characters: Narrator 1, 2, 3, and 4, James Marshall, James H. Carson, Melvin Paden (a miner), Sallie Hester (an overlander),  Levi Strauss, John Shutter, president James Polk, Californian 1, 2, and 3, forty-9er 1-5, marshall's crew 1-3, Native American 1-4, miner's, merchant's.