The
California Gold Rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when
gold was discovered by James Marshall at
Sutter's Mill in
Coloma, California.
[1] News of the discovery soon spread, resulting in some 300,000&_160;men, women, and children coming to
California from the rest of the United States and abroad.
[2]These early gold-seekers, called "forty-niners," traveled to California by sailing ship 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, and later developed more sophisticated methods of gold recovery that were adopted around the world. Gold, worth billions of today's dollars, was recovered, which lead to great wealth for a few; many, however, returned home with little more than they started with.
The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. San Francisco grew from a tiny hamlet of tents to a boomtown, and roads, churches, schools and other towns were built. A system of laws and a government were created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 1850. A unique social structure evolved. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service and railroads were built. Agriculture, California's first big attraction, developed on a wide scale throughout the state as gold mines produced less. However, the Gold Rush also had negative effects Native Americans were attacked and pushed off traditional lands, race and ethnic tensions formed, and gold mining caused environmental harm.
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.[8] 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.[9] Marshall died penniless; Brannan became a millionaire but died penniless as well.
