CA Gold Rush - California Historical Society

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The California
Gold Rush
History through the
Collections Series
PA RT I
The Cali f orni a
H is to ri cal S oc i ety
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hen James Marshall picked up a
shiny bit of gold that cool January
morning in 1848, he was not the
first person in California to ever find the precious metal. The Native
American peoples of California had known about the existence of
gold in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for years, and there is an
account of gold being discovered in southern California a full six
years before James Marshall and his workers made their discovery.
W
Perhaps what gave James Marshall’s discovery importance was the timing. The
1840s was a decade of increasing change for California. Settlers from the eastern United
States had been moving into the California territory to take advantage of its rich land for
farming and cattle. Settlers, feeling resistant to the rule of the distant Mexican government, clashed with californios, native citizens of Mexican lineage, over land issues. By
1846, the U.S. was at war with Mexico, and in 1848, as part of the treaty that ended the
war, California became part of the United States.
In the rest of the United States there was a sense of expectancy and curiosity about
the new Western territories. California increasingly was looked to as a place of new
beginnings, new possibilities. It would only take a special moment or event
to turn that curiosity and hope into all-out excitement . . .
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n the morning of
January 24, 1848,
James Marshall wasted
no time getting to work
at his job as foreman of
John Sutter’s Mill. John
2
Sutter, who had estabdays, he and his workers tested the
lished a successful fortnuggets. Marshall pounded a nugget
like community at the
and it flattened out, just as gold should.
present-day site of
He had Mrs.Wimmer, the camp cook,
Sacramento, was
dip a nugget into a pot of lye.
q
planning to use his
The nugget came out unscathed,
lumber mill to
Lye:
just as gold should. Sure beyond
expand his empire. a harsh chem- doubt, Marshall hurried to tell
ical made
The mill was being
his boss, John Sutter, of the
from
wood
built along the
remarkable find.
ashes and
banks of the
used to make Marshall and Sutter tried at first
American River in
soap
to keep the discovery a secret.
the scenic, tree-covSutter knew that once the word
ered foothills of the Sierra
was out ,h is land would be
Nevada. On that cool
January morning, howev- overrun with gold
hunters. When
er, Marshall took no
a secret is as
notice of the beautiful mountain setting. His gaze was focused downward big as a river
however, it
as he inspected the channel of river
is
impossiwater. It was there, standing at the
ble to hide
channel, that Marshall saw the morning light sparkle off something shiny in it for long.
Word of the
the water. He scooped up some tiny,
gleaming nuggets, not much more than find made its
way down the
mere flecks.
mountains all
Marshall was fairly certain that he held the way to the sleepy
John Sutter
gold in his hand. Over the next few
town of San Francisco.
What
started
the Gold
Rush?
Above: Artist unknown, “The World in California”. Hutchings’ California
Magazine, 1857. Library collection. Right: Maker unknown, John Sutter.
Photography collection. Facing page, clockwise from top: John A. Todd,
James Wilson Marshall, ca. 1884. Photography collection, FN-13223, VIP05409.
Marshall in front of Sutter's Mill, gelatin silver copy photoprint from a daguerreotype. Artistic Source: Carleton E. Watkins after an 1849 daguerreotype attributed
to Robert Vance. Photography, Martin Behrman Collection, FN-12015, VIP01403.
Gold Nugget. Fine arts collection.
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Sam Brannan ,w ho had a supply
store at Sutter’s fort and would
later open a store at the mill
site ,s aw the chance to make
a fortune of his own by selling supplies to gold hunters
as they headed up to the
foothills. Brannan published
reports of the find in his San
Francisco newspaper, The
California Star, and visited several
popular gathering places in the city,
waving a jar of “Gold! Gold from the
American River!’’ Within days San
Francisco was seized with gold fever
and the town emptied of citizens as
everyone rushed to the hills.
In the eastern United States, rumors
and stories of California gold began to
circulate. Then, in his 1848 State of the
Union speech, President James K. Polk
confirmed the existence of gold in
California. If the president spoke of
gold, then the rumors and stories must
be true! Excitement swept throughout
the nation and beyond. The secret was
a secret no longer. The world was on
its way to California!
