Like so many episodes in California history,
the gold rush has been considerably romanticized by many of its later
chroniclers. Memoirs and fictionalized accounts, published decades
after the event, tended to view the "days of '49" through
a golden haze. Understandably, the aging Argonauts wished to put
the best possible spin on their youthful exploits.
Heroic pioneers, stouthearted and triumphant, were
popular images in Gold Rush anniversary celebrations. "California's
Golden Jubilee" in 1898 included a procession through the streets
of San Francisco witnessed by a crowd of two hundred thousand enthusiastic
celebrants. The glorification was complete by 1948 when Californians
observed the centennial of the gold discovery. Gordon Jenkins and
his orchestra recorded a "musical narrative" that unabashedly
celebrated the gold rush as part of the national legendary:
There's gold in California,
Gold out California way.
Streets are paved with it,
Fortunes are made with it,
Even golden razors
So you can get shaved with it.
The mood during the gold-rush sesquicentennial in the
late 1990s was considerably different. Thomas Frye, curator of a
gold-rush exhibit at The Oakland Museum of California, commented: "In
1948, everyone identified with California's golden history. Today,
it is very different. Not everyone believes in the golden history." State
librarian Kevin Starr agreed, noting that Californians no longer "have
a coherent society where everyone can agree on what is being celebrated."
