Gold Fever California's Gold Rush - American Icon Close-Up Guides Author:Carl Nolte, Donna Leverenz, Karin Muller January 24, 1848, was a day that changed everything. The flecks of yellow metal, found in the American River by James Marshall, proved to be the foundation of modern California. Fortune hunters succumbed to gold fever and flocked to the Sierra Nevada foothills in search of unlimited wealth. The myths of California's gold rush are the subject of ... more »legendary songs and tales. Fortunes were won and lost almost daily. The realities behind the popular images were hard and often bloody. Gold Rush tells the story as it really happened in words and pictures. Lavishly illustrated and printed in color throughout. The American Icon Close-Up Guide Series: The United States, in its relatively short life, has acquired an amazingly rich vein of history and legend. The American Icon Close-Up Guide series is designed to give the reader a brief, but fascinating, introduction to the wealth of treasures in the nation's past and present. Beautifully and clearly written by acknowledged experts, with outstanding illustrations, the titles in the series will build up to an unrivaled picture of what has made the United States of today.« less