There’s gold in them thar hills... Fortune-hunters rushed by land and sea to California’s golden fields and hills in 1849 as this piece of original pencil sketch artwork shows. This is card number A-21 in the series entitled Winning the West. The subtitle says, “The Gold Rush Is On.” Actually, the card rush was on when these Wild West trading cards first appeared on the market. Packaged with the ever-popular piece of gum, the Wild West card series became super popular. This pencil sketch, measuring 3 x 3 1/2” was colorized and used to produce the card.There are some minor adhesive smudges on the piece as part of the production process. Below the original pencil sketch is a typewritten piece of copy which was produced on the rear side of the final card.