This document contains excerpts from various sources describing the California Gold Rush of 1849. It includes quotes from miners describing their fantasies of wealth upon hearing about gold in California. It outlines some of the routes taken by prospectors, including traveling by sea on clipper ships or crossing the Isthmus of Panama. The hardships and dangers of travel are noted. Extracts portray the multi-cultural nature of the Gold Rush and ethnic tensions that arose. Stories are shared about notable figures like Joaquin Murrieta and the boom and bust town of Bodie. Challenges of mining and survival are depicted through quotes and images.

2. “San Franciscans are not the
children of men who were bold
and daring in the seventeenth
century, but the children of the
men who were bold and daring
in the mid-nineteenth.” -- H.L.
Mencken

3. The Fantasy
“Piles of gold rose up before me at
every step; castles of marble, dazzling
the eye with their rich appliances;
thousands of slaves, bowing to my
beck and call; myriads of fair virgins
contending with each other for my
love, were among the fancies of my
fevered imagination. The
Rothschilds, Girards and Astors
appeared to me but poor people; in
short, I had a very violent attack of
the Gold Fever.” -- 49er James Carson,
remembering his first thoughts on
hearing of the gold in California

4. Sutter’s Fort, 1847, Where Gold Was First Discovered in California

5. James Marshall, Standing Where He First Discovered Gold at Sutter’s Fort

6. Placer Territory

7. Columbia in 1852

8. Coming to
the Gold
Fields by Sea

9. Advertisement for Clipper Ship
Transport fo California

10. Clipper
Ship Bound
For
California

11. On-Board Eating and Sleeping
Quarters for 100 Days

12. “Short Cut” Across the Isthmus of Panama

13. Crossing the Isthmus

14. Carried
Across
The
Isthmus
by Indian

16. Dangers of Overland Travel

17. Dangers of Overland Travel #2

18. Humorous
Views of the
Gold Rush

19. Scam or Plan?

20. Another Way to Travel by Water to California

21. Fastest of All: Launch by Rubber Band!

22. Ridding France of Too Many Widows
by Sending Them to California

23. To the Placers in Stages

24. Who
Has
The
Right-Of-
Way?

25. The New Tent-Mate

26. the Multi-Cultural Gold Rush

27. China Camp

28. Native American Miner

29. Ethnic Conflict:
Chinese Versus Indians

30. A Gold Rush
Legend:
Joaquin
Murietta

31. Joaquin Murieta!

32. From Days of Gold! Songs of the California Gold Rush

33. Murietta Trapped by Bounty Hunters

34. 34

35. A Grim Relic of Gold Rush Violence:
Murieta’s Head Preserved

36. Bodie, California: Once a Thriving Gold Rush
Boom Camp, now a Ghost Town

37. Anti-Clericalism in Bodie

38. MADAME MOUSTACHE
DEFENDS HERSELF
IN GOLD RUSH BODIE!

39. Survival of the Fittest: Winning Drinker Celebrates atop the Losers

40. If you ride, don’t drink!

41. Privations of the Mining Life
Once more returned at close of day
To a cheerless, dismal home,
He vows if he were back in Maine
He never more would roam.
Now hunger makes his bowels yearn
For yams or “Irish roots”;
But these he looks in vain to find
Then tries to fry his boots.

42. “What is it that lifts San Francisco out of
the wallow? They are not the children of
men who were bold and daring in the
seventeenth century, but the children of
men who were bold
and daring in the
mid-nineteenth .”
H.L. Mencken, 1921

43. Arriving at Telegraph Hill