The Sierra Nevada has long been the domain of dreams, attracting the heroic and delusional, the best of humanity and the worst. Along with towering granite mountains, crystalline lakes, and spiky conifer forests, the Sierra is also home to tales so outlandish and outrageous that they have to be real.

Could the human imagination have invented someone like Eliza Gilbert? Born in Limerick, Ireland, she transformed herself into Lolo Montez, the Sevillian aristocrat who brought the provocative Spider Dance to the Gold Country. Or the fifteen two-humped camels that where imported from Asia to transport goods to the mines.

These stories, and scores more, spill out of the pages of this well-illustrated and lively tribute to the Sierra by a native son.