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| California Gold Rush |
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered by James Wilson
Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000
men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000,
approximately 150,000 arrived by sea while the remaining 150,000 arrived by land.
These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," (as a reference to 1849) travelled to California by sailing boat and
in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly-
arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and
Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as
panning. More sophisticated methods of gold recovery developed which were later adopted around the world. At
its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required - increasing the
proportion of corporate to individual miners. Gold, worth billions of today's dollars, was recovered, which led to
great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they started with.
The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and
roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government
were created, leading to the admission of California as a free state in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850.
New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. The
business of agriculture, California's next major growth field, was started on a wide scale throughout the state.
However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional
lands, and gold mining caused environmental harm.
Overview
The Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma. On January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall, a foreman working
for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was
building for Sutter, along the American River. Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them
privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and
wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what'd happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there
were a mass search for gold. However, rumours soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by
San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. The most famous quote of the California
Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he'd hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, Brannan strode
through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American
River!" With the news of gold, many families trying their luck at Californian farming decided to go for the gold,
becoming some of California’s first miners. At this time, California wasn't a state of the Union, but rather the state
of Alta California in Mexico. Shortly afterwards, California ceded to the U.S. After the end of the Mexican-American
War with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed on February 2, 1848.
On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report that there
was a gold rush in California; on December 5, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an
address to Congress. Soon, waves of immigrants from around the world, later called the "forty-niners," invaded
the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode." As Sutter had feared, he was ruined; his workers left in search of
gold, and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.
San Francisco had been a tiny settlement before the rush began. When residents learned of the discovery, it at
first became a ghost town of abandoned ships and businesses whose owners joined the Gold Rush, but then
boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco exploded from perhaps 1,000 in
1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850. As with many boomtowns, the sudden influx of people strained the
infrastructure of San Francisco and other towns near the goldfields. People lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck
cabins removed from abandoned ships.
In what's been referred to as the "first world-class gold rush," there was no easy way to get to California; forty-
niners faced hardship and often death on the way. At first, most Argonauts, as they were also known, travelled by
sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months, and
cover some 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km). An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of
Panama, to take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle, and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship
sailing for San Francisco. There was also a route across Mexico starting at Veracruz. Eventually, most gold-
seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail. Each
of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever and cholera.
To meet the demands of the arrivals, ships bearing goods from around the world - porcelain and silk from China,
ale from Scotland - poured into San Francisco as well. Upon reaching San Francisco, ship captains found that
their crews deserted and went to the gold fields. The wharves and docks of San Francisco became a forest of
masts, as hundreds of ships were abandoned. Enterprising San Franciscans turned the abandoned ships into
warehouses, stores, taverns, hotels, and one into a jail. Many of these ships were later destroyed and used for
landfill to create more buildable land in the boomtown. Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-
known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day Siskiyou, Shasta and Trinity
Counties. Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day Yreka in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers
up the Siskiyou Trail and throughout California's northern counties. Settlements of the Gold Rush era, such as
Portuguese Flat on the Sacramento River, sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of
Weaverville on the Trinity River today retains the oldest continuously-used Taoist temple in California, a legacy of
Chinese miners who came. While there aren't many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the well-
preserved remains of the once-bustling town of Shasta's a California State Historic Park in Northern California.
Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold, at
Rancho San Francisco in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles, had been in 1842, six years before
Marshall's discovery, while California was still part of Mexico. However, these first deposits, and later discoveries
in Southern California mountains, attracted little notice and were of limited consequence economically. In addition,
the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-
gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the
miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often
slaughtered. Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-
gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet Joaquin Miller vividly captured one such attack in his
semi-autobiographical work, Life Amongst the Modocs.
Forty-niners
The first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California
themselves—primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in Northern California, along with
Native Americans and some Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians). These first miners tended to be
families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all races were often found panning next to
the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases,
the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold.
