Editing California gold rush (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of California before 1900}}

===Earlier discoveries===
Gold was discovered [[Gold in California|in California]] as early as March 9, 1842, at [[Rancho San Francisco]], in the mountains north of present-day Los Angeles. Californian native Francisco Lopez was searching for stray horses and stopped on the bank of a small creek (in today's [[Placerita Canyon]]), about {{convert|3|mi}} east of present-day [[Newhall, California|Newhall]], and about {{convert|35|mi}} northwest of Los Angeles. While the horses grazed, Lopez dug up some wild onions and found a small gold nugget in the roots among the bulbs. He looked further and found more gold.<ref name="blakely">{{Cite book |last1=Blakely |first1=Jim |first2=Karen |last2=Barnette |title=Historical Overview: Los Padres National Forest |date=July 1985 |url=http://lpfw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/19850700_Blakley_HistoricalOverviewLPNF.pdf |page=31 |access-date=September 6, 2016 |archive-date=February 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207165451/http://lpfw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/19850700_Blakley_HistoricalOverviewLPNF.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Lopez took the gold to authorities who confirmed its worth. Lopez and others began to search for other streambeds with gold deposits in the area. They found several in the northeastern section of the forest, within present-day [[Ventura County, California|Ventura County]].<ref name="blakely" /> In November, some of the gold was sent to the [[U.S. Mint]], although otherwise attracted little notice.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Prudhomme |first=Charles J. |date=1922 |title=Gold Discovery in California: Who Was the First Real Discoverer of Gold in This State? |url=http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/prudhomme1922hssc.htm |url-status=live |access-date=June 25, 2021 |website=SCVHistory.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150310204450/http://www.scvhistory.com:80/scvhistory/prudhomme1922hssc.htm |archive-date=March 10, 2015 }}</ref><ref name="RawlsPlacerita">{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[[iarchive:goldenstateminin0000unse/page/3|3]]}}</ref> In 1843, Lopez found gold in San Feliciano Canyon near his first discovery. Mexican miners from [[Sonora]] worked the [[placer deposits]] until 1846.<ref name="blakely" /> Minor finds of gold in California were also made by [[Mission Indians]] prior to 1848. The [[friar]]s instructed them to keep its location secret to avoid a [[gold rush]].{{sfnb|Rolle|1987|p=164}}

===Marshall's discovery===
[[File:James W. Marshall.jpg|thumb|left|upright|1855 illustration of [[James W. Marshall]], discoverer of gold at [[Sutter's Mill]]]]

