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Scenes of Riches and Madness | ||
| Place | County | Notes |
| Almaden Quicksilver County Park | Santa Clara | Miners needed quicksilver (mercury) to help separate the silver and the gold from the ore. This county park museum covers the history of mercury mining, including a replica of a mine shaft and explanations of how mercury was refined from cinnabar. |
| Bodie State Historic Park | Alpine | "Good bye God, I am going to Bodie" wrote a little girl. Bodie was the site of one of the richest gold strikes in American history (1859). It also had a reputation for violence and vice. The park preserves the remains of this town and the nearby mines. |
| Columbia State Historic Park | Tuolumne | Another preserved California gold rush town. More than a billion dollars in gold was extracted from nearby mines. The business district has been restored. Living history demonstrations. |
| Death Valley National Park | Inyo, San Bernardino | Death Valley played a peripheral role in the Gold Rush when a party of settlers tried to cross it in 1849, a tragedy which nearly equalled that of the Donner Party. It later became an important mining district in its own right where miners drew silver, borax, and gold. Summer visiting is not advised!!! |
| Empire Mine State Historic Park | Nevada | The entrance to 367 miles of underground passageways begins in this park near Grass Valley. Also preserved are the mine's operations buildings and the owner's home. This mine produced two billion dollars worth of gold. |
| Malakoff Diggings State Historic Park | Nevada | The park preserves the destruction left by the state's largest hydraulic mine (where the gold was washed off the hills using high pressure hoses.) The dirt pollution caused by this method led to California's first environmental lawsuit, which forced the mine to close down in the late 19th century. |
| Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park | El Dorado | This is the place where the madness began in 1848 when James Marshall, who'd been sent to the site to build a saw mill for John Sutter, saw little flecks of gold in the Sacramento River. Marshall, who never profited from the discovery, is buried on the site. Here you can try panning for your own gold. |
| Monterey State Historic Park | Monterey | The first samples of gold were brought here where they were tested by Army lieutenant William T. Sherman. Sherman's quarters can still be viewed. |
| Placerita Canyon | Los Angeles | Gold was discovered in 1842, six years before the Marshall Gold Discovery. The area features a nature center and a Heritage Trail which leads visitors to the Oak of the Golden Dream, the spot at which herder Francisco Lopez made his discovery. |
| San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park | San Francisco | The park features the National Maritime Museum and a handful of historic ships which once plied the waters of the San Francisco Bay. |
| Shasta State Historic Park | Shasta | Another preserved gold rush town. This one was an important stage stop and supply center for the mines in far northern California. The Court House preserves many artifacts and contains historic exhibits. |
| Sutter's Fort State Historic Park | Sacramento | John Sutter had great dreams for California, but the discovery on gold on his land destroyed him. The original fort has been reconstructed and restored. A museum preserves artifacts of the Gold Rush and the Donner Party. |
| Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park | Trinity | People of all nations came to dig for gold. This park preserves "The Temple of the Forest Beneath the Clouds", the state's oldest continuously used Chinese temple, built in 1874 after the original burned. |
For more information visit The Gold Rush | ||