California Gold Rush
How did the California Gold Rush transform the nation?
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter found gold flakes in the American River at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada Mountains which is near Coloma, California at Sutter's Mill . Since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was just signed, that mean't the U.S. was in charge of California. The population only subsist of 157,000 people. Marshall and Sutter were trying to keep the gold finding somewhat a secret. Although after a while, the word got out and there was at least one newspaper explaining that there were large sums of gold found at Sutter's Mill. The first reaction that most people had was disbelief, but once Sam Brannan showed his gold nugget around people began to change there minds. In June, three-quarters of the male population of San Francisco left their homes and towns to come to mine for gold. In August there was 4,000 miners already. The first migrants to arrive when they heard the news of California having gold, they came in by boat from all over. Throughout 1849, men from all over began to prepare to travel to California. Some men used their life savings just to come to California. These men were usually young, they were seeking the wealth they've always dreamed of. They left their families behind, which mean't more responsibilities for the wife. She would now have to take care of the farm, garden, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children. Thousands of men became gold-seekers, or also known as forty-niners, and traveling by land and sea. There was over 120,800 non-natives living in California by the end of the year. People had created businesses, saloons, and stores looking for their own gold rush fortune. The Gold Rush definitely quickened California’s admission to the Union as the 31st state. After 1850, gold was becoming harder and harder to find. Working to find it wasn't any easier, it took skill and handwork. Mining took miners into wage labor. In 1853, hydraulic mining was developed and brought immense profits but it was destroying the landscape. Gold mining continued in California but it decreased over the years. However, the population was 380,000 by the end of the decade.