The Gold Rush: Boom, Bust & Ghost Towns
From the first flakes on a Carolina farm to the last stampede at Nome — the strikes that built towns overnight, and the silence they left behind.
15 narrated stories — read them here, or hear them all in the app.
Reed Gold Mine State Historic Site
Before California, the Creek at Reed Changed Everything
How one farm in Cabarrus County helped launch America’s earliest gold rush.
Lumpkin County
Before California, Gold Changed Georgia
America’s first major gold rush began in north Georgia and remade the mountains.
Sacramento
Sam Brannan and the Business of Gold Fever
How one promoter helped turn Sacramento into a Gold Rush gateway.
San Francisco
When the Ships Stopped Sailing
How gold turned San Francisco into a harbor-side boomtown almost overnight.
El Dorado County
How Dry Diggings Became Hangtown
A Gold Rush camp earned a brutal name before law caught up.
Storey County
When Gold Seekers Struck Silver
A gold claim near Gold Hill opened the door to the Comstock.
Gregory Gulch
When Gregory Gulch Filled Overnight
A gold strike that turned a ravine into the heart of a rush.
Alder Gulch
When Gold Turned Alder Gulch Overnight
A small prospecting party sparks a rush that reshapes southwestern Montana.
Bannack State Park
When Gold Turned Bannack Into a Capital
A boomtown’s brief reign and long afterlife in Montana memory.
Silver City
Silver City’s Boom, Bust, and Rough Justice
A mountain boomtown where prosperity and lawlessness arrived together.
Teller County
The Red Dirt That Changed Cripple Creek
How one prospector’s stubborn eye opened Colorado’s great gold district.
Goldfield Historic District
When Goldfield Became Nevada’s Biggest Boomtown
A gold strike built a city almost overnight, and its core still tells the tale.
Skagway Municipality
When Skagway Became the Gateway
How one inlet town surged with the Klondike stampede.
Nome
How Three Prospectors Lit the Fuse at Nome
A creekside strike that turned three miners into legends.
Elkhorn State Park
When Silver Left Elkhorn Behind
A boomtown’s rise, collapse, and afterlife as a Montana ghost-town landmark.
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