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Gold Fever! Untold Stories of the California Gold Rush
On view through August 29, 2021
Los Altos History Museum
Los Altos, California

Gold Rush-era photos, documents, and artifacts offer a glimpse into California before the discovery of gold over 150 years ago in the American River, the frenzied rush to the goldfields over land and by sea, the experience of vigilante justice, life in the rowdy gold camps, commerce and farming, and the shaping of California’s future.

The exhibition spotlights the stories of individual Californios, women, Native Americans, adventurers and gold seekers who emigrated from all parts of the world during the Gold Rush, an era that continues to shape California’s peoples, culture, environment, politics, and economy.

[Image: Hydraulic Mining, North Bloomfield, Nevada Co., California, ca. 1870. Albumen print by Carleton E. Watkins. Collection of the California State Library.]