"Seeing The Elephant" is according to Debby McClatchy the acknowledged fist song written in California about the gold rush. "Just From Dawson" from the last of the big gold rushes, 1898 in the Yukon. You could probably start an Old Put (John Stone) thread, he's been mentioned often with these gold rush songs, he had been a broken down miner like the rest & then made a big hit in 1853, put together a group, as Joe mentions above, the Sierra Nevada Rangers & started sing at the camps & halls, basically financing his pastime with his gain from the ground. Another of his is the "Humbug Steamship Companies" a great rendering of the passages through the Panama Canal made by gold seekers aboard steamers kept together by gum & glue. Probably his most famous would be the "Days Of 49". Old Put died of drink when his fans moved on with the later rushes of Nevada & South Dakota the last moving futher north to the frozen fields of the Yukon. Stone published 4 books of his songs before he roared out his soul in a glory hole. Most of this came by way of Debby McClatchy. Barry