With the exception of the call to arms in the North and South in 1861, no moment of nineteenth-century America was more electrifying than the shout, "GOLD ON THE AMERICAN RIVER!" first heard in San Francisco in the spring of 1848. Within a year, tens of thousands of dreamers from around the world were making their way to the vast territory on the Pacific. All routes to San Francisco, gateway to the goldfields, were lengthy---six months on average---arduous, and dangerous: over land from the Missouri frontier and across the ...
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With the exception of the call to arms in the North and South in 1861, no moment of nineteenth-century America was more electrifying than the shout, "GOLD ON THE AMERICAN RIVER!" first heard in San Francisco in the spring of 1848. Within a year, tens of thousands of dreamers from around the world were making their way to the vast territory on the Pacific. All routes to San Francisco, gateway to the goldfields, were lengthy---six months on average---arduous, and dangerous: over land from the Missouri frontier and across the Rockies and Sierra Nevada; through the fever jungles of Panama to the Pacific; or 15,000 sea miles around Cape Horn. In" Eldorado," Dale L. Walker presents the full, colorful, character-filled story of this American epic: from the first traces of gold found in a riverside sawmill and the spreading of the news east of the Rocky Mountains to the great migration to California and the experiences of those who risked, and often lost, their lives at the rainbow's end.
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