John Bower's letters to his family chronicle his 1862 overland journey through Oregon to the Clearwater Mountains, Idaho, and describe the new gold towns, Lewiston and Elk City. He talks about prospecting, working on the "American River ditch," and Henry's bakery in Elk City (possibly his brother) He reports news of gold strikes in Blackfoot country, Boise, and Beaverhead, Montana, where Adam (possibly his brother) goes to prospect. Most of John's letters quote food prices in Lewiston and Elk City. Bower's letters are accompanied by an 1854 letter from Adam Smeltzer, a Bower relative, who describes the railroads in Indiana and their expansion across the West. There are also two letters in German to Ferdinand Bower from Adam Ebinger and William Schatz who were both in Idaho. Two documents dated 1855 and 1863 refer to the Marion County school district number 2, where the Bowers went to school.
