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During the 1800s was a time for California to show the world about its qualities. California became U. S property Inl 848. Only two months prior a Gold nugget was found on John Sutter’s property in California. John Sutter new the worth of gold and new how many people it would attract having a thought that there was gold in California so he kept it a secret. He was more interested in farming and agriculture even though gold could potentially yield a greater profit.
What Sutter didn’t know was that in the near future, the secret of gold laying In California would get out. Samuel Brannan was a shop keeper in California and had customers from John Sutter’s saw mill come in and use gold for payment. Brannan caught on to this very quickly and realized gold was being found in California, so Brannan kept quiet for a while and bought every gold mining tool he could find. After that was done he took some gold that was in a glass Jar and ran down the streets of San Francisco yelling “Gold Gold” and telling everyone gold was being found In the American River.
All of San Francisco practically emptied leaving only 20 men in the small city at the time. They all left to Sutter’s fort to find gold. Of course every miner needed shovels and pic-axes and Brannan had all the tools in California so he sold each one for $250 or even $300 apiece. In only two months Brannan made over $250,000. There were only about 20,000 people in California during 1848, and most of them were Indian, Hawaiian, and Chinese. All the rivers near the Sierra Nevada were being mined and people were striking It rich, but It wasn’t until 1849 that all of the U. S new there was gold in California.
Before then people didnt know too much about it and what they should believe but then the president broadcasted that there was enough old in California to pay for the Mexican war 100 times over. That was it, the word was out and It spread like wildfire. Men were leaving their families to make way for California so they could get their share of the gold then come home to the wife and kids and give them anything they wanted. But it wasn’t as easy as It sounded, the gold rush was responsible for many deaths and people often lost everything they had. There was only a couple ways to get to California from the eastern side of the U.
S and that was either by boat or Wagon trail. Most at first went by boat and It was an awful haul. Boats had to go around the continent down and around South America or Panama were malaria killed many along with the long wait of a sea bearing trip. The other way was by wagon trail and even though It seemed like a closer trip, It was actually longer as far as days went and was Just or more dangerous as by sea. Not to mention most of the people that had their dreams set on finding gold new nothing about the wilderness nor had the skills to survive in the wild for days on out. Most didn’t know what was ahead of them.
The Trail went through the mountains and eventually the long Plain where water was scarce. As people fled into the state in search for gold It created a higher volume for everything else. More food was needed, 1 OF2 1849 the non-lndian populating was almost 100,000. Of those who made the long journey only some struck it rich. Due to the high volume of people coming to mine caused many problems like meals costing 5 to 10 dollars where back home people paid 1 dollar. The easy gold along the river banks were already picked up so more tactical ways were needed to extract it like slues boxes.
It was getting very difficult for the average man to make it happen himself. Immigrants from other countries even came for the gold. There were some from Europe and quite a few from China. The government decided to set a tax on all foreign minors, all non-whites fit the bill of $20 dollars a month which made many people who had to pay the bill angry. By 1852 the surface deposits had run dry and only people who had enough money and the right equipment could extract the gold from the ground with a profit. There were about 250,000 people that came to California and about 140,000 people had to leave due to failure.
There was on minor that thought of a plan that would change verything. He thought of a plan to use high pressured water to shoot on the mountain and would literally flush the gold out. This was called Hydraulic mining. This kind of mining was extremely bad for the environment and caused mountain’s to actually crumble to the ground. It was an extremely effective way to find gold but farmers attacked the government asking for restriction of this mining because of how bad it was ruining their farmland and they got the restriction of hydraulic mining banned in 1884. The Indians were hurt severely from the gold rush.
They were pushed out of there and, and most Indians were killed. They didn’t see any want for gold. To them it was worthless. The government actually sent men to kill Indians and forcing them out. The Indians could never win the battle between the white man’s greed for gold. The gold rush was pretty much the end for the Indians. The gold rush had a huge impact on California. California wouldn’t be the same today if none of it had ever happened. The gold rush characterizes the drive of man to risk everything for success. Of those who struck it rich or failed completely will be remembered as the 49ers.