Describes the emigration of people from the East Coast of the United States and from foreign countries to California to pursue the dream of discovering gold.

On the morning of January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold in California. The news spread across the continent, launching hundreds of ships and hitching a thousand prairie schooners filled with adventurers in search of heretofore unimagined wealth. Those who joined the procession—soon called 49ers—included the wealthy and the poor from every state and territory, including slaves brought by their owners. In numbers, they represented the greatest mass migration in the history of the Republic. In this first comprehensive history of the Gold Rush, Malcolm J. Rohrbough demonstrates that in its far-reaching repercussions, it was the most significant event in the first half of the nineteenth century. No other series of events between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War produced such a vast movement of people; called into question basic values of marriage, family, work, wealth, and leisure; led to so many varied consequences; and left such vivid memories among its participants. Through extensive research in diaries, letters, and other archival sources, Rohrbough uncovers the personal dilemmas and confusion that the Gold Rush brought. His engaging narrative depicts the complexity of human motivation behind the event and reveals the effects of the Gold Rush as it spread outward in ever-widening circles to touch the lives of families and communities everywhere in the United States. For those who joined the 49ers, the decision to go raised questions about marital obligations and family responsibilities. For those men—and women, whose experiences of being left behind have been largely ignored until now—who remained on the farm or in the shop, the absences of tens of thousands of men over a period of years had a profound impact, reshaping a thousand communities across the breadth of the American nation.

When word leaks out that gold has been found on property owned by John Sutter in 1847, it changes his life and the course of American history forever.

Did you know that the California Gold Rush was the largest mass migration event in the history of the United States of America? More than 300,000 people settled in the previously sparsely populated California. And they all came in the period between 1849 and 1855. But sadly, the people living in California quickly fell into violence, racism, and misogyny. Mexicans, Native Americans, other non-white settlers, and indigenous peoples were persecuted, hunted, and expelled from the territory. The California Gold Rush may have been one of the great events that shaped the US into what we know today, but it was also one of the saddest events, with 370 massacres committed upon the indigenous tribes of California. Yet, the California Gold Rush was a period of rapid changes, of industrialization and the modernization of the whole US. The influx of immigrants from all over the world demanded that new industries be quickly set up, as well as railroads, farms, and communication lines. People needed supplies from the East and the rest of the world, as well as to keep in touch with their distant families. The quick development of California, as well as the many new beginnings and successful businesses people managed to start, gave California its nickname of the Golden State. It was a place where dreams came true, where people had hope and quick prosperity. A new philosophical idea aptly named the "California Dream" started, and many people rushed to gain a fast fortune in a new land. In this book, you can read about how gold was discovered and who started it all. You can also learn the following: Who were the forty-niners and the first gold miners in California? What was life in the mining camps like? How was early mining performed, and how did it develop? How did gold excavation influence the environment and the indigenous peoples? What happened to the Native Americans of California? What was the role of women in the Gold Rush? How did California gain its statehood? How did the Gold Rush influence the world's economy? Who were the real prospectors of the California Gold Rush? And much more! Scroll up and click the "add to cart" button to learn more about the California Gold Rush!

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War—the epic story of the California Gold Rush, “a fine, robust telling of one of the greatest adventure stories in history" (David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of John Adams). The California Gold Rush inspired a new American dream—the “dream of instant wealth, won by audacity and good luck.” The discovery of gold on the American River in 1848 triggered the most astonishing mass movement of peoples since the Crusades. It drew fortune-seekers from the ends of the earth, accelerated America’s imperial expansion, and exacerbated the tensions that exploded in the Civil War. H.W. Brands tells his epic story from multiple perspectives: of adventurers John and Jessie Fremont, entrepreneur Leland Stanford, and the wry observer Samuel Clemens—side by side with prospectors, soldiers, and scoundrels. He imparts a visceral sense of the distances they traveled, the suffering they endured, and the fortunes they made and lost. Impressive in its scholarship and overflowing with life, The Age of Gold is history in the grand traditions of Stephen Ambrose and David McCullough.

In this authoritative guide, readers will examine the many aspects of the California Gold Rush and the event's larger role in westward expansion. Studying the forty-niners, the Native Americans of California, gold extraction techniques, and transportation west, readers will gain insight into how the gold rush changed the region and the many developments it led to. Accessible language clarifies advanced concepts, and engrossing sidebars feature additional information. Stunning photographs add dimension to the text, and primary sources are integrated, offering an up-close examination. This book's comprehensive material is a terrific resource to supplement curricular studies.

"Gold! Gold on the American River!" This declaration, shouted in the streets of San Francisco in the spring of 1848, electrified the nation, and its echo was heard in the farthest corners of the globe. In the five years that followed, tens of thousands of hopeful argonauts made their way to the vast territory on the Pacific conquered by the United States in its recent war with Mexico. They traveled overland from the Missouri River, their ox-drawn wagons crossing the Rocky Mountains, vast plains and deserts, and the formidable peaks of the Sierra Nevada. They journeyed by boat and on foot across the fever-ridden jungles of the Isthmus of Panama. They took ship from eastern seaports and sailed sixteen thousand miles via Cape Horn to the gateway of the goldfields, the new city of San Francisco. In Eldorado, award-winning historian Dale L. Walker presents the complete, often gaudy, always fascinating story of the California Gold Rush, the greatest mining bonanza in all of American history. The story ranges from the discovery by a New Jersey carpenter at a sawmill north of Sutter's Fort to the advent of large-scale hydraulic mining that spelled the ruination of the land and the end of the boom days when a Forty-niner with a pick and a pan found "colors" in a streamed and earned his wages-an ounce of raw gold a day. Walker's narrative of this pivotal event of American history is drawn from the lives and experiences of those "on the ground" in the rush, those who blazed the trails and settled the West in their search for the riches at the rainbow's end. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.