Word of the Gold Rush spread slowly at first. The earliest gold-seekers to arrive in California during 1848 were
people who lived near California, or people who heard the news from ships on the fastest sailing routes from
California. The first large group of Americans to arrive were several thousand Oregonians who came down the
Siskiyou Trail. Next came people from Hawaii, by ship, and several thousand Latin Americans, including people
from Mexico, from Peru and from as far away as Chile, both by ship and overland. By the end of 1848, some 6,000
Argonauts had come to California. Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth ten to fifteen times
the daily wage of a labourer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the goldfields and find the
equivalent of six years' wages back home, which attracted people of all types and ethnicities including single men
and women, families, and married men. Some hoped to get rich quick and return home, and others wished to
start businesses in California.
By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of
gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. The largest group of forty-niners in
1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing
routes (the name "forty-niner" was derived from the year 1849). Many came by way of the Isthmus of Panama and
the steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Australians and New Zealanders picked up the news
from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with "gold fever," boarded ships for California.
Forty-niners came from Latin America, particularly from the Mexican mining districts near Sonora. Began arriving in
1849, at first in modest numbers to Gum Sam ("Gold Mountain"), the name given to California in Chinese. The first
immigrants from Europe, reeling from the effects of the Revolutions of 1848 and with a longer distance to travel,
began arriving in late 1849, mostly from France, with some Germans, Italians, and Britons. Of these, perhaps
50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries. The largest group continued to be
Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, French, and Latin Americans,
together with many smaller groups of miners, such as Filipinos, Basques and Turks. A modest number of miners
of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000) had come from the Southern States, the Caribbean and Brazil..
A notable number of immigrants were from China. Several hundred Chinese arrived in California in 1849 and
1850, and in 1852 more than 20,000 landed in San Francisco. Their distinctive dress and appearance was highly
recognisable in the gold fields, and created a degree of animosity towards the Chinese. On the trail many people
died from accidents, cholera, fever, and myriad other causes, and many women became widows before even
setting eyes on California. While in California, women were also widowed quite frequently due to mining
accidents, disease, or mining disputes. While it wasn't an easy place for anyone, life in the west did offer many
opportunities for women to break from their typical work.
Legal rights
When the Gold Rush began, California was a peculiarly lawless place. On the day when gold was discovered at
Sutter's Mill, California was still technically part of Mexico, under American military occupation as the result of the
Mexican-American War. With the signing of the treaty ending the war on February 2, 1848, California became a
possession of the United States, but it wasn't a formal "territory" and didn't become a state until September 9,
1850. California existed in the unusual condition of a region under military control. There was no civil legislature,
executive or judicial body for the entire region. Local residents operated under a confusing and changing mixture
of Mexican rules, American principles, and personal dictates.
While the treaty ending the Mexican-American War obliged the United States to honour Mexican land grants,
almost all of the goldfields were outside those grants. Instead, the goldfields were primarily on "public land,"
meaning land formally owned by the United States government. However, there were no legal rules yet in place,
and no practical enforcement mechanisms.
The benefit to the forty-niners was that the gold was simply "free for the taking" at first. In the goldfields, there was
no private property, no licensing fees, and no taxes until a government formed. The forty-niners resorted to making
up their own codes and setting up their own local enforcement. From 1850-1852, there were 52 mining codes in
place. The miners essentially adapted Mexican mining law existing in California. For example, the rules attempted
to balance the rights of early arrivers at a site with later arrivers; a "claim" could be "staked" by a prospector, but
that claim was valid only as long as it was being actively worked. Miners worked at a claim only long enough to
determine its potential. If a claim was deemed as low-value—as most were—miners would abandon the site in
search for legendary bonanza sites. In the case where a claim was abandoned or not worked upon, other miners
would "claim-jump" the land. "Claim-jumping" means that a miner began work on a previously claimed site.
Development of gold recovery techniques
Because the gold in the California gravel beds was so richly concentrated, the early forty-niners simply panned for
gold in California's rivers and streams, a form of placer mining. However, panning can't be done on a large scale,
and industrious miners and groups of miners graduated to placer mining "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms" to
process larger volumes of gravel. In the most complex placer mining, groups of prospectors would divert the water
from an entire river into a sluice alongside the river, and then dig for gold in the newly-exposed river bottom.
Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in
the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth approximately US$7 billion at November 2006 prices).
