Hi Listers, I posted the body of this message several months ago. Last weekend I went to a Member's day for the GOLD FEVER! Exhibit. I am re-posting the message with additional updating comments to urge any of you in the general area to drive on over to the Autry and send a few hours surrounded by the best of California's history. It took me three hours to go through the exhibit because I like to read and listen to all the discriptions and comments for each exhibit. In this installation, a visitor may use a compact disc player to hear discriptions of all sorts of objects and time periods, complete with background music and accents when appropriate. By pressing three-digit code numbers on the CD player you carry along with you, a specific discussion is played for you to enjoy. Someone not listening to all the selections could walk through in one and a half hours...children will get tired. Visitors can go out for a snack or break and re-enter with a special pass from the guards. The artifacts in the exhibit parallel the history and personalities we have been discussing and researching. There was an early photograph of Jacob Leese and his wife Rosalia Vallejo, sister of Mariano Vallejo; I'd written a long review of hs life for the List. Even a simple miner's shack was interesting due to its presence and authnticity. I was very surprised by the down-river damage caused by the hydaulic mining methods. After seeing the exhibit, I find the following information to be very accurate; it is from the July-September edition of "The Spur", the magazine of the Autrey Museum of Western Heritage. (The museum is endowed by the Gene Autry Foundation.): GOLD FEVER! The Lure & Legacy of the California Gold Rush Marks 150th Annaversry of Discovery "One hundred and fifty years ago, the exclamation that gold had been found in California reverberated around the world. Soon people flooded into the region, changing it forever. Organized by the Oakland Museum of California, "Gold Fever! The Lure of the California Gold Rush" interprets the impact of the California Gold Rush from 1848 to the present. Since the exhibition opened in Oakland last January, record numbers of visitors have seen more then 1,000 artifacts and works of art, many of which have never been displayed publicly. Presented in Los Angeles by Wells Fargo, with additional support provided by ARCO, "Gold Fever!" opens at the Autry Museum on Saturday, September 19 and remains on view through January 24, 1999. Benefactors of the Museum are invited to preview the exhibition at a reception on Thursday, September 24, from 7 to 9p.m. Members may attend a preview reception on Friday, September 25, from 6:30 to 9p.m. "Gold Fever!" will fill not only the George Montgomery Gallery, but also the Spirit of Discovery and Showcase Galleries. The exhibit immerses visitors in the sights, sounds, and atmosphere of a remarkable era noted for its greed, its glory and the stampede of fortune seekers that poured into California. The exhibition depicts the explosive impact of the Gold Rush on California's economy, population, environment and cultural diversity. Many of the stories in 'Gold Fever!' will be new to those who learned about the Gold Rush only from textbooks or a casual tour of Sutter's Mill. The objects, documents and images in the exhibition express the simultaneous acqusition of extraordinary fortunes by some and utter catastrophes for many others, including California's Native Americans and Californios. It also explores the staggering effect of mining techniques on California's natural resources and the consequent birth of the conservation movement. Some of the facinating objects in the exhibition are an actual gold nugget found at Sutter's Mill; California gold specimens and magnificant decorative objects; including the one-pound gold and gold quartz ring made for president Franklin Pierce; the stern of the famous Gold Rush ship Niantic, sheathed in copper; a portion of a miner's hand-hewn log cabin with furnishings and accessories for life in the gold fields; and a powerful hydraulic monitor used to wash away soil and expose gold deposits. Visitors to "Gold Fever!" enter an archaeological 'dig' filled with 1850s goods, many excavted from partially burned ships, piers and buildings found under modern day San Francisco, including remarkably preserved jars of Gold Rush-era olives. A second area represents those who already lived in California on the eve of the Gold Rush---Native peoples, Californio vaqueros, Russian traders and others. Visitors then experience the moment of discovery of gold by Marshall in the mill race at Sutter's Mill and pick up contemporary newspaper accounts of the extraordinary riches found there. Tableaux of miners' lives and those who arrived to exploit other opportunities vividly depict the experiences of the Anglo Americans, Europeans, Mexicans, Chileans, Chinese, Hawiians, African Americans and others who made the difficult journey to California and took up residence in the gold fields and burgeoning citiies." The Autry Museum has a nifty web page at: <http://www.autry-museum.org > While there is no catalogue for just the exhibit, the Museum's Bookstore has an excellent selection of unusual books about many topics included in the early history of California. Many of the books Listers use as references are there for sale--such as Calhoon's "Coolies, Kanakas, and Cousin Jacks" and Levy's "They Saw The Elephant". The bookstore also has an extensive regular selection of materials about the early West, Western movies, Native Americans, Poetry, Western-themed gifts, Cooking and History. All the selections are NOT listed on the Museum's web page, however. The Museum is easily accessable by freeway and has great parking. This could be a great family outing--the Greater Los Angeles Zoo is just across the parking lot. I live in the area and will be glad to give tourists advice. If there is an easy way to coordinate dates, perhaps some of us who attend could meet for lunch or brunch in the Golden Spur Cafe at the Museum--it has a pleasant patio. The entire exhibit is STUNNING! so I urge you to do your best to get to see it. Nancy Howard _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com