![The Heer family had no luck in eastern America, so they moved west – going by boat via Panama! Illustration by Marco Heer.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/titel-weiter-in-den-westen-300x225.jpg)
Further into the west
After arriving in America in 1868, Swiss emigrant Rudolf Heer was unable to find work in the east of the country. So he and his family moved further west.
![The immigrants were examined and registered in “Castle Garden”. Illustration from Harper’s Magazine, 1871.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Castle-Garden-2-300x241.jpg)
![Extract from the Castle Garden immigration register.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Einwanderungsliste-300x67.jpg)
Letters from the New World
Rudolf Heer emigrated to America from Glarus in the 19th century. Between 1868 and 1872 he sent a total of five letters back to his old homeland. The letters are now in the archives of the Heer family, along with a number of other documents. This article is based on those letters and on research carried out by Fred Heer, a descendant of the Heers who stayed in Glarus.
![In 1868 the railway lines ended in Omaha in the west. Only a year later it was possible to travel coast to coast by train.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/eisenbahnkarte-300x84.jpg)
![By boat to Panama and then onwards by train. In 1868 the journey to California was long and arduous.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Hafen-Aspinwall-300x207.jpg)
![Rudolf Heer continued to write to his mother. She was his link to his old home.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/kuvert-300x165.jpg)
![Food on board the boat was terrible. Nevertheless, there were daily fights for it.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/Foodausgabe-Schiff-300x212.jpg)