What's a farmer to do when he sees hundreds of miners heading west to get rich? Join them!

Jasper is off to California with dreams of gold that will fill his pans to overflowing. He has his shovel, his pick, and lots of energy—but finding gold isn't easy. It's dirty, back-breaking work, and in the end Jasper doesn't have anything to show for it. Maybe farming wasn't so bad....

Experience the hopes, dreams, and realities of the thousands of forty-niners who, like Jasper, decided to go west and seek their fortunes during California's Gold Rush.

From the dust jacket