The California Gold Rush

Preface
It was here, in this sleepy valley, that the American Dream was re-defined. An accidental discovery near the obscure American River would forever change a young nation. The simple life would no longer be enough. In its place would come a new kind of lifestyle: entrepreneurial, wide-open, free. The new American dream: to get rich; to make a fortune--quickly.

Instant wealth was here for the taking. All across America, young men made the decision to go to California.

Every city, every hamlet would send its brightest, its strongest, to California--and eagerly await their triumphant return home. They came from Europe, Asia, and South America in search of instant riches. It was one of the greatest adventures the world had ever seen.

Discovery
In the early 1840s, California was a distant outpost that only a handful of Americans had seen. The sleepy port that would become San Francisco had just a few hundred residents.

One of the wealthiest people in the region was John Sutter--an affable Swiss immigrant who came to California in 1839, intent on building his own private empire. Sutter soon built a fort, amassed 12,000 head of cattle, and took on hundreds of workers. His most prolific crop was debt. He owed money to creditors as far away as Russia. But Sutter was a man with a dream; a dream of a vast agricultural domain that he would control.

By the mid 1840s, more and more Americans were trickling into California by wagon and ship. Sutter welcomed the newcomers--he saw them as subjects for his self-styled kingdom. But Sutter had no idea that the trickle would become a flood--a deluge of humanity that would destroy his dream.
Sutter's undoing began 50 miles northeast of his fort on the American River. In late 1847, James Marshall and about 20 men were sent to the river by Sutter to build a sawmill--to provide lumber for Sutter's growing ranch. The sawmill was nearly complete when a glint of something caught Marshall's eye. It was January 24th, 1848.

James Marshall
"I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold. The piece was about half the size and shape of a pea. Then I saw another."

After making the greatest find in the history of the West, Marshall and the other workers went back to work. But they kept stumbling upon more gold.

Still in disbelief, Marshall took samples back to Sutter's Fort. Sutter and Marshall tested the shiny metal as best they could--a tattered encyclopedia gave them clues. It was gold, they concluded--but neither man was happy about it. Sutter was building an agricultural fiefdom--he didn't want the competition that gold-seekers might bring. And Marshall had a sawmill to build--gold hunters would just get in his way. So they made a pact to keep the discovery a secret.

But it wasn't long before stories of gold filtered into the surrounding countryside. Yet there was no race to the American River. The news of Marshall's gold was just another fantastic tale--too unlikely to be believed.

The gold rush needed a booster, and Sam Brannan was the man. A San Francisco merchant, Brannan was a skilled craftsman of hype. Eventually, the gold rush would make him the richest person in California--but Sam Brannan never mined for gold.
He had a different scheme--a plan he set into motion by running through the streets of San Francisco shouting about Marshall's discovery. As proof, Brannan held up a bottle of gold dust. It was a masterstroke that would spark the rush for gold--and make Brannan rich.

Brannan keenly understood the laws of supply and demand. His wild run through San Francisco came just after he had purchased every pick axe, pan and shovel in the region. A metal pan that sold for twenty cents a few days earlier, was now available from Brannan for fifteen dollars. In just nine weeks he made thirty-six thousand dollars.
Fever

By the winter of 1848, whispers of a gold strike had drifted eastward across the country--but few easterners believed. It was an age when rumors were discounted--and government officials were revered. The gold discovery needed validation, and President James Polk delivered just that in early December, 1848:

President James Polk: "The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are of such extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they not corroborated by authentic reports of officers in the public service."  

Polk's confirmation reached deep into the soul of millions. His simple words were a powerful call to action. Farmers left their fields; merchants closed their shops; soldiers left their posts--and made plans for California. Newspapers fanned the fires.

Horace Greeley the of New York Tribune: "Fortune lies upon the surface of the earth as plentiful as the mud in our streets. We look for an addition within the next four years equal to at least One Thousand Million of Dollars to the gold in circulation." 

By early 1849, gold fever was an epidemic. Discussions of gold could be heard at nearly every kitchen table in the nation. Young men explained to their wives that a year apart would be worth the hardship.

Miner Melvin Paden: "Jane, I left you and them boys to procure a little property by the sweat of my brow so that we could have a place of our own-that I might not be a dog for other people any longer."

They said their goodbyes and streamed west in unison--thousands of young adventurers with a collective dream--a year of pain in return for a lifetime of riches. They were dubbed "forty-niners" because they left home in 1849. When they would return, was another matter entirely.

