CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH
(1848-1852)
Discovery and the Forty-Niners
• First gold discovered on John
Sutter’s Mill, by James Marshall in
1848.
• After news broke thousands
flooded in to attempt to find gold
by 1849.
• 2/3 of forty-niners were
Americans, the rest came from
Mexico, South America, Europe,
Australia and China.
• Most forty-niners were young and
male
John Sutter
Journey to California
There were three ways to get to California
from United States…
1. Overland- cutting across the country
taking routes like the Oregon or Santa
Fe Trail.
2. By ship to Panama in Central America,
across dangerous jungles to the Pacific
side.
3. By ship around the horn of South
America
San Francisco
Travel hub between those traveling by
sea to get to California gold country
April 1848 population: 850
December 1849 population: 25,000
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Major growth
Culturally diverse
Lawlessness/ fighting
Illegal activities
Life in the Mining Camps
There was “a row of canvas tents, [months
later] there were two thousand men…and the
streets were lined with drinking saloons and
gambling tables.”
-Luzena Wilson, mining wife at Coyote
Diggings camp
• Fights over claim boundaries
• Often took “justice” into their own hands
“In the short space of twenty-four hours we
have had murders, fearful accidents, bloody
deaths, a mob, whippings, a hanging, and
attempt at suicide, and a fatal duel.”
-Louise Clappe
In the Field
Sluice for separation of gold
from dirt with water
Panning
Excavating a river bed after the
water has been diverted
• Hard, tedious work
• Long days (Approximately 16 hours) digging up mud, dirt, and stones while
standing knee-deep in icy streams
• “The day of quick fortune-making was gone. There are thousands of men now in
California who would gladly go home if they had the money.” –Miner, 1851
Chinese Immigrants
Between 1848-1852 more than 20,000 Chinese
immigrated to California (In 1852, 1 in 10
Californians was Chinese)
Originally welcomed by Californians!
Once mining became difficult attitudes towards
immigrants changed, especially the Chinese.
• 1852, state legislature passed law requiring
foreign miners to pay monthly fee to mine.
• Most immigrants left, Chinese immigrants paid
the tax and stayed
• Americans began to bully Chinese into leaving
(cutting their queues (braids) and burning their
shacks)
• Many Chinese then left the mines to open
businesses or begin farms.
Legacy
By 1852 the gold rush was over,
in that time 250,000 people flooded into California.
Positive Legacy
Negative Legacy
• By 1850, California had
• Native American population
enough people to become
dropped drastically from
the first state in the far west
warfare and disease
• Diverse group of both
(between 1848-1870
immigrants and emigrants
population went from
• Lots of economic
150,000 to 30,000)
opportunities
• Many Californios lost their
land to newcomers
• Over $2 billion worth of precious metals were extracted during the Gold Rush
• $81 million in gold was extracted by 1852 (then $45 million annually through 1857)
The Compromise of 1850
In late 1849, California applied to enter the
Union with a constitution preventing slavery,
provoking a crisis in Congress between
supporters of slavery and abolitionists.
According to the Compromise of 1850,
proposed by Kentucky’s Senator Henry Clay,
California was allowed to enter as a free state,
while the territories of Utah and New Mexico
were left open to decide the question for
themselves.
California becomes the 31st state!!