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History of California
To 1899
Gold Rush (1849)
American Civil War (1861-1865)
1900 to present
Maritime
Railroad
Los Angeles
San Diego
San Francisco

The California Gold Rush (1848-1855) started in January 1848, when James W. Marshall found shiny pieces of metal in the tailrace of a sawmill he was building; tests showed the metal was gold. As news of the discovery spread, some 300,000 people came to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.

These early gold-seekers, called "Forty-Niners," traveled to California by sailing ship and in covered wagons across the continent; these immigrants often faced substantial hardship on the trip. While most of the newly-arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush also attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, and Asia. At first, the prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, and later developed more sophisticated methods of gold recovery which were adopted around the world. Gold worth billions of today's dollars was recovered, leading to great wealth for some; others, however, returned home with little more than they started with.

The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial. Cities, churches and schools were built, and a government and system of laws was created, leading to the admission of California as a state in 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.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Forty-Niners 3 Legal rights 4 Development of gold recovery techniques 5 Profits 5.1 Path of the gold 6 Effects 6.1 Immediate effects 6.2 Long-term effects 7 Geology 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 Further reading 12 External links

[edit] Overview

The Gold Rush started at Sutter's Mill near Coloma, California<ref name = CAMap>For a detailed map, see California Historic Gold Mines, published by the State of California; accessed 2006-12-03. </ref> on January 24, 1848. James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found pieces of gold in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter along the American River.<ref name=BancroftDiscovery>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888). History of California, Volume 23: 1848 - 1859. San Francisco: The History Company, pp. 32-34.</ref> Marshall quietly brought what he found to Sutter, and the two of them privately tested the findings. Dismayed that Marshall's particles passed tests for gold, Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold.<ref name=BancroftSuppress>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 39-41.</ref> However, rumors 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 hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies,<ref name = HollBran> Holliday, J. S. (1999). Rush for riches; gold fever and the making of California. Oakland, California, Berkeley and Los Angeles: Oakland Museum of California and University of California Press, p. 60.</ref> Brannan strode through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"<ref name=BancroftGoldGoldGold>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 55-56.</ref>

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, 1848, President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress.<ref name=StarrCongress>Starr, Kevin (2005). California: a history. New York: The Modern Library, p. 80.</ref> 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.<ref name=BancroftRuin>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 103-105.</ref>

The then-tiny settlement of San Francisco at first became a ghost town of abandoned ships and businesses whose owners joined the Gold Rush;<ref name=BancroftAbandon>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 59-60.</ref> it then boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco exploded from perhaps 1,000<ref name=HollidaySF> Holliday, J. S. (1999), p. 51 (“800 residents”).</ref> in 1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850.<ref name=RawlsSF> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (1999). A golden state: mining and economic development in Gold Rush California (California History Sesquicentennial Series, 2). Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. p. 187</ref> Like many boom towns, the infrastructure of San Francisco and other towns near the fields was strained by the sudden influx; leftover cigar boxes and planks served as sidewalks.

In what has been referred to as the "first world-class gold rush,"<ref name=HillWorld> Hill, Mary (1999), p. 1. </ref> there was no easy way to get to California; Forty-Niners faced hardship and often death on the way to the gold fields. At first, most Argonauts, as they were also known, traveled by sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months,<ref name=BrandsCape>Brands, H.W. (2003). The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream. New York: Doubleday, pp. 103-121.</ref> and cover some 18,000 nautical miles (33,000 km). An alternative route was to sail to the Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, to take canoes and mules for a week through the tropical rain forest, and then on the Pacific side, to wait for a ship sailing for San Francisco.<ref name=BrandsPan>Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 75-85. Another route across Nicaragua was developed in 1851; it was not as popular as the Panama option. Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 252-253. </ref> Eventually, most gold-seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the California Trail.<ref name=RawlsTravel> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 5</ref> Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever to cholera.

To meet the demands of the new arrivals, ships bearing goods from around the world—porcelain and silk from China, ale from Scotland—poured into San Francisco as well.<ref name = NPSFrolic> U.S. National Park Service, Found! The Wreck of the Frolic (accessed Oct. 16, 2006). </ref> 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 then took over these abandoned ships and turned them into stores, taverns, brothels, and one into a jail.

Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day Siskiyou County, Shasta County and Trinity County.<ref name=BancroftSiskiyou>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 363-366.</ref> Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day Yreka in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers up the Siskiyou Trail<ref name=DillonSiskiyou>Dillon, Richard (1975). Siskiyou Trail. New York: McGraw Hill.pp. 361-362</ref> and throughout California's northern counties.<ref name=WellsYreka>Wells, Harry L. (1881). History of Siskiyou County, California. Oakland, California: D.J. Stewart & Co., pp. 60-64.</ref> Gold Rush-era settlements, such as Portuguese Flat on the Sacramento River, sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush-era 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 are not many Gold Rush-era ghost towns still in existence, the well-preserved remains of the once-bustling town of Shasta, California, is a California state historic park in Northern California.<ref name = Bodie> The buildings of Bodie, the best-known ghost town in California, date from the 1870s and later, well after the end of the Gold Rush.</ref>

Gold was also discovered in Southern California but on a much smaller scale. The first discovery of gold, 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.<ref name=RawlsPlacerita> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (1999), p. 3.</ref> However, these first deposits—and later discoveries in Southern California mountains—attracted little notice and were of limited consequence economically.

By 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to the task of extracting the gold from more difficult locations. Faced with gold that was increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the most accessible gold that remained. The new California Legislature passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month, and American prospectors began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly Latin Americans and Chinese.<ref name = RawlsTax> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 9</ref> In addition, the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of traditional hunting, fishing and food gathering areas. Native Americans struck back attacking the miners to protect their homes and livelihood. This provoked counter-attacks by miners on native villages; out-gunned, the Native Americans, were often slaughtered.<ref name = RawlsGeno> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 8</ref> Those who escaped the 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.<ref name=MillerModoc>Miller, Joaquin (1873). Life amongst the Modocs: unwritten history. Berkeley: Heyday Books; reprint edition (January 1996).</ref>

[edit] Forty-Niners

The first people to rush to the gold fields, beginning in the spring of 1848, were the residents of California themselves, primarily Americans and Europeans living in Northern California, along with Native Americans and some Californios (Spanish-speaking Californians).<ref name=BrandsFirst>Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 43-46.</ref>

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.<ref name=Starr1848> Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000). Rooted in barbarous soil: people, culture, and community in Gold Rush California. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, pp. 50-54.</ref> Next came people from Hawaii by ship and several thousand Latin Americans arrived, including from Mexico, Chile<ref name=BrandsChile> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 48-53.</ref> and Peru, both overland and by ship.<ref name=Starr48> Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 50-54.</ref> By the end of 1848, some 6,000 Argonauts had come to California.<ref name=Starr48>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 50-54.</ref> Only a small number (probably less than 500) traveled overland from the United States that year.<ref name=Starr48>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 50-54.</ref> Some of these "Forty-Eighters" (as they were also sometimes called) were able to collect large amounts of easily accessible gold—in some cases, thousands of dollars worth each day.<ref name=BrandsGold> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 197-202</ref><ref name = HollDollars> Holliday, J. S. (1999) p. 63. Holliday notes these luckiest prospectors were recovering gold, valued in modern-day dollars, worth in excess of $1 million, in short amounts of time.</ref> Even ordinary prospectors averaged daily gold finds worth ten to fifteen times the daily wage of a laborer on the East Coast. A person could work for six months in the gold fields and find the equivalent of six years’ wages back home.<ref name=StarrAvg> Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), p. 28.</ref>

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 in 1849 were Americans, arriving by the tens of thousands overland across the continent and along various sailing routes.<ref name=Starr49>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57-61.</ref> Australians<ref name=BrandsAus>Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 53-61.</ref> and New Zealanders picked up the news from ships carrying Hawaiian newspapers, and thousands, infected with “gold fever,” boarded ships for California.<ref name=Starr1849>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 53-56.</ref> Forty-Niners came from Latin America, particularly from the mining districts of Mexico, near Sonora, Mexico.<ref name=Starr1849>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 53-56.</ref> Gold-seekers and merchants from Asia, primarily from China,<ref name=BrandsChina> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 61-64.</ref> began arriving in 1849, at first in modest numbers to "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,<ref name=BrandsFrance> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 93-103.</ref> with some Germans, Italians, and British.<ref name=Starr49>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57-61.</ref>

