This is the story of an actual, real life little girl, America Kelsey, who accompanied her parents and siblings on a rugged wagon trip from their home in Missouri in the 1840's to settle in California as the first Anglo family before it became a state.
That is the true part. Much of anything from there on has been somewhat fabricated, due to lack of historical substance. Her father was truly the first white man to die and be buried in what is now the Charles M. Weber Event Center in Stockton, California.
All this was truly happening while California was a Department of the Mexican Nation and the story includes the difficulties that the American Emigrants were having in trying to wrest the future State from the Mexican Government.
American Kelsey is truly revered in California as an example of how a little girl could surmount all kinds of difficulties to establish a fine home for her family in a strange new land.