The Journey
The departing gold-seekers faced an immediate problem. California was a long way from home. There was no railroad to whisk them west; no river to float them to California. Instead, the journey would be a painful test of endurance.

There were two miserable choices. The sea route around the tip of South America often took more than six months. But the alternative wasn't much better--a 2,000 mile walk across the barren American outback. The sea route was favored by gold seekers from the eastern states. Seasickness was rampant; food was full of bugs, or worse-rancid. Water stored for months in a ship's hold was almost impossible to drink. And then there was the boredom--months and months at sea with nothing to do, except dream about gold. The wait was intolerable.

To satisfy the growing thirst for speed, a quicker route was soon employed across Panama. It seemed like a logical shortcut. But traversing the rain forests of Central America in the 1840s was an adventure in itself. Malaria and cholera were common. Those who survived to see the Pacific faced another dilemma--they were stranded. Ships to ferry them up the coast to San Francisco were rare. And so the forty-niners waited for weeks--or months, in overcrowded, disease-infested coastal towns.

For Americans who lived in the central states, there was another way west--a well-worn path carved out several years earlier: the Oregon-California Trail. The overland road was much shorter than the sea route, but it wasn't faster. Most had no idea how severe the overland journey would be.

All they could think about was gold as they plodded westward alongside covered wagons at two miles per hour--for up to six months. The first weeks on the trail took the adventurers along the Platte River, past landmarks like Chimney Rock, Courthouse Rock, and Scotts Bluffs.

Military outposts like Ft. Laramie were most important as post offices--places to send letters to eager families back home--heartfelt letters of optimism and hope.

Scottsbluff, Nebraska
Anonymous 49er: "The reports of the gold regions are as encouraging here as they were back in Massachusetts. Just imagine yourself seeing me return with $10,000 to $100,000."

As they pushed further west, optimism was replaced by fear of the Native American tribes along the Trail. But after the initial contact, fear often turned to friendliness.

The real danger of the overland journey wasn't Native Americans--it was water. That is, the lack of water. The last few hundred miles were especially difficult.

Merrill Mattes, author "The Great Platte River Road" "Along the Humboldt and Carson Rivers you reach a point where there is no water at all for long stretches and you would die of thirst. Your tongue would blacken and you would drop dead, and there were lots of accounts to that effect. Well, so some smart cookies back in California got wind of this and they came out with their buckets and barrels filled with water and they would sell the water for $1.00 a glass, or whatever--as much as they could get away with."

The price for water could go as high as $100 per drink. Those without money--were sometimes left to die. It was a lesson in supply and demand that would be repeated many times over in frontier California.

Gold Country
Most of the world's gold is locked deep underground--embedded in hard rock. But California gold was different--easily accessible to anyone with a few simple tools and a willingness to work hard. Also unique was the political environment. California became a part of the United States just a few days after Marshall's discovery; and so the gold rush came before any meaningful government could be established. It was an unlikely intersection of anarchy and geology. Unlike anywhere else, the gold in California was easy to get and free for the taking.

It was free--and it was plentiful. Soon there was too much money in California and too little of everything else. The lessons of supply and demand were often painful. A forty-niner who earned a dollar a day back home, could make twenty-five dollars in a day of mining--but that was often just enough to buy dinner.

It wasn't just Sutter's gardens that were raided--by the end of 1849, his grand empire had collapsed completely. Sutter did not have the entrepreneurial spirit of the new Californians and he didn't have gold fever. He wanted an agricultural empire and refused to alter his vision. In the new California, Sutter was simply in the way. The 49ers literally trampled his crops and tore down his fort for the building materials. Dejected, disillusioned, he eventually left the state. The man who had the best opportunity to capitalize on the discovery of gold--never even tried.

Instead, California was filling up with a very different kind of businessman--and it was filling up fast. Camps sprouted up and evolved into ramshackle boomtowns to serve the growing population--places with accurate names like: Hangtown, Gouge Eye, Rough and Ready, and Whiskeytown. Places to avoid--were it not for the gold. Places that were wild, open, free.

The class society of the east was gone and opportunity was everywhere. It was pure freedom, and a pure free market. People who had a skill were in demand regardless of who they were. Women, for example, who couldn't earn much money back home, found their domestic skills had considerable value here.

Part of the reason they could charge so much for their talents was the fact that women were rare in the early gold rush days.

Women weren't the only ones to realize the entrepreneurial opportunities of California. People from all walks of life quickly understood that there was just as much money to be made serving the miners as there was digging for gold. A steamboat operator could earn 40,000 dollars in a single month--a chicken farmer could sell each precious egg for fifty cents.