James Marshall
3
l
b
The Largest Nugget
Francisco Lopez
The largest gold nugget found in
the California Gold Rush weighed
195 pounds! Oscar Bennet, a
miner, wrote a letter to his
brother reporting that a 15
pound
nugget sold
for $3,250 in
1850. Imagine
what a
195-pound
nugget would
be worth today!
James Marshall was not the first person to find
gold in California. The first recorded gold discovery was in 1842. While gathering wild
onions for his lunch in the Placerita Canyon in
the southern portion of California, Francisco
Lopez noticed glimmering flakes of gold stuck
to the roots of the onions. Though his find did
not develop into a gold rush, there were miners
who came in search of gold in the Placerita
Canyon. In fact, the first 20 ounces of California
gold to be processed at the United States Mint
came from Francisco’s gold discovery.
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P
4
eople came to California in droves. They
came from nations all over
the globe: France,Australia, China, and Mexico, to
name a few. Ninety-thousand gold seekers came in
1849 alone, forever earning them the name “49ers.”
In the age before airplanes
and automobiles, most of
the gold seekers traveled
one of three main routes
to California:
1
From the Eastern
states and central
territories, people traveled
the Overland Route. The
majority followed the
California-Oregon Trail
out of Independence,
Missouri,while others
headed south along trails
such as the Santa Fe. The
overland journey was a
long, hard ordeal that took
from 5 to 7 months to
chose the Cape Horn Route, traveling
by steam or sailing ship around the tip
of South America and north to
California. The Cape Horn, like the
Overland route, was a long journey (6
to 8 months), and had its own set of
perils. Passengers suffered from overGold seekers living crowding, poor diet, and stormy seas
within reach of
that sometimes sank the ships.
the Atlantic coast often
complete. Traveling by
foot, horse, or wagon,
overlanders had to
endure extremities of
weather, scarce water, disease, and accidents.
How
Did
2
People
Get to
the Land
of
Gold?
Nathaniel Currier, The Way They Go to California, 1849. Lithograph. Fine arts collection, FN-00033.
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3
The most impatient gold seekers
chose a third, and supposedly
faster route, through the Isthmus of
Panama. A ship from the East Coast
would transport passengers
a
to Panama. Then, after crossIsthmus: ing the isthmus, east to west,
a narrow
travelers boarded a steamship
strip
at Panama City and headed
of land
north to San Francisco. The
whole journey took no more than a
couple of months. In truth ,c rossing
through miles of jungle and waterways
often proved more difficult than anticipated. Besides hardships such as heat,
humidity, mosquitoes, and malaria,
travelers, upon reaching Panama City,
often had to wait weeks before finding
space aboard a ship.
Overland, by sea, or through jungles:
whatever route they chos e ,w hatever
difficulties they faced, gold seekers
were determined to reach California
and mine the promises of wealth and
well-being.
z
California’s First
“Recycling Project“
Photographs of San Francisco
during the Gold Rush show a
waterfront crowded with dozens
of tall-masted ships. Most of
those ships were sitting abandoned. So great was the lure of
gold, as soon as a ship arrived
in the San Francisco harbor, the
entire crew would often run
away to the gold fields!
Even back then, Californians
knew better than to waste a
good resource. In San
Francisco, abandoned ships were hauled up on land and turned into stores,
warehouses, and hotels. The mast poles, lighting fixtures, and planking from
some ships were even transported to Benicia, California, for the construction
of California’s first capitol building!
Maker unknown, Panorama of San
Francisco, Spring 1851. Taken from
First and Howard Sts. Five of seven
whole plate daguerreotypes.
Photography collection. FN-08429.
t
Shreve, Treat, &
Eacret, The Clipper
Ship "Flying Cloud."
Calendar illustration
from a historic
wood-cut. Printed
by The Kennedy-ten
Bosch Company,
San Francisco.
Photography collection.
Clipper Ships
These long narrow ships with extra large sails got
their name from the term “clip’’ meaning “to move
swiftly.” Originally these fast ships carried tea
from China to the United States before the tea
spoiled. During the Gold Rush, clipper ships brought
many passengers around the Horn in 100 days or
less. The fastest trip around the Horn, from New
York to San Francisco took place in 1851 when the
clipper ship the Flying Cloud completed the journey
in 89 days.
