Roles of Women During the California Gold Rush
The vast majority of miners during the California Gold Rush were men. The census of 1850 showed that only 8 percent of the population in California was female. In fact, women were so scarce in the mining regions that a young man in Nevada City wrote, Got nearer to a woman this evening than I […]
Placer Mining in 1848-49
Last year I recounted the story of James Marshall finding a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848. He looked down into the mill race and saw the bright and glittering metal. Like Marshall’s original find, many of the early gold discoveries were made by men who simply spotted the precious metal in or […]
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 weeks after Sam Brannan ran […]
San Francisco Newspapers Report on Gold Discovery, and More Lodes Are Found
The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in California was first reported on March 15, 1848, in the Californian, a San Francisco newspaper. The article was buried on page 2 of the four page edition, and consisted of a single paragraph: Gold Mine Found In the newly made raceway of the Saw Mill recently erected […]
The Secret Is Out! News of Gold Spreads in California
As I wrote last month, the California Gold Rush began in late January 1848 when James Marshall found gold on Johann Sutter’s land near what is now Sacramento, California. At the time, California was still owned by Mexico, though the U.S. Army controlled it, and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was about to be signed, […]
California Gold Rush: Discovery of Gold at Sutter’s Mill
Most of us who have studied American history are aware of the Forty-Niners—those intrepid souls who in 1849 left their homes to seek their fortunes in the California Gold Rush. But the Gold Rush actually began in early 1848, when gold was found at Sutter’s Mill. Over the last two years, I have posted about […]