"Old California" is a 28-page Disney comics story written, drawn, and lettered by Carl Barks. The story stars Donald Duck and his nephews

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Huey, Dewey, and Louie are Multiple birth, triplet cartoon characters created by storyboard artist (screenwriter) Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company from an idea proposed by cartoonist Al Taliaferro and are the nephews of Donald Duck and th ...

. It was first published in ''

Four Color ''Four Color'', also known as ''Four Color Comics'' and ''Dell Four Color'', was an American comic book anthology series published by Dell Comics between 1939 and 1962. The title is a reference to the four basic colors used when printing comic ...

'' #328 (May 1951) with a cover by Carl Buettner, a four-page Grandma Duck story drawn and lettered by Bob Moore, and several one-page gag stories by Moore.

Plot

Donald Duck and his three nephews are on a holiday in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, heading to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. They take a small narrow road that seems deserted and discuss California's history as they travel. Donald Duck opines that the turning point in California's history was the California Gold Rush. As he speaks passionately on this topic, Donald Duck is momentarily distracted from his driving. The car crashes in a rock besides the road. When Donald Duck and his three nephews regain consciousness, they find they are visitors of a local tribe of Native Americans. The tribe kindly offer to help the foursome recover. The exhausted Ducks are offered a drink, and they fall asleep. When they wake again, they find themselves in Alta California, 1848. They quickly manage to befriend a local Spanish-speaking family of

Californios Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

, owners of a cattle ranch, together with the ranch workers. As visitors, Donald Duck and his nephews observe the family's life and moreover, they attempt to help with the family problems. They visit

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and acquire land cheaply, but soon are swindled out of them by American settlers. Afterwards, the Ducks become involved in the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

and as goldminers partner with a friend from the ranch. The Ducks do the digging, while their partner's fists and guns make sure that nobody swindles them out of their gold. After their friend departs, the Ducks start to experience an odd fading of their environment. It seems to them that all their acquaintances from this era are now only distant memories. It's at this point that the Duck family truly regain consciousness to discover the truth. They were in a coma in a hospital bed for weeks. The drink they had accepted had kept them sleeping for this long. The Ducks all have the same memory of their apparent experiences in

time travel Time travel is the concept of movement between certain points in time, analogous to movement between different points in space by an object or a person, typically with the use of a hypothetical device known as a time machine. Time travel is a ...

. Despite this, the Ducks believe themselves fully recovered, take possession of their car (which has been completely repaired) and continue on their way as if nothing had happened. However, the Ducks do make a stop first at an abandoned old house where they had stayed as visitors in 1848. They admit that they don't know if it was all a dream or if they really experienced the events they recall from 1848, but nevertheless they choose to keep the memory of Old California.

Production

The plot was inspired by the 1884 novel ''

Ramona ''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...

'' by

Helen Hunt Jackson Helen Hunt Jackson (pen name, H.H.; born Helen Maria Fiske; October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885) was an American poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the United States government. She de ...

. In a 1962 interview, Barks said, "The one

tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

I always liked best was "In Old California". I created an atmosphere and then kept that atmosphere through the whole story. Composing these stories is like writing music. You've got to have the beat and keep the whole thing going."

References

External links

*{{Inducks comic, W+OS++328-02
''Donald Duck in Old California!''
in Carl Barks guidebook Disney comics stories Donald Duck comics by Carl Barks 1950 in comics

Plot

Production

See also

References

External links