Life Changes in California, June 1848

By the beginning of June 1848 there were around 2,000 miners in the Sierra Nevada foothills above Sutter’s Mill. Most of these men had been in California when gold had been found, as the news was just reaching the far edges of the territory. San Francisco practically emptied in the […]

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Gold Fever: News of the Gold Rush Explodes

Although James Marshall found gold on the north fork of the American River in late January 1848, and the news reached San Francisco by mid-March, the gold fever didn’t really start in San Francisco until mid-May. Samuel Brannan was largely responsible for the delay in spreading the word of the […]

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