In January 1847, nine months into the [[Mexican–American War]], the [[Treaty of Cahuenga]] was signed, leading to the resolution of the military conflict in [[Alta California]] (Upper California).<ref>{{cite web |last=Meares |first=Hadley |date=July 11, 2014 |title=In a State of Peace and Tranquility: Campo de Cahuenga and the Birth of American California |url=http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/lost-landmarks/in-a-state-of-peace-and-tranquility-campo-de-cahuenga-and-the-birth-of-american-california.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 25, 2021 |website=[[KCET]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140717202819/http://www.kcet.org/socal/departures/columns/lost-landmarks/in-a-state-of-peace-and-tranquility-campo-de-cahuenga-and-the-birth-of-american-california.html |archive-date=July 17, 2014 }}</ref> On January 24, 1848, [[James W. Marshall]]{{efn|A [[New Jersey]] native, Marshall came to California in 1844, worked for [[John Sutter]], and began farming. In 1846, he fought against [[Mokelumne River|Mokelumne]] Indians and participated in the [[Bear Flag Revolt]] (an attempt to claim California as an independent republic). He then joined [[John C. Frémont]]'s [[California Battalion]], followed by further military service. When he returned to [[Sutter's Fort]], most of his livestock had vanished.{{sfnb|Rolle|1987|p=165}} }} found shiny metal in the [[water wheel|tailrace]] of a lumber mill he was building for [[Sacramento, California|Sacramento]] pioneer [[John Sutter]]—known as [[Sutter's Mill]], near [[Coloma, California|Coloma]] on the [[American River]].<ref name="BancroftDiscovery">{{harvb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/32/mode/2up 32–34]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gold Nugget |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_741894 |website=National Museum of American History |access-date=January 22, 2021 |language=en |quote=This small piece of yellow metal is believed to be the first piece of gold discovered in 1848 at Sutter's Mill in California, launching the gold rush. James Marshall was superintending the construction of a sawmill for Col. John Sutter on the morning of January 24, 1848, on the South Fork of the American River at Coloma, California, when he saw something glittering in the water of the mill's tailrace. According to Sutter's diary, Marshall stooped down to pick it up and "found that it was a thin scale of what appeared to be pure gold." Marshall bit the metal as a test for gold. |archive-date=April 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220422073041/https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_741894 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="CAMap">For a detailed map, see [http://www.consrv.ca.gov/CGS/minerals/images/Big_AUMap.pdf California Historic Gold Mines] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214035847/http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/minerals/images/Big_AUMap.pdf |date=December 14, 2006}}, published by the state of California. Retrieved December 3, 2006.</ref> Marshall brought what he found to Sutter, and the two privately tested the metal. After the tests showed that it was gold, Sutter expressed dismay, wanting to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to [[New Helvetia|his plans for an agricultural empire]] if there were a gold rush in the region.<ref>{{harvb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/39/mode/2up 39–41]}}</ref> The Mexican–American War ended on May 30 with the ratification of the [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], which formally transferred California to the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Today in History – February 2 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/february-02/ |url-status=live |access-date=June 25, 2021 |website=[[Library of Congress]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170715083236/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/february-02/ |archive-date=July 15, 2017 }}</ref>

Having sworn all concerned at the mill to secrecy, in February 1848, Sutter sent [[Charles H. Bennett (soldier)|Charles Bennett]] to [[Monterey, California|Monterey]] to meet with Colonel Mason, the chief U.S. official in California, to secure the mineral rights of the land where the mill stood. Bennett was not to tell anyone of the discovery of gold, but when he stopped at [[Benicia, California|Benicia]], he heard talk about the discovery of coal near Mount Diablo, and he blurted out the discovery of gold. He continued to San Francisco, where again, he could not keep the secret. At Monterey, Mason declined to make any judgement of title to lands and mineral rights, and Bennett for the third time revealed the gold discovery.{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/42/mode/2up 42–44]}}

By March 1848, rumors of the discovery were confirmed by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant [[Samuel Brannan]]. Brannan hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies,<ref name=HollBran>{{harvb|Holliday|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/60 60]}}</ref> and he walked through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!"{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/55/mode/2up 55–56]}}

On August 19, 1848, the ''[[New York Herald]]'' was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report the discovery of gold. On December 5, 1848, US President [[James K. Polk]] confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to [[United States Congress|Congress]].<ref name=StarrCongress>{{harvb|Starr|2005|p=[https://archive.org/details/californiahistor00star_0/page/80 80]}}</ref> As a result, individuals seeking to benefit from the gold rush—later called the "forty-niners"—began moving to the [[Gold Country of California]] or "Mother Lode" from other countries and from other parts of the United States. As Sutter had feared, his business plans were ruined after his workers left in search of gold, and [[squatting|squatters]] took over his land and stole his crops and cattle.{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/103/mode/2up 103–105]}}

San Francisco had been a tiny settlement before the rush began. When residents learned about the discovery, it at first became a [[ghost town]] of abandoned ships and businesses,{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/59/mode/2up 59–60]}} but then boomed as merchants and new people arrived. The population of San Francisco increased quickly from about 1,000<ref name=HollidaySF>{{harvb|Holliday|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/51 51]}} "800 residents"</ref> in 1848 to 25,000 full-time residents by 1850.<ref name=RawlsSF>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/187 187]}}</ref> Miners lived in tents, wood shanties, or deck cabins removed from abandoned ships.<ref name=HollInfra>{{harvb|Holliday|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/126 126]}}</ref> There were no churches or religious services in the rapidly growing city, which prompted missionaries like [[William Taylor (missionary)|William Taylor]] to meet the need, where he held services in the street, using a barrel head as his pulpit. Crowds would gather to listen to his sermons, and before long he received enough generous donations from successful gold miners and built San Francisco's first church.{{sfnb|Taylor|1895|p=195}}

