The Gold Seekers: Gold, Ghosts and Legends from Carolina to California

This is the first book to tie together the earlier gold rush in the Carolinas and Georgia with the well-known California gold rush of 1849. It presents a history of the Southern gold rush and the legends that have grown up around it. Nancy Roberts tells how it all began in North Carolina, which supplied all the domestic gold coined at the U.S. Mint between 1804 and 1828. She tells the story of the discovery of the gold in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama and later in California and Colorado, including how the Virginia, Carolina and Georgia gold miners abandoned their mines within weeks after news arrived of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Creek. And, for a while, they were said to be the only experienced miners in the Western gold fields. Ms. Roberts recreates with gusto and suspense the experiences of real people—the adventurers and entrepreneurs, family men and rascals, immigrants and bandits, entertainers and miners—and also includes several tales of the supernatural from that period.