The inhabitants of Meadow Lake, California, dreamed as big as all the gold seekers of the far West, certain that their town, their mine was the "big bonanza"—a place of legendary wealth that most prospectors believed really existed somewhere. The dream took shape in 1865 when the Meadow Lake region of eastern California became the scene of one of the most feverish stampedes in the history of prospecting. Reports of gold-filled ledges five miles long brought miners, lumbermen, and speculators rushing into the area, and within a year a city of several thousand people sprang up. Their frenzied optimism was undiminished by disquieting news that the gold could not be removed from the surrounding granite. The following summer brought increasing crowds, but a profitable method of separating the gold from the rock was never discovered. Disenchanted miners began to leave, and within a few years only a lone hermit, the original inhabitant of Meadow Lake, remained in the dismal wreckage of the once-thriving town. Paul Fatout brings to life the colorful characters who figured in the history of Meadow Lake, telling the story at a sprightly pace and in fascinating detail.
