Much like the current pandemic, the California Gold Rush started at a specific epicenter and spread across the world.
James Marshall
We’re all familiar with the term “Forty-Niners” which originated with the hordes of people flocking to California in 1849 to seek their fortunes in the gold fields. I’ve described in previous posts that the Gold Rush really began in January 1848 with the discovery of gold near Sutter’s Mill. It took almost a year for verifiable reports of the gold finds to reach the East Coast, a slow process that I have also described in earlier posts (see here and here and here).
But how long did the Gold Rush last? How did it end?
There was no single event that halted the California Gold Rush in the same way that James Marshall’s discovery of a gold nugget started it. The extraction of gold from California peaked in 1852, and by that time, most of the surface gold had been found. After that point, miners could no longer make a profit working alone or with one or two partners. Large-scale mechanized and hydraulic mining became the only way to make money.
Moreover, as gold petered out in California, more lodes were discovered elsewhere in the West. In Oregon’s Rogue River Valley in 1851. In British Columbia throughout the 1850s. In Idaho in 1855. These finds drew people away from California in hopes of finding great fortunes, though none of these discoveries were as large as in California, and most miners did not strike it rich.
Some reports say the Gold Rush ended in 1855, others that it continued throughout the 1850s. To some extent, mining of gold and other minerals has continued both in the U.S. and around the world. Australia had its own Gold Rush in the 1850s and ’60s. And the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896 mirrored that of California some fifty years earlier, only with colder weather. The mine in South Dakota that I visited two years ago continued in operation until 2002.
Regardless of when or how it ended, the California Gold Rush changed that state, the nation, and the world forever. Only a small part of the change was the riches pulled from the ground. Most of the change resulted from commercial and social developments throughout the West. The infrastructure of society started with one nugget and continues to evolve today.
What small historical incidents do you think have had huge impacts on society?
