The California Gold Rush

January 24, 1848

• Discovery of gold nuggets in Sacramento Valley

• Population of non-natives 1848: 1,000• By 1849: 100,000• 1848-1852: $2 BILLION DOLLARS!

Discovery at Sutter’s Mill

James Wilson Marshall

1. American River at the base of Sierra Nevada Mtns, San Fransisco

2. Coloma, CA

3. Found just days after Treaty of G-H was signed

Journey by land

Journey spreads; by mid June ¾ of San Fran left to work in gold mines

Miners reach 4,000 by August

Polk spreads news of gold mine-starts “Gold Rush”

“ The accounts of abundance of gold are such an extraordinary character as would scarcely common belief were they not corroborated by the authentic reports of officers in the public service.”

‘49er’s Arrive

Throughout 1849 travelers (men) sell their things and head to CA 49’ers

Travelled by land and by sea

Est. pop by end of the year: 100,000

Techniques for retrieving gold

• At first a technique called panning was used to retrieve gold from streams and riverbeds.

• Hydraulic mining was later invented in California. This technique was created for larger scale gold mining

Lasting ImpactGold Mining towns

pop up

Overcrowded mining-led way to lawlessness

Prostitution

Gambling

Banditry

Violence

Bustling Economy

Entered as the 31st State

Troubles?

Slavery-entered as Free

Compromise of 1850: Proposed by Clay; CA would enter as Free, Utah/NM could choose how they entered

Industrialization drove more and more miners from independence into wage labor

1852: 81 million pulled yearly

1857: leveled off at 47 million

Gadsden Purchase 1853

• Last bit of territory gained to complete the US (minus Alaska, Hawaii)

• US pays Mexico $10 million dollars for strip (AZ/NM)

• James Gadsden; provided favorable route to CA by train

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2FzuPyFlY