Days of gold: the California Gold Rush and the American nation

California's golden revolution : enormous wealth and great confusion

Gold fever : the beginning

"This is a hard thing, this breaking up of families" : gold and its personal costs

Journey and arrival : coming to California, coming to terms

Old bonds and new allegiances : "Me and John stick together like wood ticks"

The scarcity of women : "I have not spoken to a lady for five months"

"I could sell some of the furniture" : adjustments in the East

Occupations : The 49ers begin work

"The real argonauts of '49" : life and leisure in the gold fields

The urban 49ers : "A very good chance to make money in this city"

Women in the California gold rush : duty, adventure, and opportunity

Harsh realities : hard luck and hard labor in the gold fields

"Capitalists will take hold" : high-stakes investments and deferred returns

Threats from within, threats from without : fear, hostility and violence in the gold rush

Waiting : a permanent condition

Lost love, lost families

The permanent lure of success, the enduring shame of failure : "When a person gits to California it is hard to say or tell when he gets away"

The ripples subside : the end of the gold rush

"The days of old, the days of gold, the days of forty-nine" : the gold rush and memory

; Historians and Sources.