Hundreds of millions of years ago, California lay at the bottom of a large sea; underwater volcanoes deposited lava and minerals (including gold) onto the sea floor.
“By tectonic forces these minerals and rocks came to the surface of the Sierra Nevada and eroded. Water carried the exposed gold downstream and deposited it in the gravel beds along the sides of old rivers and streams.” It was near one of these streams on the American River that James Marshall found a golden nugget. He was building a lumber mill for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter. Sutter wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold. Gold was found in January of 1848 and unfortunately, rumors of the discovery were confirmed by the New York Herald in August and U.S. President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold to Congress in December.
“The California Gold Rush was the largest mass migration in American history.” People from Oregon, Hawaii, and Latin America were the first to hear the news and first to arrive. Then the rest of the U.S., Europe, Australia and China followed. They mainly arrived in 1849 and were given the nickname ‘forty-niners.’ Louise Clapp came to San Francisco with her husband at that time. In a letter written to her sister she wrote “What with its many-costumed, many-tongued, many-visaged population; its gay stores where the richest productions of every nation can be found; and its wild free, unconventional style of living, it possesses, for the young adventurer, especially, a charm.” Louise’s husband was a doctor who settled in Rich Bar on the Feather River where he ministered to Swedes, Chileans, Frenchmen, Mexicans, Indians, Hawaiians, Englishmen, Italians, Germans, American blacks and Mulatto. “Most men at Rich and Indian Bar could not speak more than one language fluently although some tried.”
At first, gold could be picked up from the ground but later it was recovered from streams and rivers with the use of pans. Some chose to hunt for gold in bedrock crevices. They dug ‘coyote holes’ into the sides of the hills, creating tunnels to get to the bedrock. They might excavate river beds after the river was diverted and use ‘rockers’ to separate gold dust from sand and rocks. When gold reserves got harder to reach they “used hydraulic mining although it was environmentally damaging.”
At the beginning, property rights in the gold fields weren’t covered by law. People staked claims. In many places the labors of excavation were extremely difficult because of the immense rocks in the soil. No man could work a claim like that alone and for that reason “they would congregate in companies of four or six, generally designating themselves by the name of the place from whence the majority of the members had emigrated; for example, the Illinois, ‘Bunker Hill,’ ‘Bay State,’ etc., companies.” Miners only worked a claim only long enough to determine its worth. If it was deemed low in value, miners would abandon the site in search of a better one. “In the case where a claim was abandoned or not worked upon, other miners would “Claim Jump” the land. Disputes were often handled personally and violently.”
By 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected. With gold increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the gold that remained. “California State Legislature passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month ($600 per month as of 2019).” American prospectors began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly Latin Americans and Chinese. “Chinese miners suffered enormously, enduring violent racism from white miners who aimed their frustrations at foreigners.” They were detained for months on end at Angel Island trying to immigrate into the country. Further animosity led to legislation such as the Chinese Exclusion Act. “Whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold seekers.”
The gold rush resulted in hasty development of California. Many roads, churches, schools and towns were built to accommodate the gold diggers. Agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the territory to meet the needs of the settlers. It helped speed up the admission of California into the U.S. as a state in 1850. “San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852.” Merchants prospered. “The wealthiest man in California during the early years of the rush was Samuel Brannan a shopkeeper and newspaper publisher. He opened the first supply stores in Sacramento, Coloma and other spots in the gold fields. Just as the rush began he purchased all the prospecting supplies in San Francisco and resold them at a substantial profit.”
Levi Strauss, featured in the “Dreamers and Doers” Exhibit at KYGMC, was a Bavarian immigrant who saw opportunity in the face of the Gold Rush era. With the help of Jacob Davis, who was born in Latvia and emigrated to the U.S., he helped make sturdy blue jeans that could withstand the activity in the gold fields. Women also came for varied reasons. Some came with their husbands, some widows and single women came for adventure and economic opportunities that broke from tradition. They opened boarding houses, sewing and laundry establishments and restaurants, not to mention brothels. Wells Fargo opened their first San Francisco bank in 1852.
Causes and consequences of migration and how it is influenced by cultural, economic and environmental factors are just some of the themes the museum focuses on in the current exhibition. Come pan for gold or meet Annie Moore, the first immigrant who passed through Elis Island. If you want to keep up with our exhibits and events, like us on facebook (www.facebook.com/kygmc), follow us on Instagram @kygmcmaysville, and visit our website at www.kygmc.org.
Readers may email questions to Hixson@kygmc.org @ The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, Maysville, KY
