Pack your pickaxe and grab your goat. A LEGO® Ideas builder named ArchGian7 has struck editorial gold with The Gold Rush, a 3,200-piece diorama that drops you straight into California's Sierra Nevada in 1848. Two waterfalls, a rickety prospector's shed, and one very hopeful pair of gold seekers all wait to be discovered.

The story goes like this. Noah Smith, a Sacramento farmer, heard the cry of "Gold, gold on the American River" and set off for Coloma with his nephew George Brown, an old horse, and a goat named Sophia. When they arrived, Noah mistook his weary nag for a rowboat (an honest mistake after a long journey, surely), and the two paddled upstream to a clearing beneath twin falls. There they built a shed from whatever they could find.

Advertisement

Here comes the clever bit. The build flips the hull of a lifeboat upside down and uses it as the shed's roof, which is the kind of upside-down thinking that makes builders grin. Inside you will spot two camp beds, a barrel for hiding gold, and a window built from an old cart wheel. Every piece hooks together properly, so the whole 25 x 40 x 25 cm scene stays sturdy enough to survive a real stampede of tiny prospectors.

Two minifigures bring the tale to life: George digs and sifts all day while Noah strums his mandolin by the fire. Did they ever find gold? ArchGian7 leaves that ending up to you, which is exactly the sort of open door that makes a display worth staring at.

This scene is the first chapter of a planned trilogy, and it has already panned out 4,986 supporters on its way toward the 10,000 mark. If frontier history and inventive techniques are your seam of choice, why not stake your claim and add your vote? The American River is waiting, and the gold might just be up to you.