Like a lot of stories about the "Old West," the story of the California Gold Rush is a very white story. And while it's true that white people reaped most of the riches to be had, people of darker skin colors got involved, too.
Mark Oliver of Mount Shasta created a stage piece on black workers, both enslaved and free, who worked the gold veins in the mid-19th century. "Voices of the Golden Ghosts" comes to Shasta College Theater on Saturday (April 6th). Mark Oliver visits with details of the work, along with Patricia Lord, former director of the Shasta Historical Society.