The Gold Rush

One of the historic periods most well known in the United States is that of the Gold Rush. The Gold Rush in California officially begin in January of 1848, at which time a gentleman by the name of James Marshall working on a crew at the American river near Sacramento discovered a handful of gold nuggets. At the time, Marshall was working on a saw mill that was owned by John Sutter. The area around Sutter's Mill would soon be overrun by individuals overcome with gold fever. It is estimated that some half a million people came from around the world to search for gold in the American River, following the discovery.

It is quite amazing, but somehow the discovery of gold on the American River was not published until March 15th, at which time it was published by a San Francisco newspaper. Gold was subsequently found on the Trinity River and in a quartz mind in Mariposa County.

It would seem that at first Marshall was not quite positive of what he had discovered. He took samples of what he had discovered back to his employer at Sutter's Fort in order to verify whether the nuggets were in fact gold. Both men concluded that they were gold, but wisely decided to try to keep the discovery quiet in order to avoid the rush of people they suspected the discovery might bring. Never the less, stories began to leak out and eventually were published in The Californian.

At first it was difficult for many to believe that the discovery along the American River was actually true. Many supposed it to simply be a rumor. It was not until President Polk confirmed the discovery in December of 1848 that people actually began to rush into the area. The rush to search for gold in California soon reached epidemic proportions.

It has been frequently recounted that when stories reached the ears of farmers across the country, they flung down their tools and began to head west to California in order to mine for gold. As more and more people streamed into the area, they began to be known as forty-niners; primarily because that's the year in which they left home; although gold had first been discovered the previous year.

For most people, the search for gold proved to be anything but profitable. In fact, most of the people to make money during the time did so as merchants serving the needs of gold miners rather than actual gold discoveries. Individuals looking to travel to California to participate in the gold rush had to basic options; either taking the Overland route through the Oregon-California trail or opting for the sea route; an expensive and dangerous option.

During the next few years, as a result of the gold rush, prices in the area surrounding the American River skyrocketed and town that had formerly barely existed on the map grew into overcrowded cities. San Francisco, once a sleepy town, began its emergence into the modern city it is today. Within a two year time period the population of San Francisco grew from only one thousand people to some one hundred thousand, as a result of the gold rush. It was estimated that by December of 1849, the end of the gold rush, some 35,000 people had traveled by sea to San Francisco as a result of the gold rush and another 42,000 had traveled to the city by land.

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