5
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A
fter the long, difficult
journey to reach
California, gold seekers
arrived to discover that the
hardest part of their
adventure was about to
begin—finding the gold!
6
In the early years of the
Gold Rush ,m iners looked
for gold in the surface dirt
of riverbanks. Miners
soon figured out that
water, swirled over and
through a quantity of dirt,
would flush away the
lighter material, such as
sand, while the heavier
How did
people
live and
mine in
the land
of gold?
gold would settle to the
bottom of the container.
The first and most basic
container used by miners
for this process was a
shallow pan or basket.
Only a small amount of
dirt at a time, however,
could be sifted this way.
Miners invented larger
box containers, called
rockers and long toms, that allowed
them to sift greater quantities of dirt.
Most of the surface gold had been
found by the early 1850s, so miners
began digging deeper, using hydraulic
and hard-rock mining. For hydraulic
mining, water was channeled down
flumes (long, wooden canals) into
hoses attached to giant nozzles, called
monitors. Water shot out of the moni-
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tors at tremendous force, washing away entire
hillsides of soil
and releasing the
gold within.
Hard-rock mining
involved tunneling deep into the
earth to find layers of rock
embedded with
rich veins of gold.
Hunting for gold
by any method was hard work, and left
little time for anything else. Yet miners
did try to create a life for themselves in
the midst of their toils. Wherever more
than a few miners gathered to work
claims, a gold-rush town would spring
up. Dwellings were canvas tents or
roughly constructed shacks. Every
town had at least one camp store and
one drinking and gambling establishment. Drinking, gambling, and fighting were the main forms of recreation
for the weary miners. Occasionally
entertainers would travel to the larger
gold-rush towns to perform. Miners,
isolated for months from larger society,
would mob the performances, tossing
gold to the performers as an expression
of appreciation.
Separated from their families, working
hard, and rarely getting rich from their
labors ,m any of the gold seekers found
that the Gold Rush changed their lives
forever, and in the process, changed the
life of an entire state as well!
7
Facing page: Left: C. Nahl, “Mining for Gold in California.” Hutchings’ California Magazine, 1857. Library collection. Right: I.W. Taber, Man
’dressed to the nines’ uses a rocker to mine for gold. Albumen photoprint. Photography collection. FN-19327, VIP01205.
Above: Maker unknown, Mining in Nevada City, 1850. From a daguerreotype showing a 30-foot shaft for gold mining. Photograpny collection.
FN-24881. Below: Monitor drawing. "Hydraulic Gravel Mines of California." Photography collection. FN-12748.
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t
Oscar Bennet came to California
to mine for gold in 1849. In one
letter he reveals the lonely
reality of a miner’s life.
“If the suffering among
the thousands that
are here laying sick destitute of
friends and money was only
known at home, my word
for it, the emigration to this country
would be small to what it is now.’’
i
Lotta Crabtree
8
Left: Maker unknown, Group of Miners.
Daguerreotype. Photography collection. FN23581, VIP05302.
Above: Maker unknown, Lotta Crabtree.
Photography, Clift Collection.
Facing page: Maker unknown, View of
Dutch Flat, ca. 1860. Photography
collection. FN-1922.
As a child singer and dancer,
Lotta became very well
known and much loved in the
mining towns. In 1852 she
moved to Grass Valley, in the
gold country, and was soon
tutored in the performing arts by
Lola Montez, a glamorous,
eccentric and popular dancer
during the Gold Rush. Lotta
traveled all over the gold
country performing for
enthusiastic miners. As an adult,
she started her own touring
company and became the highest
paid American actress of her day.
In 1875 she presented San
Francisco with a fountain, known
as Lotta’s Fountain, which still
stands at the intersection of
Market, Geary,
and Kearny streets.