===Transportation and supplies===
[[File:California Clipper 500.jpg|thumb|Advertisement about sailing to California, {{Circa|1850}}]]

In what has been referred to as the "first world-class gold rush,"<ref name=HillWorld>{{harvb|Hill|1999|p=1}}</ref> there was no easy way to get to California; forty-niners faced hardship and often death on the way. At first, most [[wikt:argonaut|Argonauts]], as they were also known, traveled by sea. From the East Coast, a sailing voyage around the tip of South America would take four to five months,<ref name=BrandsCape>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/103 103–121]}}</ref> and cover approximately {{convert|18000|nmi|mi km|}}. An alternative was to sail to the Atlantic side of the [[Isthmus of Panama]], take canoes and mules for a week through the jungle, and then on the Pacific side, wait for a ship sailing for San Francisco.<ref name=BrandsPan>{{harvb|Brands|2002|pp=[https://archive.org/details/ageofgoldcalifor00bran/page/75 75–85]}} Another route across [[Nicaragua]] was developed in 1851; it was not as popular as the Panama option. {{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|pp=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/252 252–253]}}</ref> There was also a [[Isthmus of Tehuantepec|route]] across Mexico starting at [[Veracruz, Veracruz|Veracruz]]. The companies providing such transportation created vast wealth among their owners and included the [[U.S. Mail Steamship Company]], the federally subsidized [[Pacific Mail Steamship Company]], and the [[Accessory Transit Company]]. Many gold-seekers took the overland route across the continental United States, particularly along the [[California Trail]].<ref name=RawlsTravel>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/5 5]}}</ref> Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to [[typhoid fever]] and [[cholera]].<ref name = HollDeath>{{harvb|Holliday|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/101 101], [https://archive.org/details/rushforrichesgol00holl/page/107 107]}}</ref> In the early years of the rush, much of the population growth in the San Francisco area was due to steamship travel from New York City through overland portages in [[Nicaragua]] and [[Panama]] and then back up by steamship to San Francisco.<ref name="Stiles 2009">{{harvb|Stiles|2009}}</ref>

While traveling, many steamships from the eastern seaboard required the passengers to bring kits, which were typically full of personal belongings such as clothes, guidebooks, tools, etc. In addition to personal belongings, Argonauts were required to bring barrels full of beef, biscuits, butter, pork, rice, and salt. While on the steamships, travelers could talk to each other, smoke, fish, and engage in other activities depending on the ship they traveled. Still, the dominant activity held throughout the steamships was gambling, which was ironic because segregation between [[wealth gap]]s was prominent throughout the ships. Everything was segregated between the rich vs. the poor.<ref>Rohrbough, Malcolm. "No Boy's Play: Migration and Settlement in Early Gold Rush California." ''California History'' 79, no. 2 (2000): 25–43. Accessed December 7, 2020. {{doi|10.2307/25463687}}. pp. 32–33</ref> There were different levels of travel one could pay for to get to California. The cheaper steamships tended to have longer routes. In contrast, the more expensive would get passengers to California quicker. There were clear social and economic distinctions between those who traveled together, being that those who spent more money would receive accommodations that others were not allowed. They would do this with the clear intent to distinguish their higher class power over those that could not afford those accommodations.<ref>Rohrbough, Malcolm. "No Boy's Play: Migration and Settlement in Early Gold Rush California." California History 79, no. 2 (2000): 25–43. Accessed December 7, 2020. {{doi|10.2307/25463687}}. p. 33</ref>

[[File:SanFranciscoharbor1851c sharp.jpg|thumb|Merchant ships fill [[San Francisco Bay]], 1850–51.]]

