Charles Riner, I wish you could pin that date to a more concise year for crossing the Isthmus; but there are several curiousitiers. "6 weeks" is amazingingly excessive to get to Panama, but could have been a sailing ship encountering bad storms. There were steamers running 3 days a trip at the time. But not unusual to take 2 weeks. The ships list at SF shows round trip times, as mostly they showed arrivals. Somewhere about 1855 the rails were completed, and the Panama crossing was 8 hours (best) Prior it had been rowboats, change to mules, change to boats, etc at various points, and many walked a lot. (welcomed by mosquitos, malaria,yellow fever---etc) (and bad food) The steamer to New York was about 2 weeks, weather permitting, I had no accounts to Orleans. With the volumes of people getting bigger all the time, all facilities were strained most of the time. None the less, many made the trip without incident or comment. It had to be a madhouse. In two sides of my family we know of 5 crossings, various years. Young girls, young men, older people, none had a problem. Delays were common. I never found a complete account of cost, I think it varied a lot, as did the ships. Imagine how much easier the intercontinental rail was!! --JD At 10:00 PM 3/24/00 EST, Motaatom@aol.com wrote: >Recently, I learned that my greatgreatgrandfather and his brother had gone >from Independence, MO on a wagon train to the California gold fields. After >a few months there, they returned to Arkansas apparently after arriving in >New Orleans from Panama. The letter written by one of them states "I was sea >sick 6 weeks on a start from San Francisco to Panama...and from Shagres (sic) >to Oleans (sic)." Could someone give me a quick lesson on the journey that >one would have taken in the 1850s from San Francisco to New Orleans via the >Isthmus of Panama? > >Thank you. Sincerely, Charles Riner