In the next stage, by 1853, hydraulic mining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds that were on hillsides
and bluffs in the gold fields. In a modern style of hydraulic mining first developed in California, a high-pressure
hose directs a powerful stream or jet of water at gold-bearing gravel beds. The loosened gravel and gold would
then pass over sluices, with the gold settling to the bottom where it's collected. By the mid-1880s, it's estimated
that 11 million ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been
recovered via "hydraulicking." Many areas still bear the scars of hydraulic mining since the resulting exposed earth
and downstream gravel deposits are unable to support plant life. After the Gold Rush had concluded, gold
recovery operations continued. The final stage to recover loose gold was to prospect for gold that'd slowly washed
down into the flat river bottoms and sandbars of California's Central Valley and other gold-bearing areas of
California (such as Scott Valley in Siskiyou County). By the late 1890s, dredging technology (which was also
invented in California) had become economical, and it's estimated that more than 20 million ounces (620 t) were
recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices). Once the gold-bearing rocks
were brought to the surface, the rocks were crushed, and the gold was separated out (using moving water), or
leached out, typically by using arsenic or mercury (another source of environmental contamination). Eventually,
hard-rock mining wound up being the single largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.
Profits
Although the conventional wisdom's that merchants made more money than miners during the Gold Rush, the
reality's perhaps more complex. There were certainly merchants who profited handsomely. The wealthiest man in
California during the early years of the Gold Rush was Samuel Brannan, the tireless self-promoter, shopkeeper
and newspaper publisher. Brannan alertly opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots
in the gold fields. Just as the Gold Rush began, he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San
Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit.
On average, many early gold-seekers did perhaps make a modest profit, after all expenses were taken into
account. Most, however, especially those arriving later, made little or wound up losing money. Similarly, many
unlucky merchants set up in settlements that disappeared, or were wiped out in one of the calamitous fires that
swept the towns springing up. Other businessmen, through good fortune and hard work, reaped great rewards in
retail, shipping, entertainment, lodging, or transportation. Boardinghouses, food preparation, sewing, and laundry
were highly profitable businesses often run by women (married, single, or widowed) who realised men would pay
well for a service done by a woman. Brothels also brought in large profits, especially when combined with
saloons/gaming houses.
By 1855, the economic climate had changed dramatically. Gold could be retrieved profitably from the goldfields
only by medium to large groups of workers, either in partnerships or as employees. By the mid-1850s, it was the
owners of these gold-mining companies who made the money. Also, the population and economy of California
had become large and diverse enough that money could be made in a wide variety of conventional businesses.
Path of the gold
Once the gold was recovered, there were many paths the gold itself took. First, much of the gold was used locally
to purchase food, supplies and lodging for the miners. It also went towards entertainment, which consisted of
anything from a travelling theatre to alcohol, gambling, and prostitutes. These transactions often took place using
the recently recovered gold, carefully weighed out. These merchants and vendors, in turn, used the gold to
purchase supplies from ship captains or packers bringing goods to California. The gold then left California
aboard ships or mules to go to the makers of the goods from around the world. A second path was the Argonauts
themselves who, having personally acquired a sufficient amount, sent the gold home, or returned home taking
with them their hard-earned "diggings." For example, one estimate's that some US$80 million worth of California
gold was sent to France by French prospectors and merchants. As the Gold Rush progressed, local banks and
gold dealers issued "banknotes" or "drafts"—locally accepted paper currency—in exchange for gold, and private
mints created private gold coins. With the building of the San Francisco Mint in 1854, gold bullion was turned into
official United States gold coins for circulation. The gold was also later sent by California banks to U.S. National
banks in exchange for national paper currency to be used in the booming California economy.
Effects
Immediate effects
The arrival of hundreds of thousands of new people within a few years, compared to a population of some 15,000
Europeans and Californios beforehand, had many dramatic effects.
First, the human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans became the
victims of disease, starvation and genocidal attacks; the Native American population in California, estimated at
150,000 in 1845, was less than 30,000 by 1870. It's estimated that some 4,500 Native Americans suffered violent
deaths between 1849 and 1870. Explicitly racist attacks, laws and confiscatory taxes sought to drive out Chinese
and Latin American immigrants. The toll on the American immigrants could be severe as well: one in twelve forty-
niners perished, as the death and crime rates during the Gold Rush were extraordinarily high, and the resulting
vigilantism also took its toll. In addition, the environment suffered as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from
prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats. Large-scale agriculture (California's second "Gold
Rush") began during this time. Roads, schools, churches, and civic organisations quickly came into existence.
