Gold offers a feel for what it was like to live through the heady days of the discovery and exploitation of gold in California in the mid-1800s through firsthand accounts, short stories, and tall tales written by the people who were there. These eyewitness accounts offer an immediacy that brings the events to life.

ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TextIntroduction: The World's Most Humongous Treasure HuntPart One: Nonfiction1 Discovering Gold: James Marshall2 My Great Plans Were Destroyed: John A. Sutter3 "Gold! Gold!!!": General William Tecumseh Sherman4 The Californian Ceases Publication: The Californian5 Official Report to the US Government: Colonel Richard Mason6 Trading for Dust: Franklin Buck 7 The Rush Begins: Elisha Oscar Crosby8 A Flood of Pioneers: Alonzo Delano9 Rich Diggings: James Ayers10 Of Miners and Gold: Carl Meyer11 Living Dead in Califor-nee: Alonzo Delano12 Seeking Richer Diggings: John S. Hittell13 California's Strange Society: Henry Coke14 The Fast Life in San Francisco: J. D. Borthwick15 To Live by Luck: Henry David Thoreau16 A Woman at the Mines: Dame Shirley17 Gold Made Misery My Companion: Alonzo Delano18 Christmas and New Years' in Mud Springs: Andrew Gilmore19 San Francisco and Its Corrupt Government: Mifflin Wistar Gibbs20 Flush Times in California: Ulysses S. Grant21 Lost in Snow: Anonymous22 The Strangest Population: Mark TwainPart Two: Fiction23 All Gold Canon: Jack London24 The Banks of the Sacramento: Jack London25 ContentsAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TextIntroduction: The World's Most Humongous Treasure HuntPart One: Nonfiction1 Discovering Gold: James Marshall2 My Great Plans Were Destroyed: John A. Sutter3 "Gold! Gold!!!": General William Tecumseh Sherman4 The Californian Ceases Publication: The Californian5 Official Report to the US Government: Colonel Richard Mason6 Trading for Dust: Franklin Buck 7 The Rush Begins: Elisha Oscar Crosby8 A Flood of Pioneers: Alonzo Delano9 Rich Diggings: James Ayers10 Of Miners and Gold: Carl Meyer11 Living Dead in Califor-nee: Alonzo Delano12 Seeking Richer Diggings: John S. Hittell13 California's Strange Society: Henry Coke14 The Fast Life in San Francisco: J. D. Borthwick15 To Live by Luck: Henry David Thoreau16 A Woman at the Mines: Dame Shirley17 Gold Made Misery My Companion: Alonzo Delano18 Christmas and New Years' in Mud Springs: Andrew Gilmore19 San Francisco and Its Corrupt Government: Mifflin Wistar Gibbs20 Flush Times in California: Ulysses S. Grant21 Lost in Snow: Anonymous22 The Strangest Population: Mark TwainPart Two: Fiction23 All Gold Canon: Jack London24 The Banks of the Sacramento: Jack London25 Scorpion Gulch: Nathan Urner26 The Luck of Roaring Camp: Bret Harte27 How I Went to the Mines: Bret HarteScorpion Gulch: Nathan Urner26 The Luck of Roaring Camp: Bret Harte27 How I Went to the Mines: Bret Harte