Abstract
The California gold rush has a free-floating existence in American history. It comes unexpectedly out of nowhere in the story of American development and disappears just as suddenly in the growing crisis of the Civil War. The musical Paint Your Wagon (1969) depicts the rush as an early Animal House (1978), and it is assumed that, like the college students of that film, most miners will grow up to live more sensible lives elsewhere. The inclusion of the California gold rush in the History Channel series Ten Days That Shaped America suggests that the gold rush may finally get the public recognition that it deserves as part of the development of the United States. Unfortunately, the film falls far short of this goal. The film can be divided into three parts: the journey to California, the experience in California, and the rise of the transcontinental railroad. The first weakness of...
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