The Gold Rush wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and
the East Coast. The Panama Railway, spanning the Isthmus of Panama, was finished in 1855. Steamships,
including those owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, began regular service from San Francisco to
Panama, where passengers, goods and mail would take the train across the Isthmus and board steamships
headed to the East Coast. One ill-fated journey, that of the S.S. Central America, ended in disaster as the ship
sank in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas in 1857, with an estimated three tons of California gold aboard.
Within a few years after the end of the Gold Rush, in 1863, the ground breaking ceremony for the western leg of
the First Transcontinental Railroad was held in Sacramento. The line's completion, some six years later, financed
in part with Gold Rush money, united California with the central and eastern United States. Travel that'd taken
weeks or even months could now be accomplished in days.
The Gold Rush stimulated economies around the world as well. Farmers in Chile, Australia, and Hawaii found a
huge new market for their food; British manufactured goods were in high demand; clothing and even pre-
fabricated houses arrived from China. The return of large amounts of California gold to pay for these goods raised
prices and stimulated investment and the creation of jobs around the world. Australian prospector, Edward
Hargraves, noting similarities between the geography of California and his home, returned to Australia to discover
gold and spark the Australian gold rushes.
Long-term effects
California's name became indelibly connected with the Gold Rush, and as a result, was connected with what
became known as the "California Dream." California was perceived as a place of new beginnings, where hard
work and good luck could reward great wealth. Historian H. W. Brands noted that in the years after the Gold Rush,
the California Dream spread to the rest of the United States and became part of the new "American Dream." »
Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream. California farmers, oil drillers, movie
makers, aeroplane builders, and "dot-com" entrepreneurs have each had their boom times in the decades after
the Gold Rush. Included among the modern legacies of the California Gold Rush are the California state motto,
"Eureka" ("I've found it"), Gold Rush images on the California State Seal, and the state nickname, "The Golden
State," as well as place names, such as Placer County, Rough and Ready, Placerville (formerly named "Dry
Diggings" and then "Hangtown" during rush time), Whiskeytown, Drytown, Angels Camp, Happy Camp, and
Sawyer's Bar. The San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and the similarly named athletic teams of
California State University, Long Beach, are named for the prospectors of the California Gold Rush. The literary
history of the Gold Rush's reflected in the works of Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County), Bret Harte (A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready), Joaquin Miller (Life Amongst the Modocs This state
highway also passes very near Columbia State Historic Park, a protected area encompassing the historic
business district of the town of Columbia; the park has preserved many Gold Rush-era buildings, which are
presently occupied by tourist-oriented businesses.
Geology
Scientists believe that global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years resulted in the large
concentration of gold in California. Only gold that's concentrated can be economically recovered. Some 400 million
years ago, California lay at the bottom of a large sea; underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals
(including gold) onto the sea floor. Beginning about 200 million years ago, tectonic pressure forced the sea floor
beneath the American continental mass. As it sank, or subducted, below today's California, the sea floor melted
into very large molten masses (magma). This hot magma forced its way upward under what's now California,
cooling as it rose, and as it solidified, veins of gold formed within fields of quartz. These minerals and rocks came
to the surface of the Sierra Nevada, and eroded. The exposed gold was carried downstream by water and
gathered in quiet gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams. The forty-niners first focused their efforts
on these deposits of gold, which had been gathered in the gravel beds by hundreds of millions of years of
geologic action.
Download printable PDF
Source of Information Totally Explained & Wikipedia
Marshall at Sutter's Mill, in Coloma, California. News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000
men, women, and children coming to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. Of the 300,000,
approximately 150,000 arrived by sea while the remaining 150,000 arrived by land.
These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," (as a reference to 1849) travelled to California by sailing boat and
in covered wagons across the continent, often facing substantial hardships on the trip. While most of the newly-
arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and
Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as
panning. More sophisticated methods of gold recovery developed which were later adopted around the world. At
its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required - increasing the
proportion of corporate to individual miners. Gold, worth billions of today's dollars, was recovered, which led to
great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with little more than they started with.
