California Gold Rush: "forty-niners" & James W. Marshall

California Gold Rush:

The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by American carpenter and sawmill operator, 'James W. Marshall' at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. He saw something shiny in Sutter Creek near Coloma, California. He had discovered gold unexpectedly while overseeing construction of a sawmill on the American River. With his small finding , he started one of the largest migrations in American history. The Gold Rush led to many other discoveries that modernized California. Today a statue of James W. Marshall stands where he made his first discovery of gold on Coloma, California. The news about the gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad. The sudden inrush of gold into the money supply rejuvenate the American economy, and the sudden population increase in California sanctioned California to go rapidly to statehood, in the Compromise of 1850. The Gold Rush had drastic effects on Native Californians and hastened the Native American population's decrease from disease, starvation and the California genocide.

The effects of the Gold Rush were notably strong. Whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-searchers, called 'forty-niners'. Outside of California, the first to arrive were from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America in late 1848. By 1853 the numbers of gold searchers reached to approximately 300,000 who came to California during the Gold Rush, half arrived by sea and the other half came overland on the California Trail and the Gila River trail; forty-niners often faced substantial hardships on the trip.

It is estimated that 750,000 pounds of gold was discovered during the Gold Rush. It reached its peak in 1852 when prospectors found $90 million worth of gold. During this rush, miners often slaughtered Native Americans, forced them to pay high taxes or fees, chased them out of the area, enslaved them, or forced them to participate in torturous marches to missions and reservations such as the Round Valley Reservation.

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