The real-life two-year diary of a young man who came from Wisconsin to Colorado in 1860 to prospect for gold. His heartfelt entries show his intelligence, sense of humor, and humanness as Henry met the challenges of hardships and frustrations of mining, and of living in that mid-19th century mountain society. Enhanced by illustrations, photographs, and historic research, this diary comes alive, putting the reader into the mining life of the period. It is a diary that was little known until Betsy Buck stumbled across it on a dusty shelf at the Colorado Historic Society Library.