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U.S. Landmark Books #6
The California Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, James Marshall discovered a small nugget of gold in a stream near Sutter's Mill, California. Though he tried to keep it a secret, word spread through the country like wildfire. Before the year was out, the great American Gold Rush had begun. Here's a true-life story that re-creates a time when people from all walks of life dropped what they were doing and headed west with picks and shovels in the hope of finding riches--and added a brand-new chapter to our country's history.
156 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1950
5 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
About the author
May Yonge McNeer
40 books5 followershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_McNeer
Married to Lynd Ward, who illustrated several of her works. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
Married to Lynd Ward, who illustrated several of her works. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 23, 2020
Full of interesting stories from a number of people that flocked to California during the rush for gold.
About Landmark Books
"Each is a book that brings to life a great event or personality in our nation's past. Each is designed to be rich, rewarding reading, capable of stirring the heart as well as the mind. Each is intended to arouse in the reader not only an interest in the course of history, but also an understanding of how the democracy that is our heritage was forged."
-From one of the dust jackets
The Landmark Books for children are a great way to learn history! I can't say enough about these , and it's no wonder that they are highly sought after in the homeschool community. From what I’ve researched, I’ve found these books to be very historically accurate. It’s history told in nicely narrated story-form – a win!
Ages: 10+
Pages: approx. 175-200
Illustrations: some
Price Range: $4 – $125 depending on HC or PB, and the title and its rarity.
Cleanliness: Mentions drinking, tobacco, smoking, gambling and saloons. "Gosh" is used. Mentions someone's horny hand.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
About Landmark Books
"Each is a book that brings to life a great event or personality in our nation's past. Each is designed to be rich, rewarding reading, capable of stirring the heart as well as the mind. Each is intended to arouse in the reader not only an interest in the course of history, but also an understanding of how the democracy that is our heritage was forged."
-From one of the dust jackets
The Landmark Books for children are a great way to learn history! I can't say enough about these , and it's no wonder that they are highly sought after in the homeschool community. From what I’ve researched, I’ve found these books to be very historically accurate. It’s history told in nicely narrated story-form – a win!
Ages: 10+
Pages: approx. 175-200
Illustrations: some
Price Range: $4 – $125 depending on HC or PB, and the title and its rarity.
Cleanliness: Mentions drinking, tobacco, smoking, gambling and saloons. "Gosh" is used. Mentions someone's horny hand.
**Like my reviews? Then you should follow me! Because I have hundreds more just like this one. With each review, I provide a Cleanliness Report, mentioning any objectionable content I come across so that parents and/or conscientious readers (like me) can determine beforehand whether they want to read a book or not. Content surprises are super annoying, especially when you’re 100+ pages in, so here’s my attempt to help you avoid that!
So Follow or Friend me here on GoodReads! You’ll see my updates as I’m reading and know which books I’m liking and what I’m not finishing and why. You’ll also be able to utilize my library for looking up titles to see whether the book you’re thinking about reading next has any objectionable content or not. From swear words, to romance, to bad attitudes (in children’s books), I cover it all!
March 6, 2017
This book is about how one small change can make a big difference. One kid went down to a river and found a gold nugget. He tried to keep it a secret but people find out and start the world famous California gold rush. This book is very cool and i would recommend this to all of my friends for how great of a read it is.
March 5, 2023
I'm still working my way through this admirable series, which, as I've said before, every American school-aged child should read in its entirety, as it's such an accessible introduction to the major features of American history. Dated though they may be (which offers an opportunity for discussion and critique) they offer so much more detail and insight into the topics than can be found in a dry textbook, as they usually also focus on the lives of individual people, which humanizes the events and makes the material more interesting than a recitation of facts and figures. To that end, I wish the series had continued, as many more volumes should be added to address events in the (more) modern-day.
This volume was decidedly less sophisticated than several others I have read, but I would still highly recommend it as a part of the series. As I have stated previously, the strength of these short, easily accessible books is that they provide a good overview of the subjects they address and hopefully spark readers' interests to further research and explore related matters more deeply on their own. This one in particular also provides something of a guidebook for locations throughout northern California, so residents can visit many of the locations as a field trip!