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q
A Town by Any Other Name
The gold-rush towns that often sprang up overnight were given imaginative names by the miners. Some town names reflected the harshness of mining life: Rough and Ready, Hangtown, Sucker Flat, and
Murderers Bar. Other towns were named after individuals, groups of
people, or geographic features of the region: Foster’s Bar, Knight’s
Ferry, China Camp, Dutch Flat, Dry Gulch, and Steep Hollow.
The towns often had reputations—true or not—as colorful as their
names. Angels Camp became famous as the setting for Mark Twain’s
tale about a jumping frog contest. Hornitos was supposedly the
hideout for the legendary bandit Joaquin Murieta. San Andreas earned
its fame when the elusive stagecoach robber, Black Bart, was finally
captured, jailed, and tried in the town courthouse.
The miners of Coulterville gave their town an interesting identity
by turning the town’s streets into trenches when a rainstorm
washed up gold in the road dirt!
e
Cost of Living
’’When the mines were first opened they were rich and those that were first on the mines made a
fortune – but those that work the mines now have got to work the whole day very hard and will
average from $5 to $20 per day. Board is $5 . . . Flour is worth $90 per lb. Pork $1.30 per
pound – a small pie is worth $1 . . . a common pair of pegged shoes are worth $10.’’
Excerpted from Oscar Bennet letter from the North Fork of the American River, ca.1849. Manuscript collection.
Most gold-rush miners did not find great quantities of gold, and what they did find often went
right out of their pockets into the hands of merchants and saloon keepers! The cost of living in
California was outrageously expensive for its day. Basic foods such as butter and eggs, which in
the 1840s normally sold for a few cents each, often cost from $6 to $10 in gold-rush territory!
Hotel owners in San Francisco charged hundreds of dollars to rent a room, and dinner in a good
restaurant could wipe out a miner’s entire pouch of gold. With the cost of everything so high, it is
no surprise that the majority of gold-rush miners had very few riches to send back
home to their families!
9
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he Gold Rush
changed California in
ways no one could have
imagined. California’s
population soared from
less than 20,000 in 1846
to over 200,000 by the
end of the 1850s. For
these new Californians,
the Gold Rush was an
opportunity to branch
out in new directions.
Women who had cooked
meals and mended
clothes daily for their
families found they could
sell such services to miners and make as much or
How did
the Gold
Rush
change
California?
more profit than the men
digging for gold. One
gold-rush immigrant,
Levi Strauss ,m ade his
fortune by turning tent
canvas into miners’ pants,
while another immigrant,
Domingo Ghirardelli,
found his wealth in
chocolate bars rather than
bars of gold.
Sadly, the Gold Rush was
not a time of opportunity
for everyone. When
California became a state
in 1850, Californios’
Mexican land grants were
no longer honored and they lost
their lands and status. In the
gold fields, greed led to discrimination in the form of unfair laws
and taxes that made it virtually
impossible for Chinese, Mexican,
and other foreign miners to own
or work gold claims. California’s
Native American population,
already ravaged by the Spanish
and Mexican settlers, found their
territories and cultures further encroached upon by hordes of miners.
The Gold Rush changed California
environmentally as well. Hillsides were
stripped of trees as miners used the
lumber to build towns and mining
tools. Rivers were dammed or diverted
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from their channels in order to reach
the gold in river bottoms. Hydraulic
mining clogged rivers and buried acres
of good farmland under rocky sludge.
So great was this destruction
that it spurred Californians to
pass laws banning the use of
hydraulic mining.
The changes, both good and
bad, that shaped the California
of the gold-rush years also
helped to shape the California
we know today. California
continues to be a place of new
ideas, new beginnings .G old
rushes still occur, though the
“gold’’ this time around may
be in the form of movies,
computers, medicine, or automobiles. Californians continue to speak out and pass laws
to protect their state’s natural
environment. And California’s
people, still some of the most diverse in
the nation, continue to work toward
equal opportunity and rights for all.
11
Facing page, lower left: Ludovik [Louis] Choris (1795-1828), Habitants de Californie, 1822. Engraving. Library, Templeton Crocker
collection. FN-30510. Near left: Artist unknown, “The World in California.” Hutchings’ California Magazine, 1857. Library collection.
