THE GOLD RUSH
The California Gold Rush began in 1849, in San Francisco. Instant wealth was there for the taking. All across America, young men made the decision to go to California. Every city, every hamlet would send its brightest, its strongest, to California--and eagerly await their triumphant return home. They came from Europe, Asia, and South America in search of instant riches. Some 80,000 immigrants poured into California during 1849. It was one of the greatest adventures the world had ever seen.

Digging for gold from early dawn until dusk was backbreaking work. The hope of "striking it rich" became an obsession with many of the Forty-Niners. Stories of others who had found their fortune in gold kept driving them on. A streak of bad luck could always be followed by a rich strike.

Panning was the simplest and cheapest way to find gold. The best places to pan were in bed rocks, crevices, old tailings, clay-cemented gravels, and missed deposits of paydirt. Gold pans usually measured 10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 cm) in diameter and 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8 cm) deep. They were usually made of sheet iron, but sometimes of copper.

FOOLS GOLD
Many a chunk of glittering rock found its way to a prospectors pocket. Out west, certainly more than a few such men handed a rock to a bartender in celebration of striking it rich. "Gold!" a green miner claims. The bartender takes a closer look and chuckles "It's not gold. It's fool's gold".

Iron Pyrite has been so often been mistaken for gold that its better-known name is "fool's gold." It has a warm yellow color, it's metallic, and it glitters and sparkles just like the real thing.