It is estimated that almost 90,000 people arrived in California in 1849—about half by land and half by sea.<ref name=Starr49>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57-61. Other estimates range from 70,000 to 90,000 arrivals during 1849 (ibid. p. 57).</ref> Of these, perhaps 50,000 to 60,000 were Americans, and the rest were from other countries.<ref name=Starr49>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 57-61.</ref> By 1855, it is estimated at least 300,000 gold-seekers, merchants, and other immigrants had arrived in California from around the world.<ref name=Starr300>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), p. 25.</ref> The largest group continued to be Americans, but there were tens of thousands each of Mexicans, Chinese, French, and Latin Americans,<ref name=BrandsPop> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 193-194.</ref> together with many smaller groups of miners, such as Filipinos and Basques.<ref name=StarrBasq>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), p. 62.</ref> A modest number of miners of African ancestry (probably less than 4,000<ref name = RawlsAf> Another estimate is 2,500 Forty-Niners of African ancestry. Rawls, James, J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 5</ref>) had come from the American South, the Caribbean and Brazil.<ref name=StarrAf>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 67-69.</ref>

[edit] 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 part of the United States, but it was not a formal "territory" and was certainly not yet a state. 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.<ref name = HollidayRights> Holliday, J. S. (1999), pp. 115 - 123</ref> Local citizens operated under a confusing and changing mixture of Mexican rules, American principles, and personal dictates.

While the treaty ending the Mexican-American War obligated the United States to honor Mexican land grants,<ref name = RawlsLandGrants> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 235</ref> almost all of the gold fields were outside those grants. Instead, the gold fields were primarily on “public land”—that is, land formally owned by the United States government.<ref name = RawlsPublic> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 123-125</ref> However, there were no legal rules yet in place and no practical enforcement mechanisms.<ref name = RawlsEnf> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p.127. There were fewer than 1,000 U.S. soldiers in California at the beginning of the Gold Rush.</ref>

The benefit to the Forty-Niners was that the gold was “free for the taking.” In the gold fields, there was no private property, no licensing fees, and no taxes.<ref name = RawlsFree> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 27</ref> The Forty-Niners resorted to making up their own codes and setting up their own local enforcement. It was understood that a “claim” could be “staked” by a prospector, but that claim was valid only as long as it was being actively worked.<ref name = ClayRights> Clay, Karen and Wright, Gavin. (2005), pp. 155-183.</ref> Disputes were sometimes handled personally and violently, and were sometimes addressed by groups of prospectors acting as arbitrators.<ref name = RawlsPublic> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 123-125.</ref><ref name = ClayRights>Clay, Karen and Wright, Gavin. (2005), pp. 155-183.</ref>

[edit] 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".<ref name = BrandsMine> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 198-200. </ref> However, panning cannot be done on a large scale, and industrious miners and groups of miners graduated to placer mining "cradles" and "rockers" or "long-toms"<ref name = PlacerImage>Images and detailed description of placer mining tools and techniques; image of a long tom</ref> to process larger volumes of gravel.<ref name=BancroftRockers>Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1888), pp. 87-88.</ref> At its most complex, 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.<ref name = RawlsDiv> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 90</ref> Modern estimates by the U.S. Geological Survey are that some 12 million ounces (373 t) of gold were removed in the first five years of the Gold Rush (worth approximately US$7.2 billion at November 2006 prices).<ref name = GoldValue> Mining History and Geology of the Mother Lode (accessed Oct. 16, 2006)</ref>

In the next stage, by 1853, the first hydraulic mining was used on ancient gold-bearing gravel beds which were on hillsides and bluffs in the gold fields.<ref name=StarrHydra> Starr, Kevin (2005), p. 89.</ref> In hydraulic mining (which was invented in California at this time), a high pressure hose directs a powerful stream of water at gold-bearing gravel beds. The loosened gravel and gold then pass over sluices, with the gold settling to the bottom where it is collected. By the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces (342 t) of gold (worth approximately US$6.6 billion at November 2006 prices) had been recovered via "hydraulicking."<ref name = GoldValue> Mining History and Geology of the Mother Lode (accessed Oct. 16, 2006)</ref>

