The Golden Rock

# Catalog Note

The Golden Rock by Edward S. Ellis (1901 edition, originally copyrighted 1896) is a western adventure narrative employing a frame-story device. The author presents himself as having collected the account from a prominent San Francisco merchant, Dick Stoddard, encountered on a train journey from Omaha.

The novel opens with the autumn 1853 disappearance of the Martin emigrant party traveling toward Oregon. Multiple rumors circulate—the party perished on the sage plains, or fell victim to Mormon "Destroying Angels." Stoddard, a fifteen-year-old orphan traveling with his uncle and aunt, becomes separated from the wagon train while hunting. He witnesses the Indian attack that decimates the company; his swift pony enables escape. Alone on the prairie, he is discovered by a half-breed trapper called Black Sam, who confirms the massacre's totality. Black Sam offers companionship and employment trapping and hunting, which Stoddard accepts. The narrative continues with life on the western frontier during buffalo-hunting season. The text breaks off as frontier hunting details emerge.