King of the wheeling, dealing entrepreneurs was Sam Brannan. The man who pulled the trigger on the gold rush was expanding his sphere of influence--and earning unheard of profits. While miners talked of gold, Brannan shrewdly bought up carpet tacks-- every tack in California. By cornering the market, he could extort huge profits, a technique he executed flawlessly--over and over. But Brannan was only the first in a long line of entrepreneurs who made their fortunes without digging for gold.

In 1853--according to legend--this man stitched a pair of pants out of canvas; sturdy pants that later became popular with the miners--very popular. His name: Levi Strauss.
But during the gold rush, Strauss was best known for his prosperous dry good business. It wasn't until 1872 that he added a critical innovation to canvas pants, the metal rivet--a breakthrough that would change the course of American fashion.

This New York butcher decided one day to walk to California. Eventually, he opened a meat market in Placerville--and later took his profits to Milwaukee, where he set up a meat processing plant. His name was Phillip Armour, and the Armour meat packing company became one of the nation's largest.

Armour's neighbor in Placerville, was an enterprising wheelbarrow maker who dreamed of bigger things. After saving every dime for six years, he left California for his home in Indiana. There, he plowed his profits into the family wagon-making business. The man's name was John Studebaker--and the family enterprise would go on to build covered wagons for the Oregon-bound pioneers, and later--automobiles.

These two businessmen also looked west and saw opportunity. Sensing the unsettled atmosphere in California--they offered what many miners desperately wanted: stability. The offered secure, honest banking, transportation, even mail delivery. They were Henry Wells and William Fargo. Their company, Wells Fargo, became a giant in the banking industry.

The most famous celebrity of the gold rush era came to California as a complete unknown and took a job writing for the San Francisco Call. It wasn't long until his fanciful story about a frog jumping contest in nearby Calaveras County thrust him into the national spotlight. His name: Samuel Clemens--Mark Twain.

Clemens boss at the Call was also destined to become a best-selling author, Brett Harte. Unlike Clemens, Harte wrote almost exclusively about western characters--colorful stories about miners, bandits, and gamblers. His tale of an orphaned baby adopted by a group of rough miners would make him famous and rich.

For every famous success, there were a thousand smaller stories of people who used their wits, not their shovels-- to find a fortune. Creative entrepreneurs were everywhere--looking for a new angle--a new way to make money, more money.

In 1848 and early 49, everyone was making money--but the party didn't last forever. For most miners, it didn't last very long at all.

Despair
By mid 1849, the easy gold was gone--but the 49ers kept coming. There was still gold in the riverbeds, but it was getting harder and harder to find. A typical miner spent 10 hours a day knee-deep in ice cold water, digging, sifting, washing. It was backbreaking labor that yielded less and less.

As panning became less effective, the miners moved to more advanced techniques for extracting the precious metal. But it was a losing battle as the gold reserves were declining and the number of miners was increasing dramatically. The atmosphere of friendly camaraderie so prevalent a year or two earlier, was all but gone by 1850. Forty-niners who expected to make their fortune in a few days found themselves digging for month after month--year after year--with little to show for the effort. Frustration and depression was rampant.

Out of despair, many 49ers turned to poker and other forms of gambling in hopes of snatching the quick fortunes that had eluded them in the rivers. When that didn't work, many turned to crime. Jails, unnecessary a few years earlier, were soon filled. Hangings became common--almost matter of fact.

49er John Bucroft: "I take this opportunity of writing these few lines to you hoping to find you in good health. Me and Charley is sentenced to be hung at five o'clock for a robbery. Give my best to Frank and Sam."

Many gave up the dream and went home to the east. Others stayed on--just one more year they hoped. One more year and they'd strike it rich. And there were the occasional lucky strikes well into the 1850s--just enough good news to encourage the masses to continue digging. Most failed every day, but they kept on--year after year. Dejected, disappointed, many would never return home to loved ones back east--they would die in California, broken by a dream that never came true.

Collision of Cultures
The California gold rush was not merely an American happening--it was a world event. Many mines, especially in the south, were worked by foreigners who came solely for the gold. Chinese, Chileans, Mexicans, Irish, Germans, French, and Turks all sought their fortune in California.

Like their American-born counterparts, foreign miners had no intention of staying in California. Their goal was to get the gold and get home. But hauling gold out of the country was a difficult operation--bandits often preyed on foreigners. The Chinese had a unique solution.

