California Golden Rush
California Golden Rush
Shortly after the
acquisition of California from Mexico a man by the name of
John Sutter
arrived in East San Francisco Bay in 1839. Born in Germany he had to
leave
because he was unable to pay his creditors. With plenty of charm and
letters
from friends he convinced the Mexican governor of California to award
him a
land grant of more than 50,000 acres. John Sutter built a stockade and a
fort
and soon after became referred to as Captain Sutter, and his
riverbank
establishment Sutters Fort. Sutter chose a location on the south
fork of the
American River, 50 miles to the south of his fort, to build a
sawmill. (Pic. 1)
A millrace was dug and wooden gates were opened
periodically so that the current
would widen and deepen the channel. During
his inspection on January 24, 1848
James W. Marshall found the first
piece of gold at the end of the race. Over the
next decade his discovery
would have a profound effect on the experiences of
hundreds of thousands of
individuals, their families, their communities, and
ultimately the nation as
a whole. By the winter of 1848, whispers of a gold
strike had drifted
eastward across the country but few easterners believed it.
The gold
discovery needed validation, and President Polk was just the one to
deliver
it. In his opening address to Congress on December 5, 1848 Polk said
that at
the time of the California acquisition it was known that "mines of
the
precious metals exsisted to some extent. Recent discoveries render
it
probable that these mines are more extensive and valuable than was
anticipated.
The accounts of the abundance of gold in that territory are
of such an
extraordinary character as would scarcely command belief were they
not
corroborated by authentic reports." (Johnson, 38). With Polk's
address
making headlines around the world Gold Fever had begun. The future
forty-niners
now under the influence of Gold Fever had to overcome a cruel
journey, miserable
living and working conditions, and coming home boom or
bust. The trials and
tribulations they faced are many and forever carved into
American history.
Polk's simple words, backing up the claim of gold in
California, were a powerful
call to action. Farmers left their fields,
merchants closed their shops,
soldiers left their posts, and all made plans
for California. The departing gold
seekers faced an immediate problem. There
was no railroad to take them there,
nor was there a river route. The journey
proved to be a incredible test of
endurance. There were two ways to get to
California either by land or by sea. By
land they faced a 2,000 mile trip
across rugged landscape (Map 1). Almost
everyone going to California overland
travelled with a group, which were
democratic in nature. Contracts were
signed that spelled out rules of conduct,
especially with respect to
participation and sharing of duties. The journey
across the plains varied in
length and difficulty, and because it was so severe
a test it was one the
gold seekers would never forget if they survived it. There
were tens of
thousands of men and women on the trail and all they could think
about was
gold as they crept along at two miles per hour on the dusty trail. At
first
it was an adventure, but as they pushed farther westward their
enthusiasm
turned to fear of the indians along the trail. The real danger of
the overland
journey wasn't the indians, but the lack of water especially the
last 200 miles
through the deserts of Nevada. Goods and food were cast aside
along the trail to
lighten the load. "At the beginning of the final stage on
the Humboldt
River, many 49ers left their wagons and proceeded on foot,
using as pack animals
the stock horses they had brought for breeding."
(Rohrbough, 65). The
journey by land was rough but so was the sea voyage. The
sea route (Map 2)
around the tip of South America often took more than six
months and seasickness
was rampant in the beginning. The accomodations were
severely overcrowded
"men were accommodated in tiered berths, usually three
men sleeping abreast
on platforms barely two feet apart, one above the
other." (Johnson, 64).
Boredom soon took over and the men took to
gambling from morning to night.
"Cards and gambling not only drew veteran
players, but also rapidly seduced
those heretofore innocent of such vices."
(Rohrbough, 59). The food was
often full of bugs, and the meat was often
rotten. Water stored for months in
the ships holds took on a foul taste, and
was often diluted with molasses or
vinegar so it could be kept down. The
weather in the Cape passage was very
perilous. The sea was very rough and it
was bitterly cold. At night the
passengers wore all their clothing and
shivered in their bunks, praying they
would make it through the night. There
was another route that was partly by sea
and partly by land. By sailing
across the Atlantic Ocean to Panama the
forty-niners could then cross over
the narrow land bridge between North America
and South America. Finally
continuing their journey by sailing the Pacific Ocean
to California. This was
not as easy as it sounded though for crossing the
jungles of Panama many
travelers picked up aches and fevers including cholera
and malaria. For those
who remained well and luck was on their side the journey
took about five
days. The first leg of the crossing was by canoes, navigated by
the natives,
on the Chagres River. After travelling as far as they could by
canoe they
finished the trip on foot to Panama City. Waiting in Panama City for
passage
to California could take several weeks and the numbers of gold seekers
piling
up in Panama City was staggering. There were simply not enough ships
to
handle the mass of people waiting to go to California. Many ships would
take a
load of passengers to California and the crew would stay leaving the
ship
abandoned in San Francisco Bay. By the mid 1850s more than 500 ships lay
rotting
in the bay, many still full of cargo that no one had taken time to
unload.
