Impact of California Gold Rush on Western Expansion

While James Marshall was working on building a sawmill for John Sutter, he discovered


some small yellow flakes that he found out to be gold. This event happened on January 24, 1848 and was the first gold found of the California Gold Rush. Marshall as he thought had started the gold rush. He did not know what to do, so Sutter and Marshall decided to keep the gold discovery as secret. This event would lead to one of those most important events in western expansion.

Their discovery was not kept a secret for long. Two weeks later a man named Sam Brannan who was a newspaper owner in San Francisco found out and spread the word about the recent gold discovery. He went through town shouting; “Gold, Gold!" People were soon leaving town to start their search for fortune in gold.


Not long after this, in 1849 nearly 80,000 people had moved to California because of gold. These people were called "forty-niners" because they moved in 1849.

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"People had caught gold fever." Things were changing in the American west and the California gold rush was behind


it.


For Marshall and Sutter, the gold rush meant nothing for them. Both died in poverty after being unsuccessful after finding no gold. Marshall believed that because he had found the first gold that he deserved fame and reward for it. Their stories are similar to many who never found anything during the gold rush.


Sutter's mill marks the first discovery of gold which was just the beginning of the gold


rush that wovuld go on for years.

People left their homes to find gold. The economy soared and people moved to America. This was all because a little gold was found one morning.

Gold Panning

The way that gold was being found changed. A method called "panning" started being used as the main way of finding gold. Panning is the most efficient way of finding gold, much better than digging with picks and shovels.


Panning is done by using a mining pan in a riverbed. Sand and gravel are scooped into the pan. The gravel is washed away in the river, and only gold is left. This method takes little time and is easy to do. Most miners in the gold rush panned because it was the best way to do things.


Though panning was not used at the start of the gold rush, it was not invented then either. Panning had been invented long before the gold rush, even going back to history in ancient Rome. It was not until about a year after the gold rush had started the panning was used. It was created by a group of people a long time ago, not just one person.


Before panning was used people would dig to find gold but that all changed with the panning method. This was not a good way of gold mining. Without panning, much gold would not have been found. That means panning is part of how all the gold was found. The economy would not have been boosted as much as it was without panning.

Lawlessness

Towards the end of 1849, the lack of law and government caused problems for California


even more in the mining camps. At this time, the beginning of the gold rush California was not yet a state. The federal government was not creating laws to control California. There were no laws in the camps which led to crime. There were vigilantes who try to stop crime. Immigrants were also treated very poorly.


The crime was the worst of many problems that plagued the mining community. Thieves and bandits robbed and stole from camps. Murder also "became so common that in the six years of the gold rush from 1849 to 1854 4200 homicides happened in California (Wellman)." Crime in California had become such a problem that miners had tried to control it themselves.


A place called "Hangtown" held hanging of criminals. Places called Miner's Courts also held trials for the punishment of criminals. Many were lynched, meaning hung without legal trial. People trying to stop crime themselves sometimes made things even more dangerous than they already were.


It was not until the 1850s' when California was set up as a state the crime began to go down. This was near the end of the gold rush. Life in the mining camps was unsafe. It was chaotic. Being a miner was never a good occupation because few actually became rich, it was just dangerous yet so many people moved to be a gold miner.

Immigrant Workers

Of the people who got little out their hopes of finding gold, immigrants had it the worst. Most of the immigrants were treated horribly in the mining camps. There was not a lot they could do because they had to mine to make money. So many moved here with dreams of finding


gold but few did. Many of these people came from China. All got horrible treatment because they were minorities.


The most common immigrants were from China. Chinese immigrants in America had been treated with little respect throughout history as the California gold rush was one of those times. Chinese people were treated with racism. Many got robbed and murdered. They got cheated and taken advantage of just like many others in the mining community.


Chinese made up 1/5 of the population in the mining camps. About 24,000 had moved to America. They found that they were not welcome. One of the things unfair done to them was a tax put on foreigners. They had to pay this tax if they wanted to mine for gold in California. Immigrants became stuck in situations where they would have to work and pay all their money so they could stay in a place like a camp and get food. Immigrants were given to mine one places that had already been played out. What they mined were small flakes and pieces not worth very


much money.


Immigrants got it the worst out of the hard life as a miner in the gold rush. Life was already difficult there but since they had little money people could trick them into working for little amount of money. After a while, immigrant workers had left mining and had either gotten in to a different business or went back to their home countries.

Life of a Miner

Common "forty-niners” had moved to California between 1848 and 1850. Lots of people had left their former jobs in hopes of finding gold. Enough money was made to get by for the


majority while few made a fortune. They lived in camps or mining towns like early san Francisco where food was usually bought with gold and supplied near the camps. It could be dangerous due to crime. Conditions could be harsh because of weather and illness. The "California Dream" was


not a reality for most people.


Being a miner was like having a low to decent paying job. It could be hard to find gold or at least an amount that would make a person rich. "The average miner might have been lucky to find $10 per day." Though, food and supplies would cost more than this. Miners relied on living in the camps and trading what little gold they found for food.


Like before, crime could make life dangerous for a person. What was worse was weather and illness. During winter the weather made life a struggle as many people lived in tents. There was rain and snow. Towns became even more crowded when people came in for better shelter. Common fires burned down camps and towns. The miner's way of life was no way easy like some thought it would be.


The life of a miner was difficult. Searching for gold was no easy dream. The gold rush may have not been good on the people, but it helped the U.S. grow. These 80,000 people who had move in search of gold created a better country.

The Growth of California and the U.S.

What were the long-term effects of the California Gold Rush? The gold rush had some of the most significant impact on western expansion. The economy grew, people moved, and it helped create business and jobs. Without the gold rush, California would not have become a state so quickly. A lot of gold was found. This helped set up mining all over the west.


One of the things the gold rush contributed to was economic growth. This was from all


the gold that was found. Individually little gold was found. But so many people mining for nearly six years straight led to huge amounts of gold being found. Approximately 500 million (10 billion today) dollars worth of gold was mined. The economy grew. Prices were very high. In some camps prices were as high as today's. A pound of coffee was as high as $40.00!


More jobs came during this time. Everyone that moved made money somehow. Many businesses started during the gold rush. People who were unsuccessful in finding gold, left to cities to start their own business. For the people that mined, some became very wealthy and other went broke and ended in poverty. It gave a reason for people to come to America and for people to move west. All these things happening helps the United States grow.


The California Gold Rush's impact was needed for westward expansion. The country benefitted greatly from what came out of the gold rush. While for the individual person who moved in search of gold, they did not gain much from it all. For the forty-niners the gold rush was a false hope.