# Silverado — Travel Essays character guide

> Silverado in Travel Essays by Robert Louis Stevenson.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** The Silverado

**First appearance:** 0085-the-silverado-squatters

## Snapshot

A dead mining town on Mount Saint Helena's flank, where the narrator squats among ruins and listens for the voices of vanished miners.

## Who they are

Silverado is an abandoned camp of shafts, tunnels, and a battered mill, its population reduced to Rufe Hanson and a family of squatters. Its silence holds two rival stories — one of six hundred thousand dollars pulled from the seam, one of an elaborate swindle staged with smuggled silver in cigar boxes. As the narrator's chosen home, it becomes the stage for his experiment in living deliberately among the wreck of other men's hopes.

## In the story

### [In the Valley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/in-the-valley)

The Silverado is mentioned as the narrator's residence in the valley.

### [The Act of Squatting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/the-act-of-squatting)

The abandoned mine and its ruins serve as the setting for the chapter.

### [The Sea Fogs](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/the-sea-fogs)

The homestead and platform at Silverado are the focal point of the narrator's observations, a favored nook that remains in sunshine while surrounded by fog.

### [A Starry Drive](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/a-starry-drive)

The mountain home to which the narrator and companions return, described as a 'palace' and 'barrack' that fosters a feeling of possession and permanence.

### [Toils and Pleasures](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/chapters/toils-and-pleasures)

The setting of the chapter, the mountain hermitage where the daily life and pleasures are described.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/characters/silverado
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/travel_essays_se/characters