Many of these communities were apparently nearly-abandoned by the time of Lavenson's visits. The towns range from more well-known areas such as Nevada City, Grass Valley, Columbia, North San Juan and Coloma, to smaller, more obscure areas such as Rough and Ready, Copperopolis, Goodyear's Bar, Fiddletown and Timbuctoo. Many street scenes feature storefront architecture remaining from the Gold Rush period. Co. The collection is arranged by town, in alphabetical order. The photographs are captioned in manuscript, usually indicating location, date and photographer.
Duplicates exist for some of the photographs.