In response to last week's question about E. I. Barra's visit to the San Francisco Mint, Mike Hodder writes:

"One volume of the SF Mint visitors book does survive. Entitled "Register of Visitors to the Mint, 1854-1892", it is catalogued as record 9.1 of the Preliminary (1995) Inventory of the Records of the San Francisco Mint. It's in the National Archives - Pacific Region (San Bruno, CA)."

Dave Bowers notes that "Barra was a Forty Niner in the Gold Rush," and also points out that his collection was sold by W. Elliot Woodward in 1865. Your editor couldn't find a reference to Barra in Adams, Durst, or Gengerke, but did find a listing in Gengerke for a catalog by L. Keller of San Francisco (2/19/1863, 512 lots, 24 pages, available in the ANS library). Lorraine Durst lists it as containing lots of Roman coins, foreign coins, U.S. colonials, coins, and tokens.

A web search turned up this entry at the Oakland Museum of California - it's a quote from Barra's journal, describing the approach to San Francisco from aboard the Urania in 1849:

"on the larboard hand the green hills and deep valleys of the Marin shore came into full view, gladdening the eyes of every person on board On our starboard bow we saw a bluff jutting into the bay on the [top] of which were two or three small brass cannon. Rising far above the cannon was a tall flagstaff from the top of which waved the glorious flag of our country As we sailed into view our eyes were greeted with a sight that they never have encountered since. Shipping in such numbers that it was absolutely impossible to enumerate them; they looked to us as if they were piled up one on top of the other."

Your editor smells enough tangible clues to make for an interesting research project.