Above: Carleton E. Watkins, Hydraulic Mining. Malakoff Diggins, North Bloomfield, Nevada Co. Photography collection. FN-29110.
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eople who lived during
the Gold Rush left us
many clues about what life
was like in the 1850s. These
clues can be found in letters, paintings, drawings,
photographs, newspapers,
artifacts, costumes, and
even folklore. Today, hundreds of libraries, museums, and historical societies, including the
California Historical
Society, preserve and study
the objects and even the
folklore from the Gold Rush
so that we can pass on the
stories and information
about this exciting time in California
history.
How do
we know
about the
Gold
Rush?
There have also been many books, for
all ages, written about the Gold Rush.
Some of them are listed in the bibliography on page 16.
Harriet Booth Griswold (1814-1906). Overland Diary,
April 25–October 19, 1859. Manuscript collection. Gift of Mrs.
Charles A. Fletcher, Mrs. Annie Root Frost, and Mr. George Root, Jr.
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13
t
You might even have
gold-rush stories that were
passed down in your family.
Check with your family, look through family
scrapbooks and albums,
and forage through those old
boxes in the attic (with your
family’s permission, of course).
Above left: Kelloggs & Comstock, California Gold Diggers. Mining Operations On The Western
Shore Of The Sacramento River, n.d. (ca. 1849-52), lithograph. Fine arts collection. FN04108.
Above: Artist unknown, A View of the [Elephant], ca. 1850. Publisher Cooke & LeCount,
San Francisco. Lithograph. Fine arts collection.
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Discover
the Gold
Rush for
yourself!
There are many places to visit
in the gold country.
Here are a few places
to start your journey through
the Gold Rush.
Angels Camp
This small gold-rush town is located in
Calaveras County and is probably most
known for its Frog Jumping Jubilee.
This famous contest is held every year
in May in honor of Mark Twain. He
lived nearby in 1864, and though he
was a successful writer, it was the publication of “The Celebrated Jumping
Frog of Calaveras County” that made
him famous.
The neighboring town of Murphys is
one of the most popular towns in goldrush country. Visitors can stroll down
the main street to see many historic
buildings including the Murphys Hotel
where Mark Twain, U.S. Grant, and
even Black Bart had once been guests.
More information can be found at
http://www.angelscamp.com/ and
http://www.murphyshotel.com/.
Benicia Capitol
State Historic Park
The Benicia City Hall building was
California’s first state capitol. It was
only used from 1853-1854, but it is the
oldest surviving original California
state capitol. Many elements of the
building were constructed using parts
from abandoned ships in the San
Francisco Bay during the Gold Rush.
The pillars in the chambers room are
from mast poles. Even the whale oil
lamps and the floor planking are from
gold-rush era ships. Next door to the
capitol is the Fischer-Hanlon House
that is an example of gold-rush architecture and furnishings. Both sites are
open daily for tours.
Visitor information can be found at
http://parks.ca.gov/north/silverado/bcs
hp221.htm or by calling (707) 7453385.
Bodie State Historic Park
Originally filled with 10,000 residents
mining for gold and silver, Bodie is
today a ghost town. It was known as
one of the wildest and wickedest cities
of the California Gold Rush. The buildings that remain have been a state park
since 1962 and are kept in a state of
“arrested decay.” Information on Bodie
State Historic Park can be found on
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their website at http://ceres.ca.gov/
sierradsp/bodie.html or by writing to
Bodie State Historic Park, P.O. Box 515,
Bridgeport, CA 93517.
mining. You can travel partially into a
shaft and peer into about 100 feet of
the 367 miles of tunnel that run below
the surface. Visitors can also tour the
mine owner’s mansion and gardens.
free (800) 655-NJOY.
Marshall Gold Discovery
State Historic Park
Located in the town of Coloma, this
In the nearby town of Grass Valley you tranquil setting was the site of John
In 1945 the State of California purcan also visit the sites of Lotta Crabtree Sutter’s Mill where James Marshall
chased Columbia and created the
spotted those historic gold nuggets in
and Lola Montez’s homes.
