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The California Gold Rush
The First Golden Year

Discovery

John Sutter was a Swiss immigrant who came to California by way of the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and Russian-held territory in what is now Alaska. He was offered a large tract of land at the foothills of the Sierras by the Mexican governor upon his arrival, in the hopes he would establish a stronghold that would increase the governor's control in the inland valley. Sutter then negotiated with the Russians at Fort Ross for the purchase of their entire fort, and began moving the structures, livestock and supplies to his sierra-foothill and valley land in 1841.

It was from this fort that the major commerce in inland California began to take place. Sutter himself was a man who envisioned a thriving colony in California, and regularly over-extended projects that were beyond his resources in the hopes of building a model community. Two of the projects he financed were the building of a flour mill and a lumber mill to produce much needed board lumber and flour for bread to feed and shelter the increasing number of settlers.

Sutter hired Native American men and women to perform the general work duties to keep the fort in tact, and then hired American settlers to perform more specialized work - such as the building of the mills. First they built the flourmill up river from the fort in August of 1847, enlisting the services of recently discharged Mormon army soldiers. The skill of James Marshall guided the construction project, and lead to the building of a lumber mill in the early months of 1848. During the construction of the lumber mill on January 24, 1848, Marshall discovered the grains of gold that were to eventually to launch a world wide gold madness.

At first few people believed that there was gold in the hills … it had been the dream of the Spanish Conquistadors of the 1500s who plundered the Americas, but was not held as a dream by the settlers who came to actually inhabit California in the 1800s. Farming was the dream that drew the California settlers to this promised land. One newspaper called it a hoax; others simply couldn't believe that anything so valuable could be found so easily. The Indians had never valued it because it was too soft. The earliest explorers of the Backcountry had never even noticed it. How could such bounty be real ?

The builders of the mill themselves did not even realize the impact of the discovery... they continue to quietly build the mill for another two months, gathering gold on week ends as an entertaining prospect. And before they would even believe it was gold they put it to the test by pounding, melting, and soaking it in vinegar. By early March the mill workers were digging out pints of gold from the rocks with their knives, and news really began to spread.

On March 15, 1848, a San Francisco newspaper, The Californian, published an article titled "Gold Mine Found". But even then their rival newspaper called it a hoax. Word was starting to spread, even if thought to be a rumor. Back at the mill, the workers were heading off to search for gold and by April, the mill was abandoned. Also in April, a enterprising San Francisco businessman, San Brannan, opened up a shop in Sutter's Fort, an enterprise that was to make him a millionaire in the months ahead.

It was Sam Brannan, a respected businessman, who brought proof of the Gold Rush to San Francisco on May 12th, loudly wielding a bottle of golden flakes through the town shouting "Gold! Gold! From the American River". Gold fever then struck San Francisco and the word spread from port to port.

The First Golden Summer

The summer of '48 saw residents of California abandoning their low-paying jobs, their small businesses, their government positions, and heading to the Sierra foothills in the quest for gold. Even the loudest disbelievers eventually made their way to the gold fields as the fever spread.

" We can hear nothing but Gold, Gold, Gold! An ounce a day, two a day or three - everyone has gold or yellow fever …. I think nine tenths of every store keep, mechanic or day laborer …. Will leave for the Sacramento." Wrote Thomas Larkin, an American- appointed California leader, on May 26th.

On May 29th the large newspaper, the Californian, quit publishing due to lack of a readership, claiming that the migration to the gold field was leaving the coastal towns deserted. "The field is left half planted, the house half built and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained $128 worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is $20 per diem ….. In consideration of this state of affairs …. It would be a useless expenditure of labor and material to continue longer the publication of our paper. " Think what $20 a day would mean to men accustomed to $7 a month pay as army soldiers … it is no wonder there was a mass migration from the coastal towns to the foothills of the Sierras. In a little over 4 days a man could mine a years pay!

The rush to the hills gave added value to the simple tools needed for the placer mining. A shovel, a pickaxe, or a hoe went up in price tens times its original cost. But the promise of even greater profits made a $10 shovel seem like a good investment, and away they went to the hills

In the first summer, diggings made millionaires of some, and gave others enough gold that it seemed to lose its real value and miners began paying unheard of prices for a meal, or a book, or a bath. Pairs of miners working Weber Creek took out $17,000 1848 dollars ($314,330 today) in seven days. On the Feather River six miners with fifty hired Indian workers took out 273 POUNDS of gold that today would be worth a million dollars. At Sutter's Fort, Sam Branan's Store sold $36,000 in supplies from May to mid July ($665,640 in today's dollars). And as another example of ventures that made money from the gold miners, a ferryboat operator taking would-be miners from San Francisco to Sutter's dock made $2,500 for a three-day trip ($25,400 a day in today's dollars).

In a report to the Secretary of State Buchanan in Washington on June 28th, Thomas Larkin stated, "A complete revolution in the ordinary state of affairs is taking place."

By August, the military governor of California, Colonel Richard Mason, sent a report to Washington that complained of abandoned ships sitting in San Francisco Bay with no crews to sail them back to their home ports, and of the desertions from the Navy and Army:

"Sailors desert their ships as fast as they arrive on the coast ….many desertions, too, have taken place from the garrisons …. I shall spare no exertions to apprehend or punish deserters, but I believe no time in the history of our country has presented such temptations to desert as now exist in California. The danger of apprehension is small and the prospect of higher wages certain …. Laboring men in the mines can now earn in one day more than double a soldier's pay and allowances for a month … Could any combination of affairs try a man's fidelity more than this?

Art this same time a cautious businessman from Monterey wrote "Is this not enough to make a man throw down his ledger and shoulder a pick?" after a 14 year old boy came home with over $64,000 for less than two months work.

This first year of the Gold Rush promised more gold than the population of prospectors could carry … and this legendary opportunity still attracts people to pan for gold in the Sierras today.