The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a small settlement to a boomtown, and
roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California. A system of laws and a government
were created, leading to the admission of California as a free state in 1850 as part of the Compromise of 1850.
New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. The
business of agriculture, California's next major growth field, was started on a wide scale throughout the state.
However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects: Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional
lands, and gold mining caused environmental harm.
Overview
The Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma. On January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall, a foreman working
for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found pieces of shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was
building for Sutter, along the American River. Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them
privately tested the findings. The tests showed Marshall's particles to be gold. Sutter was dismayed by this, and
wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what'd happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there
were a mass search for gold. However, rumours soon started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by
San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan. The most famous quote of the California
Gold Rush was by Brannan; after he'd hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, Brannan strode
through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American
River!" With the news of gold, many families trying their luck at Californian farming decided to go for the gold,
becoming some of California’s first miners. At this time, California wasn't a state of the Union, but rather the state
of Alta California in Mexico. Shortly afterwards, California ceded to the U.S. After the end of the Mexican-American
War with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed on February 2, 1848.
On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report that there
was a gold rush in California; on December 5, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an
address to Congress. Soon, waves of immigrants from around the world, later called the "forty-niners," invaded
the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode." As Sutter had feared, he was ruined; his workers left in search of
gold, and squatters invaded his land and stole his crops and cattle.
San Francisco had been a tiny settlement before the rush began. When residents learned of the discovery, it at
first became a ghost town of abandoned ships and businesses whose owners joined the Gold Rush, but then
boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco exploded from perhaps 1,000 in
1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850. As with many boomtowns, the sudden influx of people strained the
infrastructure of San Francisco and other towns near the goldfields. People lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck
cabins removed from abandoned ships.
In what's been referred to as the "first world-class gold rush," there was no easy way to get to California; forty-
niners faced hardship and often death on the way. At first, most Argonauts, as they were also known, travelled by
sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months, and
cover some 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km). An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of
Panama, to take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle, and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship
sailing for San Francisco. There was also a route across Mexico starting at Veracruz. Eventually, most gold-
seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail. Each
of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever and cholera.
To meet the demands of the arrivals, ships bearing goods from around the world - porcelain and silk from China,
ale from Scotland - poured into San Francisco as well. Upon reaching San Francisco, ship captains found that
their crews deserted and went to the gold fields. The wharves and docks of San Francisco became a forest of
masts, as hundreds of ships were abandoned. Enterprising San Franciscans turned the abandoned ships into
warehouses, stores, taverns, hotels, and one into a jail. Many of these ships were later destroyed and used for
landfill to create more buildable land in the boomtown. Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-
known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day Siskiyou, Shasta and Trinity
Counties. Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day Yreka in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers
up the Siskiyou Trail and throughout California's northern counties. Settlements of the Gold Rush era, such as
Portuguese Flat on the Sacramento River, sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of
Weaverville on the Trinity River today retains the oldest continuously-used Taoist temple in California, a legacy of
Chinese miners who came. While there aren't many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the well-
preserved remains of the once-bustling town of Shasta's a California State Historic Park in Northern California.
Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold, at
Rancho San Francisco in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles, had been in 1842, six years before
Marshall's discovery, while California was still part of Mexico. However, these first deposits, and later discoveries
in Southern California mountains, attracted little notice and were of limited consequence economically. In addition,
the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-
gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the
miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often
slaughtered. Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-
gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet Joaquin Miller vividly captured one such attack in his
semi-autobiographical work, Life Amongst the Modocs.
Forty-niners
The first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California
themselves—primarily agriculturally oriented Americans and Europeans living in Northern California, along with
Native Americans and some Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians). These first miners tended to be
families in which everyone helped in the effort. Women and children of all races were often found panning next to
the men. Some enterprising families set up boarding houses to accommodate the influx of men; in such cases,
the women often brought in steady income while their husbands searched for gold.
