John Putnam
The California gold rush, the cherry on America’s dreams of manifest destiny—the concept that this country should stretch from sea to shining sea—began January 24, 1848 when James Marshall found gold in the millrace of a sawmill he was building in partnership with John Sutter in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Although the war with Mexico had been settled in California no treaty between the United States and the Mexican government had yet been signed. Legally California was in a completely unsettled situation, neither Mexican nor American.
There were less than ten thousand people of European descent in California at the time. After word of the huge amounts of gold finally reached the east coast, and then the rest of the world, as many as one hundred thousand people made the difficult journey to the gold fields by the end of 1849 and many, many more were still to come. It was the greatest spontaneous mass migration in human history.
These posts are a product of my interest in this colorful, impulsive and mostly unsung era. I seek the threads that led to the great growth of the United States with institutions like the early Wells Fargo operations that grew into the bank we know today and the Pacific Mail Steamship Line that still plies the seas as American Presidential Lines. The saloons, a prominent feature in every western movie, got their start in the bawdy gambling houses of the gold rush. The lynch mobs that were a recurring theme in those same western films began with the desperate attempts to bring law and order to a wild land filled with wealth that attracted both the finest of men and the lowest of criminals and all in an astoundingly short time.
Please add your comments, feelings and impressions on what you find here. I hope you enjoy the stories I’ve dug up on this remarkable time in our history.
John Putnam is the author of Hangtown Creek, a thrilling saga of adventure, romance, and coming of age in the early days of the California gold rush, available in softcover, as well as for kindle and nook.
Thanks for all of the info. I am teaching the gold rush in my 8th grade history class and my students are going to love some of these stories.
Happy to help out, Patrick. The gold rush was a remarkable time in our history.
Thank you for your work. We are visiting CA and wondering if you’ve ever heard of Logtown. An ancestor of my husband wrote letters home from there in 1851. He died of Chagres fever traveling home to MO by boat. Is Logtown really Mariposa CA today? Is there much to be seen there? Kathy
Thanks for writing Kathy. You are right about Logtown, I think. There was a Logtown near Mariposa that eventually merged with today’s city. But there were many settlements, or camps, in the early gold rush and a lot had similar names. Most lasted only a short time and were abandoned when the gold played out.
I’m sorry about what happened to your husband’s relative. A lot of men must have gotten sick crossing Panama. I’ve had a surprising number of people write me about kin who died.
Hello John,
Researching my family history and tracing my ancestor, William Jewell, who was born in 1820 in England, I was excited to find what I believe is the first census mention of him in the US: 1850, “On the middle fork of the American River, County of Eldorado, California, enumerated 23rd January 1850. Listed as miners are Francis Jewell, age 26, Edwin Jewell, age 23, William Jewell, age 30, and George Jewell, Age 32 (though George’s birthplace is listed as “Atlantic Ocean”. Edwin and William both ended up later in Illinois – haven’t found Francis or George yet.
Would you happen to know anything about these men or have clues to where I might find more information?
Thank you!
Rosemary (Jewell) Nordstrom
Rosemary I think it is wonderful you found this mention in the 1850 census. If you can I would go by the county library in Placerville. They have a lot of information on the early gold rush in that area and are very helpful. If you don’t find what you are looking for there, they may be able to suggest other options.
Hello,
I am a student teacher from California Lutheran University. I am emailing on behalf of me and two of my student teacher cohorts to see if you be able to help us complete a homework assignment by asking some questions to from expert through email. We are currently doing a comprehensive unit on the Gold Rush and early California History, and we wanted to find out information from experts. Any contributions would greatly be appreciated. The following are some questions we would love to find out from an expert.
1) Why do you think it important for children to learn about the Gold Rush?
2)How did you get interested in this time period/part of our state’s history?
3)How do you think it changed California’s history?
4)What repercussions did the Gold Rush have on our developing state?
5) How did the Gold Rush affect the economy of California and its early settlers?
6) What were economic conflicts between diverse groups of people in early California?
7) Any other information you think would be helpful to share with us.
We really appreciate any and all assistance to complete our comprehensive unit on this subject.
Thank you,
R.B.
The California gold rush was one of the most dynamic periods in American history. Estimates are from 80 to 100,000 people came to California in 1849 alone, the largest spontaneous migration in human history. California became the cornerstone of the principal of Manifest Destiny, the idea that America should stretch from sea to sea. Gold provide a catalyst to speed up a settlement process that otherwise would have taken much longer to occur. In the early 1850s the port of San Francisco imported more goods than any other port in America except New York City.
Gold was the principal product of California industry for many years. There was no paper money. Mining gold was the same as mining cash. California greatly boosted the wealth of the entire United States. The official word of gold in California didn’t arrive on the east coast until the end of 1848. In 1850 California was made a sovereign state in the union. No other state has ever matched that record. It shows how important that gold was to those in Washington.
There were racial rivalries to be sure, first against the Mexicans and anyone else who spoke Spanish and then against the Chinese, but in spite of that California was a true melting pot. The foreign miner laws were a blot on her record however. Yet in a very short span of time people came to California from all across the world. And because of the growing need to supply an ever increasing economy, trade across the Pacific Ocean continually expanded even up to modern times.
Except for times of war America has never seen a period so robust as those years between 1849 and 1856. The need to improve travel from east to a rapidly growing California spurred Abraham Lincoln to approve construction of the transcontinental railroad and at last the entire western half of the country was accessible to everyone. The California gold rush was indeed a big deal for America.
Thanks for writing. I hope I’ve answered some of your questions.
Hi,
I want to know if the miners that are mining became rich.
please reply. thx
by,
Gabrielle
Hi Gabrielle,
In a way this is a hard question. Some miners became very rich while others never found any gold at all. Some men came to mine and found it easier to make money doing other things like selling food and supplies to the miners. But generally, in the first few years of the gold rush, anyone who applied himself did well. I hope that answers your question.
Thank you for writing,
John Putnam