A byproduct of this method of extraction was that large amounts of gravel and silt, in addition to heavy metals and other pollutants, went into streams and rivers.<ref name = RawlsHyd> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 32-36</ref> Many areas still bear the scars of hydraulic mining since the resulting exposed earth and downstream gravel deposits are unable to support plant life.<ref name = RawlsGrav> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 116-121</ref>

After the Gold Rush had concluded, gold recovery operations continued. The final stage to recover loose gold was to prospect for gold which had washed down over millions of years 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,<ref name = RawlsDredge> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 1991</ref> and it is estimated that more than 20 million ounces (622 t) were recovered by dredging (worth approximately US$12 billion at November 2006 prices).<ref name = GoldValue> Mining History and Geology of the Mother Lode (accessed Oct. 16, 2006)</ref>

Both during the Gold Rush and in the decades that followed, gold-seekers also engaged in "hard-rock" mining, that is, extracting the gold directly from the rock which contained it (typically quartz), usually by digging and blasting to follow and remove veins of the gold-bearing quartz.<ref name = RawlsMine> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 36-39</ref> 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).<ref name = RawlsStamp> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 39-43</ref> Eventually, hard-rock mining wound up being the single largest source of gold produced in the Gold Country.<ref name = GoldValue> Mining History and Geology of the Mother Lode (accessed Oct. 16, 2006)</ref>

[edit] Profits

Although the conventional wisdom is that merchants made more money than miners during the Gold Rush, the reality is 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.<ref name = HollProf> Holliday, J. S. (1999) pp. 69 – 70. </ref> 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.<ref name = HollProf> Holliday, J. S. (1999) pp. 69 – 70. </ref> However, substantial money was made by gold-seekers as well. For example, one small group of prospectors, working on the Feather River in 1848, retrieved 273 pounds (124 kg) of gold in a few months<ref name = HollFeather> Holliday, J. S. (1999), p. 63 </ref> (worth $2.6 million at 2006 prices).

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.<ref name = HollProf> Holliday, J. S. (1999) p. 78. </ref><ref name = RawlsPess> One estimate is that fewer than one in twenty prospectors profited financially from their California gold-seeking. Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 7.</ref> Similarly, many unlucky merchants set up in settlements which disappeared, or were wiped out in one of the calamitous fires that swept the towns springing up.<ref name = Norton>For example, Joshua A. Norton at first acquired a fortune but was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1858, and he wandered the streets of San Francisco, styling himself "Emperor Norton I." By contrast, a businessman who went on to great success was Levi Strauss, who first began selling denim over-alls in San Francisco in 1853 (the famous Levi jeans were not invented until the 1870s).</ref> Other businesspeople, through good fortune and hard work, reaped great rewards in retail, shipping, entertainment, lodging,<ref name = JamesLick> James Lick made a fortune running a hotel and engaging in land speculation in San Francisco; Lick's fortune was used to build Lick Observatory.</ref> or transportation.<ref name = BigFour> Four particularly successful Gold Rush-era merchants were Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, Sacramento area businesspeople (later known as the Big Four), who financed the western leg of the First Transcontinental Railroad, and became very wealthy as a result.</ref>

By 1855, the economic climate had changed dramatically. Gold could be retrieved profitably from the gold fields only by medium to large groups of workers, either in partnerships or as employees.<ref name = RawlsProf> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 52-68</ref> By the mid-1850s, it was the owners of these gold-mining companies who made the money. Similarly, the population of California had grown so large and so fast, and the economic base had started to diversify, that money could be made in a wide variety of conventional businesses.<ref name = RawlsBusiness> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 193-197.</ref>

[edit] 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. These transactions often took place using the recently recovered gold, carefully weighed out.<ref name = RawlsScales> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 212-214.</ref> These merchants and vendors, in turn, used the gold to purchase supplies from ship captains or packers bringing goods to California.<ref name = RawlsPack> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 256-259.</ref> 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, having personally acquired a sufficient amount, sent the gold home or returned home, taking with them their hard-earned “diggings.” For example, one estimate is that some $80 million worth of California gold was sent to France by French prospectors and merchants.<ref name = HollFren> Holliday, J. S. (1999) p. 90 </ref> As the Gold Rush progressed, local banks and gold dealers issued “banknotes” or “drafts”—locally accepted paper currency—in exchange for gold,<ref name = RawlsCurr> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 193-197; 214-215.</ref> and private mints created private gold coins.<ref name = RawlsCoins> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 214.</ref> With the building of the San Francisco Mint in 1854, gold bullion was turned into official United States gold coins for circulation.<ref name = RawlsMint> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), p. 212.</ref> The gold was also sent by California banks to U.S. national banks in exchange for national paper currency to be used in the booming California economy.<ref name = RawlsNatBank> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 226-227.</ref>

