Petaluma’s farm-to-table trend dates all the way back to the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s. It’s still a culinary ...

More than 150 years after the gold rush first began, some Americans are still digging for riches all over California.

Nevada City and Grass Valley, siblings in Gold Country near Sacramento, have been drawing more visitors than ever.

1993 California Gold Rush. Ralph Shock holds a nine ounce nugget found in the North fork of Tuolumne River outside Jamestown in mid May. Ralph says the nugget is worth between US $5,800 and $8,500.

All of that sounds just great. But there is also a problem. Now we are back to the Gold Rush analogy. Infinite riches are out there buried in the ground. But the easy stuff has already been collected.

While California has come a long way since the gold rush, many of its mining towns haven’t. In its 19th century heyday, Randsburg boasted a population of 3,500 with churches, saloons, hotels and ...