An astounding amount of gold was pulled from the ground during the California gold rush. In 1852 the take for the year was $80 million ($1.9 billion in 2005 dollars). This map shows some of the ...

It just so happens it was the area where they found the gold at Sutter's Mill along the American River ... California before the Spanish and certainly before the coming of the Gold Rush.

California Begin at the epicenter of the California Gold Rush, where James Marshall first glimpsed gold in the South Fork of the American River, starting the California Gold Rush of 1849.

Museums, ghost towns, old mining sites... From the mountains of California to the deserts of Nevada, the American West is full of historic sites dating from the feverish era of the Gold Rush.