"Gold, boys, gold!"
And it really was gold of the finest quality that John Marshall found in constructing Sutter's mill not far from the present city of Sacramento, California. The news was like an electric spark in a powder magazine. Soon the Gold Rush was on—bringing frenzied gold seekers over the mountains, across the steaming Isthmus of Panama, and around the Horn.
Most of the miners were young, scarcely a graybeard among them. One boy in his early teens found $2700 worth of gold dust and nuggets in two days. Three men in three months panned a hoard worth $75,000. A single solid gold nugget was found weighing 148 pounds. But many miners did not strike it rich, and some died of cholera, hardships of the trail and mine, or by the bandit's knife or bullet.
Paul Wellman makes those raw and vital days live again in this authentic and lively book. We watch California transformed from a drowsy Spanish province into one vast mining camp, and then to statehood and prosperity—with a future always bright.
The author explains the various methods of mining gold with such intimate knowledge that the reader will feel he can do it himself. An exciting book about an exciting era.
—from the dust jacket
Gold glistens through all literature and on almost every page of human history. It is mentioned four hundred and nine times in the Bible. It gleams in mythology—the Golden Fleece, the three golden apples, the Midas touch, the gold guarded by the Rhine maidens! Whether used for good or used for evil, gold has always fascinated most of mankind.
Paul Wellman has written a vivid account of the most exciting of all the gold rushes. When gold was found in California in 1848, the news was like "an electric spark in a powder magazine." From all over the United States young men hurried to the distant gold fields on the Pacific Coast. Some found sudden wealth, some found a lonely grace, but all found adventure.
Mr. Wellman shows the the discovery of gold brought far more good than evil, helping to make California a great state, and to tie together the East and the West in one unified and powerful nation.
Sterling North
General Editor
—from the book
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