The California Gold Rush

California had barely entered the United States as a territory when James Marshall, a carpenter working for John Sutter, discovered gold in the American River at the site of Sutter's new sawmill at Coloma  in 1848.   When word got out, a rush of fortune seekers descended on California. 

During the summer of 1848, the news spread up and down the West Coast, across the border to Mexico, and even to the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). Word also reached the Mississippi Valley and the Eastern states. Newspapers were filled with the accounts of men who claimed to have become rich overnight by picking gold out of California's wondrous earth. Then, in a message to the Congress of the United States in December, President James K. Polk confirmed the presence of gold in California. That winter, people from all walks of life set out for California. Many pawned their possessions to get there. The gold seekers, also known as Forty-Niners or Argonauts, joined the rush from as far off as Europe and Australia. Many Chinese also flocked to San Francisco to join in the gold rush. 

There were three routes to the goldfields. A Forty-Niner could go by boat to Panama, cross to the city of Panama, and then catch a boat to San Francisco. An alternative was to make the longer sea voyage around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America. The demand for passage was so great that old and undersized ships were pressed into service. A number of them sank in the treacherous waters off Cape Horn.

The cheapest route was using the various overland trails to California.  By far the greatest number of Forty-Niners walked or rode across the American continent.  Some used the Oregon and Mormon trails over the Great Plains. Others took the Santa Fe, Sonora, and other southern trails.  The spring rains made some of the trails almost impassable.  The rains were followed by an epidemic of the disease cholera, which killed thousands of the travelers. Nevertheless, by 1852 more than 200,000 gold seekers had managed to reach California.

Within a few years, the California Gold Country was alive with mining towns.   Wherever a gold strike was made, hundreds of miners, often called Forty-Niners would gather to stake their claims and build a camp.  Few women or children accompanied the miners to these communities.  The miners often lived in shanties constructed of old cloth tacked to wood frames.  Many miners' free time was devoted to drinking and gambling.   Prices soared in the boom economy. Boots sold for $20 a pair, eggs for 50 cents each, and potatoes fetched $1 a pound. 

The communities were lawless, disorlerly, and dirty.  Life was hard and the tools were simple.   Diseases such as dysentery, cholera, and small pox took the lives of many people. 

Sacramento thrived as a distribution and commercial center and  SanFrancisco boomed as the main port for the Pacific.  By 1850, the population had become so great that California was admitted to the union as a state.

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