Word of the Gold Rush spread slowly at first. The earliest gold-seekers to arrive in California during 1848 were
people who lived near California, or people who heard the news from ships on the fastest sailing routes from
California. The first large group of Americans to arrive were several thousand Oregonians who came down the
Siskiyou Trail. Next came people from Hawaii, by ship, and several thousand Latin Americans, including people
from Mexico, from Peru and from as far away as Chile, both by ship and overland. By the end of 1848, some 6,000
Argonauts had come to California. Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth ten to fifteen times
the daily wage of a labourer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the goldfields and find the
equivalent of six years' wages back home, which attracted people of all types and ethnicities including single men
and women, families, and married men. Some hoped to get rich quick and return home, and others wished to
start businesses in California.
By the beginning of 1849, word of the Gold Rush had spread around the world, and an overwhelming number of
gold-seekers and merchants began to arrive from virtually every continent. The largest group of forty-niners in
1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing
routes (the name "forty-niner" was derived from the year 1849). Many came by way of the Isthmus of Panama and
the steamships of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Australians and New Zealanders picked up the news
from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with "gold fever," boarded ships for California.
Forty-niners came from Latin America, particularly from the Mexican mining districts near Sonora. Began arriving in
1849, at first in modest numbers to Gum Sam ("Gold Mountain"), the name given to California in Chinese. The first
immigrants from Europe, reeling from the effects of the Revolutions of 1848 and with a longer distance to travel,
began arriving in late 1849, mostly from France, with some Germans, Italians, and Britons. Of these, perhaps
50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries. The largest group continued to be
Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, Britons, French, and Latin Americans,
together with many smaller groups of miners, such as Filipinos, Basques and Turks. A modest number of miners
of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000) had come from the Southern States, the Caribbean and Brazil..
A notable number of immigrants were from China. Several hundred Chinese arrived in California in 1849 and
1850, and in 1852 more than 20,000 landed in San Francisco. Their distinctive dress and appearance was highly
recognisable in the gold fields, and created a degree of animosity towards the Chinese. On the trail many people
died from accidents, cholera, fever, and myriad other causes, and many women became widows before even
setting eyes on California. While in California, women were also widowed quite frequently due to mining
accidents, disease, or mining disputes. While it wasn't an easy place for anyone, life in the west did offer many
opportunities for women to break from their typical work.
Legal rights
When the Gold Rush began, California was a peculiarly lawless place. On the day when gold was discovered at
Sutter's Mill, California was still technically part of Mexico, under American military occupation as the result of the
Mexican-American War. With the signing of the treaty ending the war on February 2, 1848, California became a
possession of the United States, but it wasn't a formal "territory" and didn't become a state until September 9,
1850. California existed in the unusual condition of a region under military control. There was no civil legislature,
executive or judicial body for the entire region. Local residents operated under a confusing and changing mixture
of Mexican rules, American principles, and personal dictates.
While the treaty ending the Mexican-American War obliged the United States to honour Mexican land grants,
almost all of the goldfields were outside those grants. Instead, the goldfields were primarily on "public land,"
meaning land formally owned by the United States government. However, there were no legal rules yet in place,
and no practical enforcement mechanisms.
The benefit to the forty-niners was that the gold was simply "free for the taking" at first. In the goldfields, there was
no private property, no licensing fees, and no taxes until a government formed. The forty-niners resorted to making
up their own codes and setting up their own local enforcement. From 1850-1852, there were 52 mining codes in
place. The miners essentially adapted Mexican mining law existing in California. For example, the rules attempted
to balance the rights of early arrivers at a site with later arrivers; a "claim" could be "staked" by a prospector, but
that claim was valid only as long as it was being actively worked. Miners worked at a claim only long enough to
determine its potential. If a claim was deemed as low-value—as most were—miners would abandon the site in
search for legendary bonanza sites. In the case where a claim was abandoned or not worked upon, other miners
would "claim-jump" the land. "Claim-jumping" means that a miner began work on a previously claimed site.
Development of gold recovery techniques
Because the gold in the California gravel beds was so richly concentrated, the early forty-niners simply panned for
gold in California's rivers and streams, a form of placer mining. However, panning can't be done on a large scale,
and industrious miners and groups of miners graduated to placer mining "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms" to
process larger volumes of gravel. In the most complex placer mining, groups of prospectors would divert the water
from an entire river into a sluice alongside the river, and then dig for gold in the newly-exposed river bottom.
Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (370 t) of gold were removed in
the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth approximately US$7 billion at November 2006 prices).
In the next stage, by 1853, hydraulic mining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds that were on hillsides
and bluffs in the gold fields. In a modern style of hydraulic mining first developed in California, a high-pressure
hose directs a powerful stream or jet of water at gold-bearing gravel beds. The loosened gravel and gold would
then pass over sluices, with the gold settling to the bottom where it's collected. By the mid-1880s, it's estimated
that 11 million ounces (340 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been
recovered via "hydraulicking." Many areas still bear the scars of hydraulic mining since the resulting exposed earth
and downstream gravel deposits are unable to support plant life. After the Gold Rush had concluded, gold
recovery operations continued. The final stage to recover loose gold was to prospect for gold that'd slowly washed
down into the flat river bottoms and sandbars of California's Central Valley and other gold-bearing areas of
California (such as Scott Valley in Siskiyou County). By the late 1890s, dredging technology (which was also
invented in California) had become economical, and it's estimated that more than 20 million ounces (620 t) were
recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices). Once the gold-bearing rocks
were brought to the surface, the rocks were crushed, and the gold was separated out (using moving water), or
leached out, typically by using arsenic or mercury (another source of environmental contamination). Eventually,
hard-rock mining wound up being the single largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.
Profits
Although the conventional wisdom's that merchants made more money than miners during the Gold Rush, the
reality's perhaps more complex. There were certainly merchants who profited handsomely. The wealthiest man in
California during the early years of the Gold Rush was Samuel Brannan, the tireless self-promoter, shopkeeper
and newspaper publisher. Brannan alertly opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma, and other spots
in the gold fields. Just as the Gold Rush began, he purchased all the prospecting supplies available in San
Francisco and re-sold them at a substantial profit.
On average, many early gold-seekers did perhaps make a modest profit, after all expenses were taken into
account. Most, however, especially those arriving later, made little or wound up losing money. Similarly, many
unlucky merchants set up in settlements that disappeared, or were wiped out in one of the calamitous fires that
swept the towns springing up. Other businessmen, through good fortune and hard work, reaped great rewards in
retail, shipping, entertainment, lodging, or transportation. Boardinghouses, food preparation, sewing, and laundry
were highly profitable businesses often run by women (married, single, or widowed) who realised men would pay
well for a service done by a woman. Brothels also brought in large profits, especially when combined with
saloons/gaming houses.
By 1855, the economic climate had changed dramatically. Gold could be retrieved profitably from the goldfields
only by medium to large groups of workers, either in partnerships or as employees. By the mid-1850s, it was the
owners of these gold-mining companies who made the money. Also, the population and economy of California
had become large and diverse enough that money could be made in a wide variety of conventional businesses.
Path of the gold
Once the gold was recovered, there were many paths the gold itself took. First, much of the gold was used locally
to purchase food, supplies and lodging for the miners. It also went towards entertainment, which consisted of
anything from a travelling theatre to alcohol, gambling, and prostitutes. These transactions often took place using
the recently recovered gold, carefully weighed out. These merchants and vendors, in turn, used the gold to
purchase supplies from ship captains or packers bringing goods to California. The gold then left California
aboard ships or mules to go to the makers of the goods from around the world. A second path was the Argonauts
themselves who, having personally acquired a sufficient amount, sent the gold home, or returned home taking
with them their hard-earned "diggings." For example, one estimate's that some US$80 million worth of California
gold was sent to France by French prospectors and merchants. As the Gold Rush progressed, local banks and
gold dealers issued "banknotes" or "drafts"—locally accepted paper currency—in exchange for gold, and private
mints created private gold coins. With the building of the San Francisco Mint in 1854, gold bullion was turned into
official United States gold coins for circulation. The gold was also later sent by California banks to U.S. National
banks in exchange for national paper currency to be used in the booming California economy.
Effects
Immediate effects
The arrival of hundreds of thousands of new people within a few years, compared to a population of some 15,000
Europeans and Californios beforehand, had many dramatic effects.
