This comprehensive title is a thought-provoking examination of how early gold rushes shaped settlement and industry in North America. Using material from the 1848 California Gold Rush, the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush, and other rushes in Georgia, Montana, and British Columbia, primary and secondary sources about these rushes are examined with respect to race and ethnicity, the displacement of Indigenous peoples, and different perspectives on law and order in the emerging West. Readers will be encouraged to think critically about labor and environmental practices, and the relationships between settlers and Indigenous people both in the past and today. Teacher's guide available.