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But, mirroring the societies back east from which they came, frontiersmen drew the boundaries of their legal regime in racial terms. Most notably, they held criminal trials on their own authority. Hundreds of strangers met to adopt mining codes, decide claim disputes, run large-scale mining projects, and resist the dominance of companies financed by outside capital. The Americans in California organized and ran meetings with an efficiency and attention to detail that amazed foreign observers. Miners turned out to be experts at self-government, bringing about a flowering of American-style democracy-with all its promises and deficiencies. The circumstances were ripe for chaos, but as Andrea McDowell shows, this new frontier was not nearly as wild as one would presume. A hundred thousand single men came to the new territory from every corner of the nation with the sole aim of striking it rich and then returning home. Gold Rush California was a frontier on steroids: 1,500 miles from the nearest state, it had a constantly fluctuating population and no formal government.
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In the absence of state authority, Gold Rush miners crafted effective government by the people-but not for all the people. A surprising account of frontier law that challenges the image of the Wild West.