The Gold Rush

On the chilly morning of January 24, 1848… James Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, saw a pea-shaped yellow metal glinting in the gravel of the American River (40 miles east of Sacramento, California)

Marshall and his laborers were helping build a sawmill Marshall and his laborers were helping build a sawmill... “Boys, by God, I believe I have found a gold mine.”

What he found was the ignition switch for one of the most massive migrations in human history: The California Gold Rush

It was quite literally a rush, as soon as the news got out It was quite literally a rush, as soon as the news got out. President Polk announced in December 1848 that there looked to be enough gold in California to pay for the costs of the Mexican War many times over. That made people sit up and take notice

Risking life and limb to strike gold

More than 90,000 people made their way to California in the two years following the first discovery and more than 300,000 by 1854 One of about every 90 people then living in the United States!

An 1850 census showed that 25% of those counted in California were from countries as far away as Australia and China

It wasn’t easy getting there From the East Coast, one could take a 15,000 mile, five-month voyage around the tip of South America More than 500 ships made the voyage in 1849 alone!

You could cut across the Isthmus of Panama and take two months off the trip (if you were willing to risk cholera and malaria)

By land, the 2,200-mile journey from the trailheads in Missouri or Iowa might take three or four months – with a lot of luck!

Some who came were already famous: John C. Fremont and Phillip Armour

History recalls them as the 49ers, because the first big year of the Gold Rush was 1849. They called themselves Argonauts, after the mythical Greek heroes who sailed in the Argo with Jason to search for the Golden Fleece

Most of the 49ers found nothing but disappointment, and many found death

With few women and no government, it was a pretty rough place… The town of Marysville had 17 murders in one week San Francisco averaged two murders a day

A miner making $8 a day (about $205 in 2007 dollars) was doing eight times better than his coal-mining counterpart in the East Prices were outrageous A loaf of bread that cost 4 cents in New York cost 75 cents in the goldfields

All in all, most gold seekers were not any better off than laborers in the rest of the country

There was gold, and plenty of it During the Civil War alone, California produced more than $170 million worth of bullion, which helped prop up wartime Union currency

The Gold Rush had other impacts as well… The Gold Rush had other impacts as well… **non-Indian population of 18,000 in January 1848 **three years later … 165,000 **San Francisco became a booming U. S. port and doorway to the Pacific **the growth and importance of the state help spur Congressional approval of the proposed transcontinental railroad