First, the human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans became the
victims of disease, starvation and genocidal attacks; the Native American population in California, estimated at
150,000 in 1845, was less than 30,000 by 1870. It's estimated that some 4,500 Native Americans suffered violent
deaths between 1849 and 1870. Explicitly racist attacks, laws and confiscatory taxes sought to drive out Chinese
and Latin American immigrants. The toll on the American immigrants could be severe as well: one in twelve forty-
niners perished, as the death and crime rates during the Gold Rush were extraordinarily high, and the resulting
vigilantism also took its toll. In addition, the environment suffered as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from
prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats. Large-scale agriculture (California's second "Gold
Rush") began during this time. Roads, schools, churches, and civic organisations quickly came into existence.
The Gold Rush wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and
the East Coast. The Panama Railway, spanning the Isthmus of Panama, was finished in 1855. Steamships,
including those owned by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, began regular service from San Francisco to
Panama, where passengers, goods and mail would take the train across the Isthmus and board steamships
headed to the East Coast. One ill-fated journey, that of the S.S. Central America, ended in disaster as the ship
sank in a hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas in 1857, with an estimated three tons of California gold aboard.
Within a few years after the end of the Gold Rush, in 1863, the ground breaking ceremony for the western leg of
the First Transcontinental Railroad was held in Sacramento. The line's completion, some six years later, financed
in part with Gold Rush money, united California with the central and eastern United States. Travel that'd taken
weeks or even months could now be accomplished in days.
The Gold Rush stimulated economies around the world as well. Farmers in Chile, Australia, and Hawaii found a
huge new market for their food; British manufactured goods were in high demand; clothing and even pre-
fabricated houses arrived from China. The return of large amounts of California gold to pay for these goods raised
prices and stimulated investment and the creation of jobs around the world. Australian prospector, Edward
Hargraves, noting similarities between the geography of California and his home, returned to Australia to discover
gold and spark the Australian gold rushes.
Long-term effects
California's name became indelibly connected with the Gold Rush, and as a result, was connected with what
became known as the "California Dream." California was perceived as a place of new beginnings, where hard
work and good luck could reward great wealth. Historian H. W. Brands noted that in the years after the Gold Rush,
the California Dream spread to the rest of the United States and became part of the new "American Dream." »
Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream. California farmers, oil drillers, movie
makers, aeroplane builders, and "dot-com" entrepreneurs have each had their boom times in the decades after
the Gold Rush. Included among the modern legacies of the California Gold Rush are the California state motto,
"Eureka" ("I've found it"), Gold Rush images on the California State Seal, and the state nickname, "The Golden
State," as well as place names, such as Placer County, Rough and Ready, Placerville (formerly named "Dry
Diggings" and then "Hangtown" during rush time), Whiskeytown, Drytown, Angels Camp, Happy Camp, and
Sawyer's Bar. The San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and the similarly named athletic teams of
California State University, Long Beach, are named for the prospectors of the California Gold Rush. The literary
history of the Gold Rush's reflected in the works of Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County), Bret Harte (A Millionaire of Rough-and-Ready), Joaquin Miller (Life Amongst the Modocs This state
highway also passes very near Columbia State Historic Park, a protected area encompassing the historic
business district of the town of Columbia; the park has preserved many Gold Rush-era buildings, which are
presently occupied by tourist-oriented businesses.
Geology
Scientists believe that global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years resulted in the large
concentration of gold in California. Only gold that's concentrated can be economically recovered. Some 400 million
years ago, California lay at the bottom of a large sea; underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals
(including gold) onto the sea floor. Beginning about 200 million years ago, tectonic pressure forced the sea floor
beneath the American continental mass. As it sank, or subducted, below today's California, the sea floor melted
into very large molten masses (magma). This hot magma forced its way upward under what's now California,
cooling as it rose, and as it solidified, veins of gold formed within fields of quartz. These minerals and rocks came
to the surface of the Sierra Nevada, and eroded. The exposed gold was carried downstream by water and
gathered in quiet gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams. The forty-niners first focused their efforts
on these deposits of gold, which had been gathered in the gravel beds by hundreds of millions of years of
geologic action.
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