As gold became less plentiful, resentment towards foreigners grew. Under pressure, the California legislature passed the Foreign Miners Tax in 1850, a $20 per month levy payable by every foreign miner--a tax which only fueled the growing fire of ethnic resentment.

Many foreign miners refused to pay the tax and left the country. Others, like the Chinese, stayed in California, in mining--or in more traditional jobs in the metropolitan culture that was developing. Although there were ethnic skirmishes, most of these new residents thrived. If you had something to contribute, California would take you in. Almost instantly, the state had assembled the most diverse ethnic culture in the world.

Yet one ethnic group did not do well--the original residents of California's gold country: Native Americans. Uninterested in gold or in mining--they were almost immediately annihilated.

African Americans fared surprisingly well. Southerners who brought their slaves to help in the digging quickly found out that 49ers didn't take kindly to that idea--but it wasn't because of an opposition to slavery. The miners had quite a different reason for objecting.

In 1850, California was admitted to the Union as a free state--adding to eastern tensions that would lead to the Civil War. But few in California cared much about the slavery question. There was still but one thing on the minds of nearly everyone here--money. And money was becoming harder and harder to find.

Changes
As the gold became more difficult to extract, profound changes in California took root. By the early 1850s, a single miner could no longer work his claim alone. He needed help and he needed technology.

At first, miners banded together in informal companies to dam the rivers, reroute the water and expose the gold underneath. But soon even more capital-intensive measures were needed to extract the gold and the loose knit groups of miners were replaced by corporations. By the mid 1850s, most of the miners who remained were employees, a way of life they found distasteful but necessary.

The new mining corporations developed extraction techniques that were frighteningly efficient-- techniques that destroyed the rivers and caused California's first environmental disasters. Massive derricks lifted rock and sand--obliterating the formerly pristine rivers.

The worst of the large scale mining techniques came in 1853: hydraulic mining. Huge jets of water tore apart the walls of the riverbeds--jets so powerful, they could kill a man two-hundred feet away. By the 1860s it was clear that hydraulic mining was destroying the landscape, but little was done to stop it. Californians still had an attitude of exploitation--an attitude the miners had from the beginning.

It took over thirty years to ban hydraulic mining--thirty years to change California's attitude of exploitation. The rivers of northern California would never return to their pristine state. But then no part of California would be the same after the gold rush.

San Francisco
The focus of change--and growth--in gold rush California was the once-tiny hamlet of San Francisco. Only a few hundred people lived there in the 1840s, but the discovery of gold brought unimaginable growth. The city soon averaged 30 new houses and two murders each day. A plot of San Francisco real estate that cost $16 in 1847, sold for $45,000 just 18 months later. In less than two years the city burned to the ground six times. But there was always money to rebuild it bigger and better. Nearly a half-billion dollars worth of gold passed through the city in the 1850s--and everyone wanted their share.

Newly-rich miners regularly came down from the hills to the new metropolis of San Francisco. They were hungry for fun--any kind of fun.

Samuel Clemens: "They were rough in those times! They fairly reveled in gold, whiskey, fights, and fandangoes, and were unspeakably happy. The honest miner raked in from a hundred to a thousand dollars out of his claim a day, and what with the gambling dens and other entertainments, he hadn't a cent the next morning if he had any type of luck."

Thousands of merchant profiteers were more than willing to help separate a miner from his gold--merchants like Sam Brannan. By the mid 1850s, the man who started it all owned much of downtown San Francisco. By 1856, his income was nearly a half-million dollars. Brannan was the richest man in California, he even issued his own currency. Sam Brannan represented the new California--bold, opportunistic, entrepreneurial.

Gold was a magnet that brought people--dynamic, energetic people--from all over the world. This vibrant mix quickly turned San Francisco into a cultural mecca, with theater, opera, and more newspapers than any city but London. The city became the envy of the world--thanks to a collision of cultures that became its greatest strength.

Impact
Although the gold in the California hills eventually ran out--the impact of the gold rush era lives on. California was shaped by the adventurers who stayed--to form the idea that is California today: a place that accepts and nurtures risk takers.

John Sutter never saw the opportunity of gold. He couldn't alter his vision--and left the state. But as Sutter and those like him departed, the new Californians came and kept coming. People who could adapt to constant changes; people who saw opportunity at every corner; people who longed for a more exciting life, and weren't afraid to grab it.

It was a dream that precious few ever actually realized--but it's a dream that lives on.

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