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The California gold rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. [1] The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. [2]
- Sutter’s Mill
- Gold Fever Strikes
- Polk Spreads Gold Fever
- The ’49ers Come to California
- Gold Rush Politics
- California's Mines
- Impact of The Gold Rush
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. At the time, Marshall was working to build a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss citizen and founder of a colony of Nueva Helve...
Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter’s Mill. Though the initial reaction in San Franciscowas disbelief, storekeeper Sam Brannan set off a frenzy when he paraded through town displayi...
When the news reached the East Coast, press reports were initially skeptical. Gold fever kicked off nationwide in earnest, however, after December 1848, when President James K. Polkannounced the positive results of a report made by Colonel Richard Mason, California’s military governor, in his inaugural address. As Polk wrote, “The accounts of abund...
Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) with gold fever borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns. In turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such...
The Gold Rush undoubtedly sped up California’s admission to the Union as the 31st state. In late 1849, California applied to enter the Union with a constitution that barred the Southern system of racial slavery, provoking a crisis in Congress between proponents of slavery and anti-slavery politicians. According to the Compromise of 1850, proposed b...
After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased fro...
New mining methods and the population boom in the wake of the California Gold Rush permanently altered the landscape of California. The technique of hydraulic mining brought enormous profits but destroyed much of the region’s landscape. Dams designed to supply water to mine sites in summer altered the course of rivers away from farmland, while sedi...
- Missy Sullivan
- 3 min
From Gold Rush to Golden State. The first federal census conducted in California in 1860 counted 308,000 residents--population had almost tripled since 1847. While gold mining was still an important factor in the state economy, Californians were finding other ways to earn a living. By the mid 1850s, the state's farms had made California self ...
Spain began colonization in 1769 and eventually established 21 missions and 4 military presidios along the coast. When Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, California became a Mexican territory. The missions were dissolved, and the land transferred to wealthy Mexican families.
These pioneers were the first colonists to settle in Southern California after statehood – a milestone in state history. When they arrived, Williams had changed his mind. After searching for three months, the colonists purchased the Lugo Rancho, which encompassed the entire San Bernardino Valley.
By the end of the year, thousands of California’s residents had gone north to the goldfields with visions of wealth in their heads. In 1849, thousands of people from around the world began to follow and the California Gold Rush had begun. The fantasy of instant wealth caused a massive influx of people to California.
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The California Gold Rush of 1849-1855 radically transformed California, the United States and the world. It prompted one of the largest migrations in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of migrants across the United States and the globe coming to California to find gold in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
