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On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered a small nugget of gold in a stream near Sutter's Mill, California. Though he tried to keep it a secret, word spread through the country like wildfire. Before the year was out, the great American gold rush had begun. This true-life adventure story recreates the days when young and old went west with pick and shovel in the hope of finding riches. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Nugget that Founded a State!
{This Landmark series features American history for young
students, including 12 topics ranging from the Salem Witch Trials to D-Day.}

In 19 short, easy-to-read chapters the author sketches the fascinating outline of the discovery of gold, providing interesting descriptions of the various routes taken by feverish prospectors--from all over the world--to reach the California coast.She includes the methods used to find "color" and authentic details of life in the mining camps--about the miners' gritty work to their Sunday entertainment.

Learn why James Marshall, the white man who first discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, and Augustus Sutter, the wealthy Swiss land baron in Spanish California, did not proift from the spectacular event. Find out why many men became rich, but Not by digging or panning gold themselves. Savor the excitement as gold fever swept the globe, resulting in statehood in just two years! This is a fun, non-fiction read based on historical facts, presented in a format which will appeal to elementary and junior high students.

A fascinating acount of the California Gold Rush.
I've read so many boring, all facts books on the California Gold Rush that I almost didn't read this one. I'm glad I did. Because "The California Gold Rush" by May McNeer is different. Although the text is accurate, it's also lively and filled with details on the lives of the ordinary yet fascinating people that took place in this great historical event, and colorful tales of mining camps and more. This is by far the best book on the California Gold Rush. Once you've started May McNeer's "The California Gold Rush," I guarantee you won't be able to put it down! ... Read more

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Describes adventures and disasters in the lives of people who rushed to the gold mines of California in 1848 and explains how this event sparked the state's development. ... Read more

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Read this book to find out why people rushed to the West during the mid-1800s.Learn about the gold rush city of Cripple Creek, Colorado, and how gold fever caused people to behave in ways that are hard to understand. ... Read more

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#7 in Series: Landmarks of American History ... Read more

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A history of the founding of California's Jewish community during the Gold Rush. ... Read more

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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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Refreshing Tapestry of Social History
The California Gold Rush is often treated strictly as an economic event and recounted only from a western point of view. Rohrbough's Days of Gold weaves a refreshing and interesting tapestry of the social impacts of the gold rush using the voice of the people involved. He makes the reader feel the hope, the fear and the disappointment the Argonauts and those they left behind felt. Judging by the source and citations list, researching this book was a monumental task. Telling the history and impacts of the gold rush from the human point of view rather than simply from an economic third person view is brilliant. Rohrbough spins the tale perfectly.

His discussion and supporting details concerning the very different experiences for the Argonauts based upon their mode of transportation to California was great. Those who idled the weeks away aboard a ship were in no way prepared for the hard labor that awaited them in the Sierras. The Argonauts that formed land companies and worked their way across the continent learned many difficult lessons prior to arriving on the gold streams, yet were unprepared for life in and about San Francisco. The land travelers were forced to abandon tools, physical goods and even food. The ship goers had the capability to bring supplies, but were in poor physical shape for the grueling work along the streams.

The traditional role of the woman in the family was changed dramatically when the male family member(s) trekked off to California for months and even years. The letters and journal entries used to support this section of the book were especially poignant. The effects of the rush on women in the east and the west was extremely well documented and well written.
Another strength of this book was the discussion of why many 49ers did not return home at the agreed upon time, if they returned at all. The reader could easily sympathize and empathize with the 49ers' plight. They had left for California for easy pickings with great dreams of returning to give the family a life on easy street. Easy street was often only an expensive dream to never be realized. This aspect of the gold rush is often over looked in the fact based retelling of the event.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. I felt as if I was talking to the families and hearing their inner most concerns, bringing the history to life. To learn the facts of history is important. To feel that history, as if we were living it, is a mark of a well-researched, foundational work. Rohrbough has written Days of Gold for all audiences interested in the human side of the gold rush and for those interested in the nation wide societal impact the finding of shiny gold rock had upon this country in the mid 19th century.

Informative but repetitive
This is an obviously well supported book with a lot of information but it frequently repeats that information in slightly different words. I wouldn't recommend this if your searching for a riveting look into the life of the '49ers but if your researching the topic this'll help you out a lot. ... Read more

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A portrait of the wild and exciting time of the Gold Rush describes the era from the viewpoint of the people who were there and cites its impact on California's statehood and America's coast-to-coast expansion. ... Read more

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The gun - pistol or rifle, civil or military - was the law in the frontier days of America. Much legend and lore surrounds the performance of these weapons and the skill of their users and this work aims to shed new light on the diverse weaponry of this period. ... Read more

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In 1849, several hundred thousand Europeans and Americans trekked across the country for the gold fields of California - the Gold Rush being a defining moment in this country's short (European) history. John Clark followed the same historic roads and trails, retracing that journey through history. His travels took him through violent ghettos and even more violent hurricanes, desert sandstorms and blazing heat - cycling in areas where no sane person would choose to cycle. Along the way, Clark meets crazed war veterans, failing farmers, unemployed Mexican migrants, the washed up and those left over from the American Dream, which the Gold Rush had done so much to form. His journey also takes him through the wildest, the most beautiful and remotest parts of America. Part travelogue, partpolitical history, all incredibly well-written. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fantastic odyssey across and within America
This is a great book that I am surprised has not received more attention.John Stuart Clark not only describes his adventures (and misadventures) bicycling across the United States in the foot steps of the 49ers, but he also reveals and comments on America today.As a document of contemporary America without too much politics, this is a great commentary on the status of the American society and landscape.I loved this book.It is dense, but really worth reading.You can really feel his despair in the Utah desert, and his happiness over a cold beer or a day without wind in his face.Just read it. ... Read more

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Describes the discovery of gold in California, the rush to California to look for gold, establishment of mining towns, the outbreak of criminal activity, and other aspects of this volatile period in California history. ... Read more

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Combining the Charlotte Mason style elements of real, whole books, subject integration (history, geography, art, vocabulary, narration, and more) with a no-preparation, simple to use curriculum that will captivate all ages, this is a history program you and your children will look forward to every day! The accompanying Student Journal gives each student his own place to keep his work, and a treasured keepsake of drawings, copywork, timelines, projects, maps, and original writings when he is finished. -Queen Homeschool Supplies ... Read more