Regular steamer service between Panama and California helped
relieve the
situation in Panama but never remedied it. After securing passage
to California
the journey was over but few men had any idea of the hardships
they were going
to face. Prior to the gold rush California had little
community life on which to
build on. When thousands began flowing into
California settlements sprang up
overnight in the mining fields. According to
Paul, "The most common was the
camp: a straggling settle- ment that might
vary in size from a few houses to a
small town. A more impressive place was
the mining town, a community that was
larger in size than the camp, and
usually had a few buildings that could make
some pretentions to
substantiality." (California Gold, 72). In the
beginning nearly everyone was
camping out, under shelter of a tree, a crude
tent, or a lean to made of
canvas. By 1850 log cabins were being built in the
developing settlements.
For the common miner construction costs were so high
that most buildings were
made of wood frame with canvas stretched over it. Such
methods of
construction produced communities that were wiped out by fires
several times.
Miners set up a camp close to where they were digging, it could
be set up in
a few hours and taken down in even less time. This was an important
part of
their lifestyle since they were constantly on the move from one location
to
another. If the daily living was rough the work was then severe. Work
began
on the streams at daylight, and as the miners dressed and prepared
them- selves
for a hard day of labor the cook made their breakfast. After
breakfast the
miners made their way down to the streams with their picks,
shovels, pans, and
buckets. After arriving at the claim the miners began the
routine of digging,
shoveling, carrying, and washing until sunset. (Pic.2).
This routine was carried
out at least six days a week and often seven. Often
men would be removing the
sand knee deep in ice-cold water for hours on end.
One miner summarized the
labors of mining in these terms: "Mining is the
hardest work imaginable and
an occupation which very much endangers health. A
weakly man might about as well
go to digging his grave as to dig
gold."(Rohrbough, 138). Few forty-niners
were prepared for the incredibly
hard work. Working fifty pans of dirt in a ten
hour day was a reasonable
goal. But digging the dirt to fill those pans, sorting
it out, and panning
for the gold became more work than most gold seekers had
anticipated. For a
man who could endure hardships, could handle the incredible
amount of labor,
and could handle the sorrows of dissapointment, there was never
a better
opportunity in the world to make a fortune. There was a great number of
men
who barely knew how to pick up a shovel including doctors,
lawyers,
preachers, bookkeepers, and other white-collar workers, few of them
prepared for
the hard life of mining. As much as a thousand dollars worth of
gold could be
washed from a single pan, but few miners ever had that exhilar-
ating
experience. A half an ounce of gold a day was generally recognized as
the bare
minimum a miner must make to keep himself working due to the
inflated prices in
the camps. Prices were so high in the camps that had the
miners been making what
they did per day anywhere else in the world the
majority of them would have
become rich. As it was though many miners barely
made enough to get by on a day
to day basis. A tin pan that could be bought
for fifteen cents anywhere in the
United States sold for eight dollars in
the gold fields. Everything was sold at
unbelievable profits such as shovels
for two dollars, frying pan for two
dollars, a mule for two hundred dollars,
a box of sardines for sixteen dollars,
one pound of hard bread for two
dollars, one pound of butter for six dollars, a
bottle of ale for eight
dollars, a half pound of cheese for three dollars, flour
for fifty dollars a
barrel, potatoes for three dollars a pound. Not just the
price of goods was
high services were equally severely inflated, for example a
full time house
servant would receive around one hundred dollars a month,
clothes washing
could bring one hundred dollars per week, a cooked meal cost
around five
dollars, women could receive more than one hundred and fifty dollars
a month
for house cleaning. These high prices were paid for by the average
miner
working day in and day out under miserable condit- ions and poor
health. In the
late eighteen hundreds at the time of the gold rush men and
women were
accustomed to hard physical labor, but the intense labor required
by mining
eventually wore down even the most optimistic and the physically
and mentally
tough. "Wealth was the dream; grinding toil was the reality that
for many
made it into a nightmare." (Rohrbough, 192). In the face of such
demanding
physical conditions, men aged rapidly in the mines. Their hair
turned gray,
their teeth rotted, their aching backs cried out for relief from
the daily labor
of digging and carrying. The faces of miners were lined by
hard labor, hot sun,
and continuing exposure to the weather of all kinds. In
addition to the dangers
associated with mining was the communal living and
poor sanitation. Baths were
infrequent and the men did not have enough
clothes to change on a regular basis.
