The Golden Ghost film is an Art film, a Black film, a Western with moments of Magical Realism all based on actual historical events. In 1852, Northern California at the peak of the Gold Rush a lone Black woman trudges barefoot along a dry riverbed, watched by two Black men in the trees. She seems indifferent to the spectacular beauty around her, near the base of the large volcano, Mount Shasta. They assume she is looking for gold, as they are, but conclude that the important thing is what she and they are walking towards. Freedom!

The latest work by Mt. Shasta artist and filmmaker Mark Oliver’ to recover the forgotten history of African Americans’ participation in the California Gold Rush. History books fail to mention that by 1855 over 5000 African American men and women were in California. Shot in Northern California the story follows two African American men who arrived in California around 1852 hoping to find gold and improve their lives. The prospectors call themselves Tall (Victor Martin) and Money (Fred Magee). They know their situation is precarious, even though California was admitted to the Union in 1850 as a free state. Racist judges and legislators have let Southern slaveholders bring their “property” west, and the same sort of bounty hunters who enslave Indian children would be happy to return Tall and Money, who lack “papers,” back to bondage. Shot as a historical fiction work, this film is an educational production examining for the first time for most viewers the history of African American people in the California Gold Rush. Watch until the end as the contemporary reality of this untold history is revealed.