The "Wolverine Rangers" were different from many of the groups traveling to California in 1849 in that they drew up and signed formal "articles of association and agreement" before leaving Michigan.  The group that left Michigan stayed essentially intact all the way to California, and after leaving Michigan added less than half a dozen members to the originally constituted party.

The Rangers were among the later groups in 1849, not leaving Independence, Missouri until 16 May.  They were at Fort Kearny 14 June; at Chimney Rock 29 June; South Pass 31 July; and Soda Springs, Idaho, 15 August.  They took Hudspeth Cut-off to the Humboldt River in Nevada, not reaching the new "Lassen's Cut-off" from the principal Truckee-Carson route until 20 September.  By that time, they were among the latest of the wagon trains headed west, and by the time they reached the Warner Mountains on the Nevada-California border, they were in serious trouble [from lack of food, livestock feed, early snows, etc.]. Many probably would have perished had not a military party met them there with food and other provisions. Even so, the party was still straggling into the upper Sacramento Valley after 8 November.  Needless to say, they missed "the gold rush" of 1849, not being able to do any serious prospecting until the winter rains ended and the rivers receded in March 1850.

The "Wolverine Rangers" trip is as well-documented as any of the many "49er" groups.  For the list below, I have used J.S. Holliday's "The World Rushed In: the California Gold Rush Experience" [Simon and Schuster, New York:1981], which uses the journal and letters of William Swain as the base document for a comprehensive report on this party and on the "49er" phenomenon, in general.  Holliday includes an extensive bibliography of other information about the "Wolverine Rangers" and the California movement.  [NOTE: If you're interested in the California Gold Rush and you haven't read this book, your education is incomplete.  It's great.]