[edit] Effects

[edit] 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 previously,<ref name=StarrPrev> Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), p. 50. Other estimates are that there were 7,000 - 13,000 non-Native Americans in California before January 1848. See Holliday, J. S. (1999), pp. 26, 51.</ref> had many dramatic effects.<ref name = BancStarr> Historians have reflected on the Gold Rush and its effect on California. Historian Hubert Howe Bancroft used the phrase that the Gold Rush advanced California into a "rapid, monstrous maturity," and historian Kevin Starr stated, for all its problems and benefits, the Gold Rush established the "founding patterns, the DNA code, of American California." See Starr, Kevin (2005), p. 80.</ref>

First, the human and environmental costs of the Gold Rush were substantial. Native Americans became the victims of disease, starvation and genocidal attacks;<ref name=HeizerGen>Heizer, Robert F. (1974). The destruction of California Indians. Lincoln and London: Univ. of Nebraska Press, pp. 243.</ref> the Native American population, estimated at 150,000 in 1845, was less than 30,000 by 1870.<ref name=StarrPop>Starr, Kevin (2005), p. 99.</ref> Explicitly racist attacks and laws sought to drive out Chinese and Latin American immigrants.<ref name=StarrRace>Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000), pp. 56-79.</ref> The toll on the American immigrants could be severe as well: one in twelve Forty-Niners lost his or her life, as the death and crime rates during the Gold Rush were extraordinarily high, and the resulting vigilantism took its toll.<ref name=StarrDeath>Starr, Kevin (2005), pp. 84-87.</ref> In addition, the environment suffered as gravel, silt and toxic chemicals from prospecting operations killed fish and destroyed habitats.<ref name = RawlsHyd/><ref name = RawlsGrav/>

However, the Gold Rush propelled California from a sleepy, little-known backwater to a center of the global imagination and the destination of hundreds of thousands of people. The new immigrants often showed remarkable inventiveness and civic-mindedness. For example, in the midst of the Gold Rush, towns and cities were chartered, a state constitutional convention was convened, a state constitution written, elections held, and representatives sent to Washington, D.C. to negotiate the admission of California as a state.<ref name=StarrConCon>Starr, Kevin (2005), pp. 91-93.</ref> Large-scale agriculture (California's second "Gold Rush"<ref name = RawlsAg> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 243-248. By 1860, California had over 200 flour mills, and was exporting wheat and flour around the world. Ibid. at 278-280.</ref>) began during this time.<ref name=StarrAgri>Starr, Kevin (2005), pp. 110-111.</ref> Roads, schools, churches,<ref name=StarrChurch>Starr, Kevin (1973). Americans and the California dream: 1850-1915. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 69-75.</ref> and civic organizations quickly came into existence.<ref name=StarrConCon>Starr, Kevin (2005), pp. 91-93.</ref> The vast majority of the immigrants were Americans. Pressure grew for better communications and political connections to the rest of the United States, leading to statehood for California on September 9, 1850, in the Compromise of 1850 as the 31st state of the United States.

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.<ref name=HarpersPanama> Harper's New Monthly Magazine March 1855, Volume 10, Issue 58, p.543.</ref> 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.<ref name=HillCenAm> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 192-196.</ref><ref name=WinfieldScott>Another notable ship wreck was the steamship Winfield Scott, bound to Panama from San Francisco, which crashed into Anacapa Island off the Southern California coast in December 1853. All hands and passengers were saved, along with the cargo of gold, but the ship was a total loss.</ref>

Within a few years after the end of the Gold Rush, in 1863, the groundbreaking 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,<ref name = RawlsRR> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 278-279</ref> united California with the central and eastern United States. Travel that had taken weeks or even months could now be accomplished in days.<ref name = RawlsandBean> Historians James Rawls and Walton Bean have postulated that were it not for the discovery of gold, Oregon might have been granted statehood ahead of California, and therefore the first "Pacific Railroad might have been built to that state." See Rawls, James, J., and Walton Bean (2003), p. 112</ref>

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.<ref name = RawlsWorld> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 285-286</ref> 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.<ref name = RawlsStim> Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard (eds.) (1999), pp. 287-289</ref>

[edit] 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 great wealth could reward hard work and good luck. 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.”