Supply ships arrived in San Francisco with goods to supply the needs of the growing population. When hundreds of ships were abandoned after their crews deserted to go into the goldfields, many ships were converted to warehouses, stores, taverns, hotels, and one into a jail.<ref name = AbandonShip>{{harvb|Starr|2005|p=[https://archive.org/details/californiahistor00star_0/page/80 80]}}; {{cite web |title=Shipping is the Foundation of San Francisco{{snd}}Literally |publisher=Oakland Museum of California |year=1998 |url=http://www.museumca.org/goldrush/getin-pr01.html |access-date=February 26, 2013 |archive-date=December 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111227172242/http://museumca.org/goldrush/getin-pr01.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> As the city expanded and new places were needed on which to build, many ships were destroyed and used as landfill.<ref name = AbandonShip/>

===Other developments===
Within a few years, there was an important but lesser-known surge of prospectors into far Northern California, specifically into present-day [[Siskiyou County, California|Siskiyou]], [[Shasta County, California|Shasta]] and [[Trinity County, California|Trinity Counties]].{{sfnb|Bancroft|1888|pp=[https://archive.org/details/bancrohistofcali23huberich/page/363/mode/2up 363–366]}} Discovery of gold nuggets at the site of present-day [[Yreka, California|Yreka]] in 1851 brought thousands of gold-seekers up the [[Siskiyou Trail]]<ref name=DillonSiskiyou>{{harvb|Dillon|1975|pp=[https://archive.org/details/siskiyoutrailhud00dill/page/361 361–362]}}</ref> and throughout California's northern counties.<ref name=WellsYreka>{{harvb|Wells|1881|pp=[https://archive.org/details/historyofsiskiyo00well/page/60 60–64]}}</ref>

Settlements of the gold rush era, such as [[Portuguese Flat, California|Portuguese Flat]] on the [[Sacramento River]], sprang into existence and then faded. The Gold Rush town of [[Weaverville, California|Weaverville]] on the [[Trinity River (California)|Trinity River]] today retains the oldest continuously used [[Taoism|Taoist]] temple in California, a legacy of [[Chinese immigration to the United States|Chinese]] miners who came. While there are not many Gold Rush era ghost towns still in existence, the remains of the once-bustling town of [[Shasta, California|Shasta]] have been preserved in a [[List of California State Historic Parks|California State Historic Park]] in Northern California.<ref name=Bodie>The buildings of [[Bodie, California|Bodie]], the best-known ghost town in California, date from the 1870s and later, well after the end of the Gold Rush.</ref>

By 1850, most of the easily accessible gold had been collected, and attention turned to extracting gold from more difficult locations. Faced with gold increasingly difficult to retrieve, Americans began to drive out foreigners to get at the most accessible gold that remained. The new [[California State Legislature]] passed a foreign miners tax of twenty dollars per month (${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|20|1850|r=-1}}}} per month as of {{CURRENTYEAR}}), and American [[prospectors]] began organized attacks on foreign miners, particularly [[Latin American]]s and [[Han Chinese|Chinese]].<ref name = RawlsTax>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/9 9]}}</ref>

In addition, the huge numbers of newcomers were driving Native Americans out of their traditional hunting, fishing and food-gathering areas. To protect their homes and livelihood, some Native Americans responded by attacking the miners. This provoked counter-attacks on native villages. The Native Americans, out-gunned, were often slaughtered.<ref name = RawlsGeno>{{harvb|Rawls|Orsi|1999|p=[https://archive.org/details/goldenstateminin0000unse/page/8 8]}}</ref> Those who escaped massacres were many times unable to survive without access to their food-gathering areas, and they starved to death. Novelist and poet [[Joaquin Miller]] vividly captured one such attack in his semi-autobiographical work, ''[[Life Amongst the Modocs]].''<ref name=MillerModoc>{{harvb|Miller|1874}}</ref>