Gold Rush: Three Years in California

"One of the classic first-person accounts of the California Gold Rush period." In 1848, two years before California became a state, and at a time when the population of the area was sparse, James W. Marshall discovered gold while constructing a saw mill along the American River in Coloma, northeast of present-day Sacramento. Over the following months, word spread across America and overseas and gold seekers soon began to arrive in Northern California by the thousands, hoping to find riches. John David Borthwick, a young artist from Scotland, was one of the adventurous men who came to California. He spent three years in the golden state, at first mining and then using his artistic talents to capture the life of the pioneers with pencil and paper as he explored the Sierra mining camps and the towns rising up to meet the expanding population. In 1857, after returning to Europe, he published, “Three Years in California,” which remains one of the classic first-person accounts of the California Gold Rush period. Borthwick’s book colorfully portrays so well the diverse cultures, the hardships, the successes, and failures, of a state coming into being. An excellent book on the early history of San Francisco, Sacramento, Placerville, and other towns in the Sierra foothills of California. Linda Pendleton, a California native, has written an Introduction to Borthwick’s historical account. She is the author of nonfiction and fiction. She has written Introductions to other historical books about California.