8G History Week 12

In 1848, a man named John Sutter built a sawmill along the American River. It was located about 50 miles away from modern-day Sacramento. On January 24th, James W. Marshall, who was Sutter’s carpenter, found gold flakes in the river! Both men promised to keep it a secret, but eventually the secret got out.

Thousands of people rushed to California, due to the news of the gold. John Sutter went bankrupt because of the large amount of people that flooded the area.

People came by sailing around Cape Horn or by taking the 2,000 mile journey across the U.S. Many people died before they even reached California.

By 1853, over a quarter of a million people had arrived in California to try their luck at finding gold. Most people were not very lucky! The working conditions were poor, and prices were very high.

The Gold Rush made lots of boom towns, or towns that sprang up very quickly. Some of those towns are still around today, like San Francisco.

The California Gold Rush fizzled out by the end of the decade, but the impact that it had on our country is still visible today. The gold rush helped California gain its statehood in 1850.