This award-winning portrayal highlights the cultural diversity and women’s history of early California. We explore U.S. and world maritime history in word and song, from the Mission Era to the Gold Rush, including the Opium Trade and an anti-drug message.

  We re-create the historic ship-wreck of an 1850 clipper, and the impact of the Gold Rush on the people and the land of California.  The story is based on letters, logs, oral histories, and diaries, inclu-ding Two Years Before the Mast. We also examine the conflicts among archaeologists and collectors who un-earth artifacts, and the descendents of the artisans who crafted them.

  In a diversity of voices we weave a web of connections among the Native, Asian, Hispanic, and European peoples who created the most diverse state in the union. Michael and Renee Oakes involve the crowd in lively sea shanties. Study Guide included for school performances.