Columbia State Historic Park. It is the
January 1848. This state park, estabbest preserved of the old mining towns Please visit the California State Parks
lished in May 1890, was California’s
website for more information at
in California where visitors can ride
first historic monument. Visitors can
stagecoaches, pan for gold, and visit the http://parks.ca.gov/north/goldrush/em see a replica of Sutter’s Mill, James
343/emshp.htm.
historically re-created fire stations,
Marshall’s cabin, and his memorial
shops, and banks. Costumed docents
overlooking the American River, where
operate all of the businesses to recreate Malakoff Diggings
he made a discovery that changed
State Historic Park
the gold-rush town.
California forever.
This 3,000-acre park serves as a
For more information visit their webFor more information please visit their
reminder of the devastating environsite at http://www.sierra.parks. state.
mental damage done by hydraulic min- website at http://parks.ca.gov/ north/
ca.us/cshp.htm.
ing. Thousands of acres of mountain- american/mgdshp/mgdshp.htm or call
sides were washed away with water as (530) 622-3470.
Empire Mine State Historic Park miners tried to get beneath the rock to
Located in Grass Valley off Hwy 49 in
the gold deposits. This practice was
Nevada County is the Empire Mine
eventually banned in 1884, but the
State Historic Park. This was one of the severe destruction can still be seen.
largest gold mines in the world and
was in operation from 1850-1957. The More information is available by calling the Nevada City Chamber of
Empire Mine offers visitors a glimpse
Commerce
at (530) 265-2692 or tollinto the life and industry of quartz
Columbia State Historic Park
15
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Bibliography
Armento, Beverly J. et al. Oh California. Boston, Mass. Houghton Mifflin Co.,1991.
Braasch, Barbara. California’s Gold Rush Country: A Guide to the Best of the Mother
Lode. Medina,Wash. Johnston Associates International,1996.
The California Gold Rush. Cobblestones, vol .1 8 . December 1997.
Gold! California Cobblestones. Charter Issue.
Holliday, J. S. Rush for Riches: Gold Fever and the Making of California.
Oakland, Calif. Oakland Museum of California & University of California Press,1999.
16
Holliday, J. S. The World Rushed In: The California Gold Rush Experience, an
Eyewitness Account of a Nation Heading West. New York ,N . Y. Touchstone–Simon &
Schuster, 1981.
Kelly, Leslie A. California’s Gold Rush Country, 1848-1998. Huntington Beach, Calif.
LesKelly Publications,1997.
Levy, Jo Ann. They Saw the Elephant: Women in the Gold Rush. Norman, Okla.
University of Oklahoma Press,1990.
Martin, Don & Betty Woo Martin. The Best of the Gold Country. Columbia, Calif.
Pine Cone Press,1992.
Stein, R. Conrad. Cornerstones of Freedom: The California Gold Rush. Chicago, Ill.
Children’s Press,1995.
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Front cover: Artist unknown, A Gold Hunter on His Way to California, via St. Louis, ca. 1849. Henry R. Robinson, New York, Publisher. Hand colored lithograph, 17 x 13 in. Fine arts collection. FN-16057.
Inside front cover: Detail. John Haven, Map of the United States and Mexico, Including Oregon, Texas, and the Californias, 1846. Published by Haven and Emerson, No. 3 Broul St., N.Y. Map collection.
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The California Historical Society is a statewide membership based organization.
Its mission is to engage the public’s interest and participation in collecting, preserving,
and presenting art, artifacts and written materials relevant to the history of California
and to support historical research, publication and educational activities.
The California Historical Society’s museum, bookstore, and
the North Baker Research Library are located in San Francisco, California.
This booklet was written by Diane Barclay for the California Historical Society,
with contributing text by Chelsea Pickslay; graphic design, Marian Ueki.
All images are from the California Historical Society collections. Special thanks to the Fine Arts,
Photography and North Baker Research Library staff for their assistance.
This project was made possible by the
Silver Giving Foundation and The Pacific Foundation Services.
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Voice: 415.357.1848 Fax: 415.357.1850 E-mail: info@calhist.org Web: www.calhist.org
Hours: Administration– M-Fri, 9am-5pm Museum & Bookstore– Tu-Sun, 11am-5pm