For this particular volume, as a native Californian, it was fascinating to (again) read of the prominent figures and events which led to statehood in 1850, largely because of the Gold Rush. As stated, California went from being a backwater with a population of a few tens of thousands, to an economic powerhouse with a population nearing half a million only a DECADE later. The town where I was born was named for a prominent figure who immigrated to the area in the wake of the Gold Rush, for example. The state also remained a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural promise land largely because of the influx of persons from all over the world, many of whom stated and built lives here, bringing their languages, foods, cultures and traditions with them.
Not all that glitters is gold, however, and the book also spells out some, but not all, of the consequences of sudden, radical change. Small, sleepy towns almost overnight were overrun with populations bent on striking it rich at all costs, leading to runaway inflation, crime and vice beyond description. As it's a children's book, the material is rather tame in light of what it actually was like in mining boom towns. What the book didn't include, however, and should have, was the devastating effects on the environment, especially after commercial mining operations took over as the dominant type for gold extraction, which led to environmental degradation the area has yet to recover from, and likely never will.
It also glossed over some of the more unpleasant aspects of labor relations in norther California, especially in the wake of mass immigration particularly from China, and the horrific treatment these settlers in particular were subjected to. Nor does the book at any great length address the plight of native peoples who were pushed off their lands in the ever-expanding search for riches. Most California school children know the story of Ishi, of the Yahi people, who were nearly wiped out in the decade following the '49 gold strike. Not only did miners push the natives off their ancestral lands, but mining operation also severely damaged waterways and killed the fish and animals native peoples relied on for food, clothing and shelter. Settlers from all over the world also imported deadly diseases such as smallpox and measles, which took a heavy toll, as did the bounties set on native peoples in subsequent decades, who were even attacked and killed in their sleep. As a result, many native tribes, including the Yana group, to which Ishi belonged, were pushed to the brink of extinction. This subject, especially the story of Ishi and his people, are deserving of a volume all their own.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings, however, this and the other books offer a good introduction to the major events which shaped American history, and are highly recommended to anyone who is just learning or, like me, hasn't been exposed to the material since grade school, in some cases, and needs an accessible and enjoyable refresher.
This volume was decidedly less sophisticated than several others I have read, but I would still highly recommend it as a part of the series. As I have stated previously, the strength of these short, easily accessible books is that they provide a good overview of the subjects they address and hopefully spark readers' interests to further research and explore related matters more deeply on their own. This one in particular also provides something of a guidebook for locations throughout northern California, so residents can visit many of the locations as a field trip!
For this particular volume, as a native Californian, it was fascinating to (again) read of the prominent figures and events which led to statehood in 1850, largely because of the Gold Rush. As stated, California went from being a backwater with a population of a few tens of thousands, to an economic powerhouse with a population nearing half a million only a DECADE later. The town where I was born was named for a prominent figure who immigrated to the area in the wake of the Gold Rush, for example. The state also remained a cosmopolitan, multi-cultural promise land largely because of the influx of persons from all over the world, many of whom stated and built lives here, bringing their languages, foods, cultures and traditions with them.
Not all that glitters is gold, however, and the book also spells out some, but not all, of the consequences of sudden, radical change. Small, sleepy towns almost overnight were overrun with populations bent on striking it rich at all costs, leading to runaway inflation, crime and vice beyond description. As it's a children's book, the material is rather tame in light of what it actually was like in mining boom towns. What the book didn't include, however, and should have, was the devastating effects on the environment, especially after commercial mining operations took over as the dominant type for gold extraction, which led to environmental degradation the area has yet to recover from, and likely never will.
It also glossed over some of the more unpleasant aspects of labor relations in norther California, especially in the wake of mass immigration particularly from China, and the horrific treatment these settlers in particular were subjected to. Nor does the book at any great length address the plight of native peoples who were pushed off their lands in the ever-expanding search for riches. Most California school children know the story of Ishi, of the Yahi people, who were nearly wiped out in the decade following the '49 gold strike. Not only did miners push the natives off their ancestral lands, but mining operation also severely damaged waterways and killed the fish and animals native peoples relied on for food, clothing and shelter. Settlers from all over the world also imported deadly diseases such as smallpox and measles, which took a heavy toll, as did the bounties set on native peoples in subsequent decades, who were even attacked and killed in their sleep. As a result, many native tribes, including the Yana group, to which Ishi belonged, were pushed to the brink of extinction. This subject, especially the story of Ishi and his people, are deserving of a volume all their own.
