Women discovered gold in California a full year before James Marshall announced his discovery. There have been repeated attempts to split California into two or more states. Wheelbarrow Johnny was one of the gold seekers who came west searching for gold. Instead, he built wheelbarrows and then went on to become one of the nation's great automobile magnates.

Illustrated with hundreds of original plates, this volume is a collection of 33 different articles, essays, and stories ranging from the years 1875 to 1912.

This book has 41 different chapters on California's gold rush and development history. Read about The Lost Spanish Galleon, Pegleg Smith's Lost Gold Mine, Joaquin Murrieta, and railroad titans.

Women from all walks of life helped make California what it is today. There were the Sisters of Mercy who waded into the smallpox infested hospitals to care for the needy of all races and financial means.Donaldina Cameron rescued more than 3,000 Asian slave girls who had been sold into prostitution, often by their parents.We've included Lucille Ball, Clara Bow and Isadora Duncan in our list of entertainment celebrities.

While settlers were drawn out West by the often empty promises of the Gold Rush, prostitution grew and flourished within the mining camps, small towns, and cities of nineteenth-century California. Whether escaping a bad home life, lured by false advertising, or seeking to subsidize their income, thousands of women chose or were forced to enter an industry where they faced segregation and persecution, fines and jailing, and battled the other hazards of their profession. Some dreamed of escape through marriage or retirement, and some became infamous and even successful, but more often found relief only in death. An integral part of western history, the stories of these women continue to fascinate readers and captivate the minds of historians today. Working girls and madams like Bodie's famous Rosa May and the gambler Madame Moustache remain notorious celebrities in the annals of history, and Collins also includes the stories of lesser-known women whose roles in this illicit trade help shape our understanding of the American West.