During the California Gold Rush, hundreds of thousands of people left everything behind to look for gold. This is the story of one of them—a kid just like you
Learning Objective: Students will read a play based on the life of 14-year-old John Hillman and other gold seekers who hoped to get rich during the 1849 Gold Rush in California. As they read, students will analyze and compare the various perspectives presented in the story.
H1: Imagine you hear of hidden treasure.
H2: Gold that could make you richer than your wildest dreams.
H1: But to get it, you must leave your home and family.
H2: And face terrible dangers.
H1: Almost 200 years ago, during the Gold Rush, 300,000 people left everything behind to hunt for gold in California.
H2: One of them was John Wesley Hillman.
H1: If you’d lived back then, would you have gone too?
Jim McMahon/Mapman ®
Scene 1
New Orleans, 1848
N1: John carries bread and peas to the table.
Mrs. Hillman: That’s all we can afford.
John Wesley Hillman: It’ll get better, Mother.
N2: Suddenly, Mr. Hillman bursts in alongside another man, Mr. Carr.
Mr. Hillman: I have incredible news—there’s GOLD in California!
Mr. Carr: People are leaving New Orleans by the thousands to search for it.
Mr. Hillman: A wagon train headed west departs from Missouri this spring.
Mrs. Hillman (worried): You’re considering it?
Mr. Hillman: We’re struggling to make a living here. If John and I find gold...
Mrs. Hillman: John?
Mr. Hillman: Together, we’ll have a better chance of striking it rich.
Mrs. Hillman: He’s too young!
Mr. Carr: My kids and wife are coming too. Her parents own a store in a mining town.
Mr. Hillman: John won’t be alone.
N3: John looks at the little food on the table.
John (hugging his mom): I want to go. Soon we’ll be rich, Mother!
Joseph Blaney Starkweather/Fotosearch/Getty Images (Miners); Alamy Stock Photo (Ad)
Seeking Fortune
After gold was found in California in 1848, ads like the one to the right convinced thousands of gold seekers to move there. By the time the Gold Rush ended around 1855, California had become a U.S. state. Its nickname is still the Golden State.
Scene 2
The Oregon Trail, Spring 1849
N1: In Missouri, John and his father join the Carr family.
Mrs. Carr: Meet Mary and Daniel.
Mary: We’ll show you around.
John (shyly): OK.
Daniel: I counted 306 wagons!
N2: The prairie is dotted with mule-drawn wagons filled with supplies.
H2: The Oregon Trail was a 2,000-mile-long route that pioneers followed from Missouri to Oregon.
H1: The trip took five months.
N3: The next morning, the journey begins.
N1: Day after day, through rain, heat, and windstorms, the wagons roll on. . .
N2: . . . over endless prairies of waving grasses.
N3: Life on the trail is hard. John drives the mules from dawn to dusk.
N1: One evening, the children go fetch water.
Daniel: I wish we were in California already.
Mary: I’m sick of eating beans and bacon. I miss my mother’s roast chicken.
John: I miss . . . my mother.
N2: Suddenly, the ground begins to shake.
N3: John sees a dark, moving cloud of dust.
John: Buffalo!
N1: The kids race back to the wagons.
Mr. Hillman: It’s a stampede!
N2: At the last minute, the buffalo veer away.
Daniel: We almost got trampled!
John (shaking): I can’t wait to get to the gold.
Scene 3
San Francisco, December 1849
N3: The wagons finally reach the trail’s end.
N1: John, Mary, and Daniel hug goodbye.
N2: John and his father then sail to San Francisco.
H2: In 1849, San Francisco was a frontier city of muddy streets and garbage piles.
H1: Thousands of prospectors poured in.
John: This place . . . isn’t what I expected.
N3: The Hillmans spend several months working at a lumberyard for $5 a day, saving up money for gold-mining supplies.
N1: Finally, they buy a mule and head to the mountains.
N2: In the town of Agua Fria, they stop at the general store.
Mrs. Carr (opening the door): The Hillmans! At my own family’s store.
N3: Mary and Daniel rush over.
Mary: I knew we’d see you again!
Daniel: Did you find gold?
John: Not yet, but we will!
N1: Mr. Carr helps them gather tools: a pickax, shovels, buckets, and gold pans.
N2: Mr. Hillman counts out $138.
Mr. Carr: Give me half and pay the rest when you find gold.
Mr. Hillman: You’re true friends.
Scene 4
Sherlock Creek, Spring 1850
H2: In the early years of the Gold Rush, anyone could stake a claim to an area of a stream, reserving it for mining.
N3: The Hillmans set up by Sherlock Creek, in Central California, to pan for gold.
Mr. Hillman: Now, John, watch.
N1: He stands knee-deep in the stream, dipping his pan and shaking it.
Mr. Hillman: If there’s gold, it’ll settle at the bottom of the pan.
N2: John holds his breath.
Mr. Hillman: Nothing.
John: Let me try.
N3: John splashes into the icy water and shakes his pan, but no gold specks appear.
N1: John sighs.
Mr. Hillman: Patience, son.