Notwithstanding the shortcomings, however, this and the other books offer a good introduction to the major events which shaped American history, and are highly recommended to anyone who is just learning or, like me, hasn't been exposed to the material since grade school, in some cases, and needs an accessible and enjoyable refresher.
February 23, 2026
This landmark was not exactly what I was expecting. But then, when I thought a bit more about it, I realized that I didn't know how to write a book on the gold rush. You can get 30-50 pages on it, but when you want more than that, you have to start delving into the lives of some of the miners, which is exactly what this book did. Every time it started telling about another miners experience in a different way, I thought that there was going to be a big point the author was leading up to, but then I realized that he was just describing the way it was in the California Gold Rush. I will say for others who wanted to read this book, the part at the end about the dancer should be skipped. It had nothing to do with the gold rush, and was not very interesting or informative.
October 2, 2018
The title of the book I just read was The California Gold Rush. The author of the book is May McNeer. I have not finished the yet but so far I really like the book. I like it because it tells me a lot about what the people that were mining in California in 1849 went through. It also told me about how big it was around the world. The quote for this book was “Now, gents, since we ain’t got no ladies, we got to have a ball without ‘em.” My favorite character is James Marshall I liked him because he was the one that found the gold in the first place. My least favorite character was the store owner because he painted rocks and said that it was pure gold.
May 21, 2020
This Landmark Series book stood up to its expectations in presenting information about the CA Gold Rush and all the details that come from that time period. It adequately describes the desire for striking it rich along with the heartache that many experienced when they lost it all. This book would be a good addition to any classroom library for extra reading about early CA history.
September 5, 2023
2 on research, 2 on logic, 2 on style, 2 on weight, 1 on affections. Fascinating book, like the guy who lost all his money because the squirrels buried it, or the man who was elected to Senate without running or even knowing.
May 24, 2025
A collection of mostly unrelated tales, likely written more for the entertainment of children than a historical recount, with a couple of good illustrations.
January 1, 2026
Informative in an easy way
August 16, 2013
THE NUGGET THAT LAUNCHED A STATE!
This Landmark series features American history for young students, including 12 topics ranging from the Salem Witch Trials to D-Day.} In 19 short, easy-to-read chapters the author sketches the fascinating outline of the discovery of gold, providing interesting descriptions of the various routes taken by feverish prospectors--from all over the world--to reach the California coast. She includes the methods used to find "color" and authentic details of life in the mining camps--about the miners' gritty work to their Sunday entertainment.
Learn why James Marshall, the white man who first discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, and Augustus Sutter, the wealthy Swiss land baron in Spanish California, did not proift from the spectacular event. Find out why many men became rich, but Not by digging or panning gold themselves. Savor the excitement as gold fever swept the globe, resulting in statehood in just two years! This is a fun, non-fiction read based on historical facts--presented in a format which will appeal to middle school students.
(April 5, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
This Landmark series features American history for young students, including 12 topics ranging from the Salem Witch Trials to D-Day.} In 19 short, easy-to-read chapters the author sketches the fascinating outline of the discovery of gold, providing interesting descriptions of the various routes taken by feverish prospectors--from all over the world--to reach the California coast. She includes the methods used to find "color" and authentic details of life in the mining camps--about the miners' gritty work to their Sunday entertainment.
Learn why James Marshall, the white man who first discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, and Augustus Sutter, the wealthy Swiss land baron in Spanish California, did not proift from the spectacular event. Find out why many men became rich, but Not by digging or panning gold themselves. Savor the excitement as gold fever swept the globe, resulting in statehood in just two years! This is a fun, non-fiction read based on historical facts--presented in a format which will appeal to middle school students.
(April 5, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)
January 30, 2008
I liked learning about the California Gold Rush. This book is easy to understand and interesting. You can also learn about different places while you're reading it.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews