IT’S 1851 IN CALIFORNIA, AND THE GOLD RUSH RAGES.
The country is on edge—expanding, dividing, and teetering between ambition and chaos. The recent war with Mexico has added vast new territories, but the Compromise of 1850 struggles to hold together this increasingly fragile Union. All the while, railroads are creeping west and Manifest Destiny drives crowds chasing fortune, land, and power.
It’s a simpler story here in Northern California: Gold is calling.
But California Dreamin’ be damned — this ain’t that place.
The sovereign siren call has drawn half a million rapscallions, ne’er-do-wells, schemers, dreamers, and speculators, flooding the brand-new state, grunting through mud, muck, and murder, hunting their way toward wealth, wisdom, and wondrous whereabouts.
At the moment, this land is a beautiful nightmare—a wild, untamed expanse where rugged…