And you can see the gold that started the rush. On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered gold flakes while constructing Sutter’s Mill near...
Flakes that Changed the World
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gold rush
Henry Wickenburg
Gold prospector Henry Wickenburg had been frustrated in his attempts to find the yellow metal. He’d missed Captain Joe Walker’s expedition up the...
Chaos of a Boomtown
A Yankee prospector’s scrapbook of his summer in Nome reveals the hardships of the Arctic gold rush. On a stormy May 23, 1900, Connecticut native...
Mother Maggard
May 10th, 1858, John Gregory made a big strike on the north fork of Clear Creek and the "Pike's Peak or Bust" gold rush was on. Gold camps sprung up...
Medicine During the California Gold Rush
Doctors were among the flood of 49ers heading for California during the Gold Rush. Many came not to practice medicine but to strike it rich. They...
The California Gold Rush
On January 24th, 1848, James Marshall was constructing a tailrace for a lumber mill on South Fork of the American River. During the previous night,...
Young Guns South of the Border
Six decades after the California Gold Rush, adventurous young men from around the world were still flooding the West seeking fame, fortune and, for...
All That Glitters… A miner sought an easy way to get rich.
John Stoefel had come to Colorado to get gold—any way he could. On April 7, 1859, just outside Denver, Stoefel shot and killed his brother-in-law,...
Henry Plummer And The Not So Innocents Handsome Henry Plummer was a ladies man, lawman and politician in California during the Gold Rush. He was also crooked as a dog’s hind leg.
The big gold strikes at Bannack in 1862; Alder Gulch in 1863, which late became Virginia City; Last Chance Gulch in 1864, which became Helena and...
Mining Camp Law A white man from Tennessee arrived in the California gold camps with 3 slaves
A white man from Tennessee arrived in the California gold camps with 3 slaves. He put them to work while he rested in town. This didn’t set well...
America’s First Gold Rush The First Gold Rush in American history wasn’t at Sutter’s Mill in the Sierra Nevada as most think, it took place near Charlotte, South Carolina in 1799.
The First Gold Rush in American history wasn’t at Sutter’s Mill in the Sierra Nevada as most think, it took place near Charlotte, South Carolina in...
North to the Gold Country
Follow the 1898 Klondike and Alaska miners’ overland route from Sacramento to Seattle.