UMA Senior College Spring Lecture Series 2025
Tuesday, 4/1 •  1:00 PM
MAINERS IN THE CA GOLD RUSH
Presenter: Ron Kley

I draw upon data compiled over a decade of research concerning Mainers who went off to join the human tsunami  known as the California Gold Rush of 1848-52. I have two purposes in mind, drawing upon my research into sources here in Maine, in California and places in between. First, to relate a “rattlin good story” focusing primarily upon the history and members of one collaborative group (the Kennebec Trading and Mining Company) whose members mostly hailed from towns of the Lower Kennebec River Valley, and second, to encourage others of any and all ages to join in the effort to identify these adventuresome folks and place them in a biographical, demographic, and historical context.

Presenter: Ron Kley

My teaching/lecturing experience and related museum work has taken me throughout the U.S. and Canada since the early 1960s, as well as to Europe, Africa, and Australia. I’ve taught geology courses at B.U., UMA during its embryonic days on Western Avenue, and at Hayward State University in California.I also served in the military as Research and Technical Operations officer for USACENCG — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nuclear Cratering Group based at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California. I’ve been a resident of East Winthrop, Maine since 1968 when I arrived from California to begin a twenty year tenure as head of the Research and Collections Division at Maine’s State Museum.

Click Here to Sign Up for Lecture

Note: You can sign up for the UMA Senior College Lecture series if you are a member of the Senior College. Membership costs $10 - $25.

Each week, prior to the lecture, you will receive an email with your Zoom invitation.

All lectures are held on Tuesdays at 1 PM.

Ron Kley