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The Economic Impact Of The California Gold Rush In California

1063 Words5 Pages

Iris Phillips
Mrs. Doerr
ELA
10 February 2023
California Gold Rush Even after the Gold Rush, the effect it had influences California even today. The state is known for how many economic opportunities are present, which all stemmed from the gold rush. For many years, people have tried to reach the “Californian Dream.” This is how California got its name “Golden State.” The California Gold Rush was something that changed American history and California forever.
The gold rush started on January 24, 1848, when James W. Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill while working for Sutter. They tried to keep it a secret, but they failed in doing so (History.com Editors 2010 California Gold Rush, History.com. A&E Television Networks). In 1848, Sutter …show more content…

The early arrivers or “forty-eighters” received much profit considering how they got ahold of the gold before others had taken it. “Only a small number (probably fewer than 500) traveled overland from the United States that year. Some of these "forty-eighters", as the earliest gold-seekers were sometimes called, were able to collect large amounts of easily accessible gold—in some cases, thousands of dollars worth each day” (California Gold Rush, Wikipedia). But 1949 is when the real gold rush started. Approximately 300,000 people from around the world went to California in hopes of finding gold. These “forty-niners” faced trouble, such as starvation, dehydration, and fights with other prospectors (California Gold Rush, …show more content…

Prospectors took their land as well as their supplies. In retaliation, they killed some of the white settlers. That started a cycle, where natives killed settlers and settlers killed natives. But due to the fact the natives were outnumbered and outgunned, they were demolished quickly. Multiple tribes were wiped out easily. The ones that did survive often died of starvation because of the lack of supplies. Between 1849 and 1870, approximately 4,500 natives were killed. Some natives were even exploited for work (California Gold Rush,

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The California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush was a period when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. It was in the year of 1848. The Gold Rush was important because James W. Marshall found the gold, John Sutter kept the secret and lead on with the discovery, and Samuel Brannan was an important buyer and seller of the gold. James W. Marshall was trying to solve problem that prevented the water from flowing forcefully enough to keep the water wheel turning properly.

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At the time no one believed there was gold in California. On the 28th later that week Marshall rode into to town and had the metal tested at it turned out to be gold. Starting from that moment the word that gold had been discovered in this new frontier known as California started a world-wide craze. People traveled from the farthest of places to seeking fame and fortune in the new world. From 1848 to 1856 around $456 million dollars in gold had been discovered in California.

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On January 24, 1848 James Wilson Marshall found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. Marshall was a carpenter from New Jersey working on a water-powered sawmill owned by John Sutter, a German-born Swiss man who founded the colony of New Switzerland, later to be known as Sacramento. Marshall and Sutter tried to keep the news of the discovery out of the public ear, but word got out, and around March, at least one newspaper was out reporting of gold being discovered at Sutter’s Mill. At first, when the news hit San Francisco, there was disbelief about the discovery until a storekeeper, Sam Brannan, shocked the public with a vial of gold from Sutter’s Mill.

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“Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush.” Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush, 2 Oct. 2017, Historical Impact of the California Gold Rush LO, C. “From Gold Rush to Golden State : Early California History: An Overview : Articles and Essays : California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 : Digital Collections : Library of Congress.” From Gold Rush to Golden State, The Library of Congress, n.d., https://www.loc.gov/collections/california-first-person-narratives/articles-and-essays/early-california-history/from-gold-rush-to-golden-state/ John Umbeck, “The California gold rush: A study of emerging property rights”, Explorations in Economic History, Volume 14, Issue 3, 1977, Pages 197-226, ISSN 0014-4983, https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4983(77)90006-7,

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Roberts, Brian. American Alchemy: The California Gold Rush and Middle-Class Culture. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. The California gold rush of 1849 set a foundation of California's future success. Through a boosting the economy, the gold rush made cali a profit making state.

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The initial reason the gold rush wasn't beneficial for California is because the miners were treated poorly. In the early period of the gold rush, the federal government had control over the majority of the mining. This was particularly upsetting for the miners, because nearly every ounce of gold belonged to the federal government. This means they most likely had to struggle to get the resources they needed, such as food or shelter, because they had no way of paying for it. Additionally, according to the text, The Magic Equation, "The gold-fields were located in California on the public domain.

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In this time California accumulated over 300,000 people that left their homes to mine for gold. If the gold rush never happened California would most likely belong to Mexico and the U.S. would only have 49 states. The California Gold Rush, a phenomenon that drew thousands of people trying to strike it rich with gold,

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the city San Francisco “became the most cosmopolitan city in America, with large numbers of French, Germans, Americans, Mexicans, and Chinese,” (Gillon 69). This shows that the Gold Rush attracted immigrants from all around the world to California which caused the city to become more diverse and more cultures were practiced throughout California. California became more diverse because of the Gold Rush. In conclusion, the Gold Rush had a positive impact on American History because Americans grew in wealth and California became more diverse.

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C. The gold rush affected many other things in California as well. a. San Francisco’s newspaper was closed due to all the employees quitting their jobs to gold mine. b. California became a state of the U.S. after the California Gold Rush occurred. c. Because California was so new to the U.S., there was no governing rule in the state, this meant that robberies were common and there was not much the people could do about it.

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The California Gold Rush was a rush of people in search of gold in California. The gold was discovered in the Sacramento Valley in early 1848 which sparked the gold rush. The rush was a huge influence in how America was shaped into what it is today. It shaped California into what it is today. Without this gold rush California would be like it is today but it would have taken way more years and it wouldn’t be such a diversely populated state.

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It left behind many legacies, ideas, and opinions. If the California Gold Rush never happened, perhaps California wouldn 't be a state and most definitely wouldn 't be the diverse area it is today. In California there is diversity, economy, and hope which wouldn 't be here if it weren’t for new races migrating to California. On the flipside, without the Gold Rush California would have a more stable population of Native Americans in California, and it would have mountains and rivers that we don 't have today. The California Gold Rush did, however, change the United States and the American Dream

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