of the subfamily Crotalinae . There are 32 known species of rattlesnake, with between 65-70 subspecies, all native to the Americas, ranging from southern Alberta and southern British Columbia in Canada to Central...
s and the occasional fog banks so detrimental to Stevenson's health.
The Silverado Squatters provides some interesting views of California during the late 19th century. Stevenson uses the first telephone
Telephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
of his life. He meets a number of wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
growers in Napa Valley, an enterprise he deemed "experimental", with growers sometimes even mis-labeling the bottles as originating from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in order to sell their product to skeptical Americans. He visits the oldest wine grower in the valley, Jacob Schram, who had been experimenting for 18 years at his Schramsberg Winery
Schramsberg Vineyards
Schramsberg Vineyards is a well-known winery located in Calistoga, California in the Napa Valley region. The vineyard, which was originally founded in 1862 produces a series of sparkling wines using the same method as champagne. Schramsberg is considered one of the premium brands in the...
, and had recently expanded the wine cellar in his backyard. Stevenson also visits a petrified forest
Petrified wood
Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree having turned completely into stone by the process of permineralization...
owned by an old Swedish ex-sailor who had stumbled upon it while clearing farmland — the precise nature of the petrified forest remained for everyone a source of curiosity. Stevenson also details his encounters with a local Jewish merchant, whom he compares to a character in a Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
novel (probably Fagin
Fagin
Fagin is a fictional character who appears as an antagonist of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist, referred to in the preface of the novel as a "receiver of stolen goods", but referred to more frequently within the actual story as the "merry old gentleman" or simply the "Jew".-Character:Born...
from Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens, published by Richard Bentley in 1838. The story is about an orphan Oliver Twist, who endures a miserable existence in a workhouse and then is placed with an undertaker. He escapes and travels to...
), and portrays as happy-go-lucky but always scheming to earn a dollar. Like Dickens in American Notes
American Notes
American Notes for General Circulation is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June, 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of these societies almost as if returning a status report on their progress...
(1842), Stevenson found the American habit of spitting on the floor hard to get used to.
His experiences at Silverado were kept in a journal he called "Silverado Sketches", parts of which were incorporated into Silverado Squatters in 1883 while living in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with other tales appearing in "Essays of Travel" and "Across the Plains". Many of his notes of the scenery around him later provided much of the descriptive detail for Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
(1883).
The Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park
Robert Louis Stevenson State Park is a California state park, located in Sonoma and Napa counties USA. The park offers a hike to the summit of Mount Saint Helena from which much of the Bay Area can be seen. On clear days it is possible to see the peak of Mount Shasta, distant.The park is named...
now encompasses the area where they stayed. The entrance to the park is at the summit of State Route 29
California State Route 29
State Route 29 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that travels in a north–south direction from State Route 20 in Upper Lake to Interstate 80 in Vallejo.-Route description:...
. A new trail has been constructed in recent years. The "Silverado Museum" in St. Helena, California
St. Helena, California
St. Helena is a city in Napa County, California, United States. It is part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 5,814 at the 2010 census....
is dedicated to Robert Louis Stevenson.
Resources and editions
- The Silverado Squatters at Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
- The Silverado Squatters, HTML version from the University of VirginiaUniversity of VirginiaThe University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
. - The Silverado Squatters, HTML version with scanned images, from the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
- The Silverado Squatters, from William Ernest HenleyWilliam Ernest HenleyWilliam Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
's The Novels and Tales of Robert Louis Stevenson, volume 15. Published by Scriber's and Sons in 1905. Scanned online via Google Books. - The Silverado Squatters, published by Scribner's and Sons in 1905 with a preface by Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson. Scanned online via Google Books.
- The Silverado Squatters, audiobook, Blue Pylon Creative (2005). ISBN 0-9765765-0-3
- The Silverado Squatters, reprint, Tauris Parke Paperbacks (2009). ISBN 1-84511-990-8
Resources
- Silverado Museum in St. Helena, CaliforniaSt. Helena, CaliforniaSt. Helena is a city in Napa County, California, United States. It is part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 5,814 at the 2010 census....
, devoted to Robert Louis Stevenson.