California is home to many Gold Rush towns, including Sonora. Just 30 minutes away is Groveland, widely regarded as one of the country's "greatest little towns," exuding quintessential Gold Rush ...

By 1860, more than 5,000 Black Americans "had made the difficult trek to California in search of quick wealth," according to Rudolph Lapp, in his book "Blacks in Gold Rush California." ...

The discovery of gold in1848 unleashed the largest migration in United States history and drew people from a dozen countries to form a multi-ethnic society in California.

One hundred and seventy-seven years later, California continues to lead the U.S. in gold production and discovery. The spirit of the original forty-niners who tilled the land lives on in those ...

Off Highway 50 on the way to Tahoe, Gold Bug Mine, inside Gold Bug Park, is the kind of place you want to visit even if you don’t care much about gold rush history. It’s a beautiful park ...

When the conditions for a technology shift are right, workers will follow. One set of advances always gives birth to the next one. In the case of the California gold rush, it was the Industrial ...

For some much-needed midweek fun, today I’m updating our California Reading List, a collection of great books that are especially adept at illuminating life in the Golden State.