Each Tuesday we have a reading from a particularly interesting historical item. Sometimes it's a historical tidbit that wasn't quite beefy enough to make a full column out of; other times, an especially interesting old newspaper article; frequently it's a short story from one of the frontier literary magazines that thrived in Oregon at the end of the 19th century.

Today it's something from Joaquin Miller, a.k.a. “The Poet of the Sierras,” “The Sweet Singer of the Sierras,” and “Oregon's World Famous Mediocre Poet.” This is the first item in his fourth Slender Volume of Poetry, Songs of the Sierras (1871) -- his most famous work. It's a long narrative poem telling the story of a high desert prospector.