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Generations of immigrants have been attracted by the California Dream. California farmers,<ref name=StarrFarm>"[A]griculture [dominated the post-Gold Rush] sequence of development, employing more people than mining by 1869 . . . and surpassing mining in 1879 as the leading element of the California economy." Starr, Kevin (2005), p. 110.</ref> oil drillers,<ref name=CalOil>See, e.g., Signal Hill, California, Bakersfield, California; Los Angeles, California</ref> movie makers,<ref name=Movies>20th Century-Fox, MGM, Paramount, RKO, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and United Artists are among the most recognized entertainment industry names centered in California; see also Film studio</ref> airplane builders,<ref name=Aerospace>Hughes Aircraft, Douglas Aircraft, North American Aviation, Northrop, Lockheed Aircraft were among the complex of companies in the aerospace industry which flourished in California during and after World War II</ref> and “dot-com” entrepreneurs have each had their boom times in the decades after the Gold Rush.<ref name=YouTube>Gaither, Chris and Chmielewski, Dawn C. "Google Bets Big on Videos", Los Angeles Times, 2006-10-10. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.</ref>

Included among the modern legacies of the California Gold Rush are the California state motto, "Eureka" ("I have 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 NFL football team, and the 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 is 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), and many others.

Today, a state highway travels through the Sierra Nevada foothills, connecting many Gold Rush-era towns such as Placerville, Auburn, Grass Valley, Coloma, Jackson, and Sonora. This road is designated as California State Route 49. Route 49 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.

[edit] Geology

Main article: Gold in California

Scientists believe that global forces operating over hundreds of millions of years resulted in the large concentration of gold in California. Only gold which is 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.<ref name=Hill199> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 168-69. </ref> 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 today's California, cooling as it rose,<ref name=BrandsGeo> Brands, H.W. (2002), pp. 195-196. </ref> and as it solidified, veins of gold formed within fields of quartz.<ref name = BrandsGeo> </ref> <ref name=HillSubduct> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 174-78. </ref> These minerals and rocks came to the surface of the Sierra Nevada,<ref name=HillLift> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 169-173. </ref> and eroded. The exposed gold was carried downstream by water and gathered in quiet gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams.<ref name=HillRest> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 94-100. </ref> 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.<ref name=HillShift> Hill, Mary (1999), pp. 105-110. </ref>

[edit] See also

• List of people associated with the California Gold Rush
• Virginia gold mining (beginning 1804)
• Georgia Gold Rush (1840s)
• Australian gold rush (1850s)
• Fraser Canyon Gold Rush (late 1850s)
• Colorado Gold Rush (early 1860s)
• Central Otago Gold Rush (1860s)
• Witwatersrand Gold Rush (1880s)
• Klondike Gold Rush (1890s)

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Bancroft, Hubert Howe (1884-1890) History of California, vols. 18-24, The works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, complete text online
• Brands, H.W. (2003). The age of gold: the California Gold Rush and the new American dream. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 0385720882.
• Clay, Karen, Gavin Wright (2005). "Order Without Law? Property Rights During the California Gold Rush". Explorations in Economic History 42 (2): 155-183. ISSN 0014-4983. Abstract: The system of mining claims created during the 19th century California gold rush was not the precursor of modern secure property rights. When the gold rush began in 1848 there were no federal regulations governing mining rights, and disputes about claim jumping were frequent and sometimes violent. In order to minimize violence and maximize the discovery of gold, regulations were created at the local level to clarify when a mining site could be considered abandoned and available for a new claim. Despite the presence of third-party enforcement of the regulations, however, miners had to be constantly vigilant to protect their claims, as they had not established a permanent property right.
• Dillon, Richard (1975). Siskiyou Trail. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070169802.
• Gaither, Chris and Chmielewski, Dawn C. "Google Bets Big on Videos", Los Angeles Times, 2006-10-10. Retrieved on 2006-10-10.
• Harper's New Monthly Magazine March 1855, Volume 10, Issue 58 complete text online
• Heizer, Robert F. (1974). The destruction of California Indians. Lincoln and London: Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803272626.
• Hill, Mary (1999). Gold: the California story. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520215478.
• Holliday, J. S. (1999). Rush for riches; gold fever and the making of California. Oakland, California, Berkeley and Los Angeles: Oakland Museum of California and University of California Press. ISBN 0520214013.
• Miller, Joaquin (1873). Life amongst the Modocs: unwritten history. Berkeley: Heyday Books; reprint edition (January 1996). ISBN 0930588797.
• Rawls, James, J., and Walton Bean (2003). California: An Interpretive History. McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. ISBN 0-07-255255-7.
• Rawls, James J. and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (1999). A golden state: mining and economic development in Gold Rush California (California History Sesquicentennial Series, 2). Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520217713.
• Starr, Kevin (1973). Americans and the California dream: 1850-1915. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195042336.
• Starr, Kevin (2005). California: a history. New York: The Modern Library. ISBN 0679642404.
• Starr, Kevin and Orsi, Richard J. (eds.) (2000). Rooted in barbarous soil: people, culture, and community in Gold Rush California. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520224965.
• Wells, Harry L. (1881). History of Siskiyou County, California. Oakland, California: D.J. Stewart & Co.. ASIN B0006YP8IE. (reprinted 1971 Siskiyou County Historical Society)

