"Marks is a gifted writer and an industrious researcher with an eye for telling detail. . . . The result is far and away our best social history of the gold rush experience as well as, in its very strangeness, an American portrait." —Washington Post
"In a remarkable way the story of the gold rush era adds up to a uniquely American experience. It is an incredible tale of peril, misfortune, luck, determination, back-breaking labor, personal bravery, high adventure, and the amassing of fortunes in 'precious dust' for a relative few."—New York Times Book Review
"Marks's engrossing saga describes this grand late nineteenth-century treasure hunt as one of our history's epic dramas, capturing the essence of America's headlong rush toward a modern, industrial society."—San Francisco Chronicle
"Marks effectively blends diaries and letters into a masterful narrative. . . . [She] is to be credited for including the voices of women and people of color."—Library Journal
"An absorbing cultural, sociological, and historical chronicle of a pivotal epoch that both reaffirmed and redefined the American way of life."—Booklist
