Once Upon a Gold Rush is an old-fashioned adventure story filled with colorful characters, framed against the California gold rush of the 1850s. Based on a (somewhat) true story, it follows two brothers, James and John Grosh, and their sister, Mary Jane, on an overland journey by ox-drawn wagon, from the prairies of Illinois, across the plains and mountains of the wild, unsettled territories, to the Trinity River valley of Northern California. There they mine for gold and witness the beginning of the end of a way of life for the Native American inhabitants of the Golden State. John returns to Illinois by ship, sailing around Cape Horn, a voyage that he will not soon forget. Their lives are touched by people and events leading up to the American Civil War. This historical novel is the continuation of the saga of the Grosh family, begun in the book, All the Way by Water.