The statehood and development of California is forever linked with its famous gold rush. Its incorporation as a state is as rocky a history as the gravel beds of the goldfields themselves. The state's quick and often disputed succession from one nation to another mirrored the rapid and often lawless settlement of the gold country.Prior to the westerner's discovery of gold California was a territory of Mexico and before it Spain. The year gold was discovered, 1848, marked the same year that ende [...]