N2: Every day, the Hillmans bend over for hours, feet numb and backs aching . . .
N3: . . . with no luck.
John (sighing): I didn’t think it’d be like this.
N1: One day, two men come down the hill.
John: Hello! Is there gold up there?
Mow Da Sun: My son met a miner who collects $1,000 worth of gold a day.
Sun Kow: Back home in China, we call this place gam saan—gold mountain. But we found nothing, and it’s time to leave.
Mr. Hillman: Why?
Mow Da Sun: The mining camps are no place for people who look or talk different.
Sun Kow: The other miners bully and steal from us.
John: That’s not fair.
Mow Da Sun: There’s more than one way to get rich here. We plan to open a store.
Mr. Hillman: Good luck!
N2: As the men walk on, John looks at the distant hills.
John: Let’s explore, Father. We should pan somewhere new.
Scene 5
Mariposa Gold Fields, Summer 1850
N3: After a breakfast of coffee and biscuits, John and his father leave camp.
N1: Exploring on his own, John scrambles up a rocky slope and sees a canyon.
N2: He climbs down to a wide creek.
N3: He crouches in the rushing water, filling his pan and shaking it.
John: No luck.
N1: Exhausted, he wades back to shore.
John: We came all this way for nothing.
N2: He gazes at the tall pines.
N3: The wide bright sky stretches overhead.
N1: The creek sparkles in the sun.
N2: The beauty of the place fills his soul.
Mr. Hillman (shouting): John? Anything?
N3: Just then, John spies a hidden stream.
N1: He steps into it, then lowers his pan.
N2: He shakes and squints.
N3: At first, nothing.
N1: But then—a flash.
N2: A shining, brilliant speck . . . and another . . . and another.
John: Father! GOLD! I found gold!
Scene 6
Mariposa Gold Fields, Summer 1851
N3: During that year, the Hillmans collect enough gold to pay for their supplies.
N1: But one evening, Mr. Hillman empties the last of the rice into a pot over the fire.
Mr. Hillman: I think it’s time to go home.
John: But we’re finding gold every day.
Mr. Hillman: Yes, and we’ve been able to save money. But we’re not going to get rich.
N2: John looks around at the craggy peaks and the long shadows of the trees.
John: This place makes me feel rich . . . in a different way.
Mr. Hillman: Don’t you miss home?
John: I miss Mother. But I love it here. I want to make money for our family and start a new life.
Mr. Hillman: You’re too young to stay alone.
John: But Father—
Mr. Hillman: We’ll head home tomorrow.
Scene 7
Agua Fria, the next morning
N3: After packing up, John and his father visit the Carrs’ store.
Mr. Hillman: We’ve come to say goodbye.
Daniel: Why? You found gold!
John: Not enough gold . . . but I want to stay anyway.
Mr. Hillman: It’s time to go home.
John: Father . . . this is my home now.
Mrs. Carr: John could live with us.
Mr. Carr: He can help at the store.
Mr. Hillman (surprised): Are you sure?
Mrs. Carr: We’ll take great care of him.
Mr. Hillman: OK, son. Here’s $300. Make an honest life for yourself.
John: I will! Hug Mother for me and tell her I’ll be fine.
Epilogue
H1: John Wesley Hillman never struck it rich.
H2: Only about 1 percent of the California gold miners became wealthy. The rest were lucky to cover costs or save small amounts.
H1: But the Gold Rush changed the West forever, mixing different cultures and creating new towns and businesses.
H2: Mow Da Sun and Sun Kow opened a successful store in Coulterville.
H1: As for John, he spent years exploring the West. A few weeks before he passed away in 1915, he told his memories of the Gold Rush to his daughter.
H2: She wrote them down, which is how we know about John today.
H1: So what about you? Knowing all this, would you have joined the Gold Rush?
A few weeks before he passed away in 1915, John told his memories of the Gold Rush to his daughter, who wrote them down. Below are some excerpts, or short parts, of those memories. Author Elise Broach drew from them to write the scenes in the play, including the buffalo stampede in Scene 2 and John’s decision to stay in California in Scene 6.
National Park Service, Crater Lake National Park
“We had the pleasure of witnessing several buffalo stampedes. Some distances away one of the leaders of the herd became frightened and began to run, the ones nearest him followed and then it seemed though the whole universe were moving. As far as the eye could see were the rocking, brownish forms of the monarch of the plains. On they rushed, sweeping all before them in their mad rush over the prairies; over a wagon train, through a river, on, on, stopping at nothing.”
“We stayed in the Mariposa claims until the summer of ’51, when my father decided he wanted to leave for home, and he and I struck out for San Francisco. There he made arrangements for his passage to New Orleans; he wished me to go with him but I wanted to stay a whole longer in California and try my luck. He was much surprised at my decision and insisted on depositing $300 to my account with Wells Fargo & Co., in case I became stranded. […] I bade my father farewell and it was many years before I saw him again.”
Write Now
Choose two characters from the play. Write one paragraph about why each joined the Gold Rush. In a second paragraph, compare their experiences.
This article was originally published in the December 2025/January 2026 issue.