Epi- demics of smallpox and
dysentary afflicted the mines each season, and to
make things worse as
prospects in the mines diminished cheap basic foods was all
the miners could
afford. These cheap meals lacking in vegetables and fruits,
made the miners
susceptible to scurvy. Even with all the hardships and miserable
conditions
most of the miners made it through and now faced the most difficult
task of
returning home. Few miners found more than enough gold to cover their
daily
living expenses, and fewer still had any left over after gambling
and
drinking. By the year of 1853 the big gold rush was at an end, the
placer
deposits were virtually exhausted, earlier stakes had been worked over
several
times, and now the miners had to face the reality of going home. How
could the
forty-niner justify his long absence when he returned with no more
than he left
with? For those that stayed to the end and had still not struck
it rich, there
was the belief that they had done all they could to make their
dreams come true.
If they had left after a couple of years they would
have been forever looking
back and wondering if they had just missed the
mother lode. In a way, coming
home was the coming to terms with failure. Many
of the forty-niners who
disappeared into the countryside of California did so
because they couldn't
return home empty-handed and face relatives and loved
ones. How much gold would
a returning miner have to possess to measure up as
a success? "Ten thousand
dollars was frequently mentioned as the standard in
newspaper articles." (Rohrbough,
264). For many a few thousand dollars
would be enough, and for others just being
able to square up accounts was
enough. Many forty-niners did strike it rich as
is the case of John and
Daniel Murphy who came to California in early 1848. By
the end of the year
the brothers hade made one and a half million dollars. John
became a
politician and Daniel ended up buying three million acres of land
in
California. John Bidwell also came to California in 1848 and within
six months
had made a fortune and became one of the richest and most
respected men in
California. A man named Dye in less than two months
mined more than seventy-six
thousand dollars worth of gold. Generally unless
a miner found a lot of gold
quick and then left, he would eventually spend it
all looking for more gold. The
men who did not make their fortunes in money
did gain wealth in their memories
of taming the wild land called California.
Captain Sutter prior to the gold rush
wanted nothing more than to start an
empire in the new land in which he had
received two hundred and thirty square
miles. His land turned out to be the gold
fields, but Sutter turned out to be
careless about his business dealings. His
workers went after gold along with
the miners and left his fields and cattle
unattended. Sutter tried mining but
soon began drinking up all the gold he could
find. By the end of his life
Captain Sutter had sold all the land he had
acquired and was a poor man.
James Marshall, who found the first nugget, never
made anything off of the
gold discovery. He actually lost his mill as
forty-niners overrun his land
looking for gold. He tried panning for gold but
never had any success. James
Marshall ended up dying penniless and bitter over
the way his life turned
out. Of the nearly four hundred thousand men who crowded
into California in
the decade after the find at Sutter's Mill the vast majority
neither
prospered or starved. For them it was a grand adventure that they would
never
forget. For many it didn't end in California when the diggings tapered
off.
Many men loaded up their tools and moved on to new gold fields such as
the
Black Hills, Montana, Oregon, and even as far as Australia. Still
other men
simply packed up and went back home, for the most part looking back
with
fondness on California and their experiences searching for gold. Many
decided to
stay in California and take up trades staying close to the land
they had grown
to love
Bibliography
Johnson, William Weber. The
Forty-Niners. Ed. Hedley Donovan. Canada: Joan D.
Manly, 1974. Paul,
Rodman W. The California Gold Discovery. Georgetown,
California: The
Talisman Press, 1967. ---, California Gold. Lincoln, Nebraska:
University
of Nebraska Press, 1947. Rohrbough, Malcolm J. Days of Gold:
The
California Gold Rush and the American Nation. Berkeley and Los
Angeles,
California: University of California Press, 1997.