Map Gallery

Present-day geography of the state of California

Map labels location of major cities relevant to the Gold Rush era, including San Francisco, Sacramento, and Eureka, as well as geographic features including the Klamath and Sierra mountain ranges, the Trinity, Eel, and San Joaquin rivers, and California's expansive coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

California's diverse Native languages before European contact

Map of California labeled with names of more than 50 language groups associated with the regions of present-day California where the languages were spoken. The languages, including Miwok, Hupa, and Sinkyone, fall into seven linguistic groups: Athapaskan, Algonquian, Hokan, Penutian, Uto-Aztecaa, and Yukian.

Select the button to see the impact on the entire state as the gold is moved from the mines to the coast.

Gold dots represent the locations of California's historic gold mines

Map labels location of major cities and areas of California including mountain ranges, rivers, and coastline; overlaid gold dots indicate location of hundreds of gold mines in the state. Mines were orginially clustered around the Klamath mountains in far northern California, near the towns of Eureka and Redding, and to the West of the Sierra Mountain range in northern California, near Sacramento. The map is animated to show that over time the impact of the gold mines spread to every part of the state.

Locations of sources referenced in this lesson

Map labels locations of sources used in this lesson, related to the Gold Rush era. These fall in the northern part of California, between San Francisco and Eureka, and include areas near Sacramento and Redding, Humboldt Bay, and Tehema and Nevada counties.