Category Archives: history

Gold Fever is born

When the subject of gold rushes comes up, the first words to mind are often “49ers” or “Klondike”. Yet the first gold discovery resulting in a gold rush, took place some 50 years before the 1849 migration to California. It wasn’t even a gold rush. It was a 12 year-old boy picking up a heavy […]

Gold Mining Disasters

When the gold mining industry was in its infancy in America, there were few disasters. The majority of finds being placer deposits, on the surface or in shallow streams which were panned, the dangers presented to prospectors were the practical ones of falling and breaking a limb, or possibly drowning in water too deep, while […]

The Gold Rush that changed America

At the time of the great California gold strike in 1849, there was an expression in common use, meaning the ultimate thrill, the symbol of exotic achievement. And it all came from travelling circuses, which had begun to display the very rare elephant. As the tale goes, a farmer heard that a circus had come […]