[edit] Further reading

• Burchell, Robert A. "The Loss of a Reputation; or, The Image of California in Britain before 1875," California Historical Quarterly 53 (Summer I974): 115-30, stories about Gold Rush lawlessness slowed immigration for two decades
• Burns, John F. and Orsi, Richard J., eds. (2003). Taming the elephant: politics, government, and law in pioneer California. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520234138. complete text online
• Drager, K., and Fracchia, C. (1997). The golden dream: California from Gold Rush to statehood. Portland, OR: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company. ISBN 1558683127.
• Eifler, Mark A. (2002). Gold Rush capitalists: greed and growth in Sacramento. Univ. of New Mexico Press. ISBN 0826328229.
• Holliday , J. S. and Swain, William (1981). The world rushed in: the California Gold Rush experience. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press (reprint ed. 2002). ISBN 080613464X.
• Hurtado, Albert L. (2006). John Sutter: a life on the North American frontier. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 080613772X.
• Johnson, Susan Lee (2001). Roaring Camp: the social world of the California Gold Rush. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0393320995.
• Levy, JoAnn (1990). They saw the elephant: women in the California Gold Rush. Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press (reprint ed. 1992). ISBN 0806124733.
• Owens, Kenneth N., ed. (2002). Riches for all: the California Gold Rush and the world. Univ. of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803286171.
• Roberts, Brian (2000). American alchemy: the California Gold Rush and middle-class culture. Univ. of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807848565.
• Rohrbough, Malcolm J. (1998). Days of gold: the California Gold Rush and American nation. Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press. ISBN 0520216598.
• Watson, Matthew A. "The Argonauts of '49: Class, Gender, and Partnership in Bret Harte's West." Western American Literature 2005 40(1): 33-53. ISSN 0043-3462 Abstract: Discusses Bret Harte's notion of Western partnership in such California gold rush stories as "The Luck of Roaring Camp` (1868), "Tennessee's Partner" (1869), and "Miggles" (1869). While critics have long recognized Harte's interest in gender constructs, Harte's depictions of Western partnerships also explore "changing dynamics of economic relationships and gendered relationships through terms of contract, mutual support, and the bonds of labor."

[edit] External links

• California Gold Rush chronology
• Museum of the Siskiyou Trail
• Description by John Sutter of the Discovery of Gold
• Commentary accompanying PBS documentary film "The Gold Rush"
• Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park
• Columbia State Historic Park
• Impact of Gold Rush on California
• California Gold Rush timeline
• The Gold Rush: fun facts
• Gold Rush geology
• USGS circular on the geology of gold
• Weaverville State Historic Park
• Shasta State Historic Park
• Chinese name for California and Chinese miners in California
• San Francisco harbor Gold Rush archaeology
• Gold Rush era ship wreck
• S.S. Central America informationbg:Калифорнийска златна треска

de:Kalifornischer Goldrausch it:Febbre dell'oro he:הבהלה לזהב (קליפורניה) pl:Gorączka złota w San Francisco simple:California Gold Rush