Letters on travels to/from California

John Steinbeck is known for writing based off of true events. This is accurate for Grapes of Wrath as well. Migration West in response to the Dust Bowl drought in Oklahoma was a major historical event that moved much of the agriculture and farming to California. To this day, driving down most freeways in California, you can see all of the farm land and hard labor that is here in California. these two examples of letters document real stories of people to traveled to and from California for many years. 

In Lucius Fairchild's letters, he documents his journey to California, from Wisconsin, and his travels around the country and world after the migration. He worked as a gold prospector and also worked closely with farmers, minors, and butcherers. Though farm work is the premise of Grapes of Wrath, gold mining is also a huge factor in the migration West to California. The Gold Rush was a period where people migrated from all over the country to California to mine for gold. This, much like the farming opportunities displayed in the novel, was a misconception as well. Because of the overflow of people moving to California, mining opportunities became scarce. This is the same idea as the farming where so many people moved to California for the plentiful farming land, but quickly found that, though California is a large state, there is a limit and opportunities become far and few between. 

In the other set of letters, Franklin Augustus Buck documents his journey to California from Maine. In his time in California, Buck worked as a Yankee trader in the gold mines. This is what essentially brought him to California, but he found himself in the farming and agriculture realm in California. He documents his time in California as well as his experiences with both the Gold Rush and farming.