Picture This:

Hillsides transformed into mud and gravel as miners in search of gold literally hose away the earth with high-pressure jets of water. Other seekers of fortune diverting the course of rivers to gain access to gold-bearing bedrock. Communities that appear almost overnight, then vanish as quickly once a deep-rock vein is tapped out.. Thousands of men living on little more than hardtack, hard liquor and dreams of wealth, so starved for the company of women that when one arrives in town, most of the male citizens turn out to escort her down main street. Rude camps comprised of tents and shacks, where the rule of law struggles against claim-jumping, robbery, murder and frontier justice in the form of lynchings. The heady excitement of striking it rich, and the bitter despair-more frequent-that comes when hard labor and 16-hour days generate nothing but empty pockets, spent lives.

Intro Page 2