In 1849, a twelve-year-old girl who calls herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town, where Lucy helps run a rough boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to get "home."

A diary account of fourteen-year-old Susanna Fairchild's life in 1849, when her father succumbs to gold fever on the way to establish his medical practice in Oregon after losing his wife and money on their steamship journey from New York. Includes a historical note.

Leah Westfall has traveled thousands of miles, from Georgia to the gold fields of California. It has been a journey of ever-present danger, hidden magic, harsh realities, loss, life, determination, and love. Yet through it all, Lee has found people to trust, true friends and fellow misfits who have been by her side no matter what. In the rich land of California, Lee is poised to have everything she ever dreamed of - a place to belong, a place to call...

In 1851 twelve-year-old Sarah is a free Black, happy living with her parents, grandparents, and brother on their own farm in Iowa; but her father has been bitten by the gold bug and wants to take the trail west to California, and after some argument it is decided that the the grandparents will stay on the farm, but the rest of the family will go; the journey will be difficult and dangerous, but if they survive extreme weather, difficult terrain, illness,...

In 1849 the impoverished Hornik family decides to leave Bohemia and emigrate to California in search of gold.

It's 1852, and California's Gold Rush is in full swing. Tempers are flaring along the mighty Klamath River, where men are wild with gold-rush fever. 14-year-old Hudson treads carefully amongst them, desperate to find her long-lost father. She can only pray that he'll take her in. A battle erupts between miners and local tribespeople, trapping Hudson in the crossfire. She is no fighter; she's just a runaway kid from San Francisco in need of a family....