In January 1848 at Sutter's Mill, California, a carpenter named James Marshall found several nuggets of gold, the largest of which weighed over a quarter of an ounce. The news quickly reached San Francisco and by March, the great California Gold Rush was on! Boom towns and miner's camps sprang up across the state as fortune-hunters from all over the world came to try their luck.
Now the excitement and rags-to-riches glamour of the Gold Rush era has been captured in this treasury of accurate, carefully researched drawings. Colorists of all ages are invited to re-create the great adventure by coloring more than 40 authentic detailed scenes: California mountain men, Sutter's Mill in 1848, old San Francisco, prospectors panning for gold, Saturday night in a mining camp, portrait of a forty-niner, and other vivid tableaux.
Includes an Introduction and informative captions replete with background information for each true-to-life scene.