California Gold Rush

Miners had a hard and lonely life. They lived in leaky tents and shacks far from their families. Especially in the early days of the gold rush, there were very few women in the mining towns and camps.

Storekeepers made more money than most miners selling food, tools, and supplies at high prices. But many miners ate cheaply by making their own sourdough bread.

In time, gold became harder and harder to find. The gold rush did make some people millionaires. But most of the Forty-Niners eventually went home no richer than before. Some stayed in California and started businesses and farms.

Historical Context

In January 1848, gold was discovered in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. By 1849, news of the discovery had spread to the eastern United States, to Europe, and to Asia. Suddenly, Forty-Niners were leaving their families, farms, and jobs to race to the gold fields. The gold rush was on!

Miners found much of the gold in rivers. Sometimes they scraped gold from river rocks with knives and spoons. Miners also learned to “pan” for gold. First, they scooped up dirt and rock from the riverbed in a pan. Then, they swished the pan around in the river. Lighter materials floated away, leaving the heavy gold in the pan.

Merchant ships fill San Francisco harbor, 1850

San Francisco, California

Oct. 18, 1849

My dear and faraway wife Janey,

… I will briefly describe the look of things around me. I am sitting in the tent a box covered with a cloth is our eating table on which I write. At the back end is piled our beds on either side is hardware of all descriptions from Steam Cylendor to a paper of Tacks. Outside are casks of Codfish Meal etc. … Our fireplace is close by with a small stove. … Just beyond is the beach, a little to the right they are building a Steam boat, and all round is the sound of hammer on boat house or iron. Clothing of all descriptions strews the ground all over. Left by those that have camped here and gone to the mines. Shirts never worn but once or twice are thrown away rather than pay for washing. 50 cts is the charge for washing a piece or $6 per dozen and no less — so collars boosoms (sic) etc. are thrown away indiscriminately. I have seen pants whole and sound and but little soiled thrown away.

In front at the distance of 1/3 of a mile the shipping begins and extends for 2 miles in a body of some mile and 1/2 in breadth. It is a swamp of Spars and Masts shutting out the vision as far as water extends from a point of rocks close by on my right to the point on the left. … there is some 4 or 500 ships in the harbour and almost every tide brings in others and multitudes of Emigrants are constantly arriving showing as I think that the Dupes are not all dead yet. I expect that the mines will be literally crowded but I need not anticipate. …

Excerpts of a letter from Hiram Dwight Pierce to his wife Sara Jane Pierce.

Advertisements drew thousands of people seeking gold to Northern California. By the end of 1849, the non-native population grew to 100,000 people. This explosion in population helped California become an official state in 1850.

Chinese and the Gold Rush

Isaac Wallace Baker photographed this unidentified Chinese man, presumably as Baker traveled through the mining camps of California in his wagon-studio. This portrait, in which the man proudly displays his queue (long braid of hair), is one of the earliest known of an Asian in California.

Coinciding with droughts, floods, and violent political rebellions in mainland China, the Gold Rush and corresponding economic boom in California drew many Chinese (mostly men) across the Pacific Ocean. The crossing was exceptionally unpleasant, lasting 62 days on average, with miserable conditions that modern scholars have compared to African slave ships. By the end of 1851, there were an estimated 4,000 Chinese nationals in California; by the end of 1852, just one year later, there were approximately 25,000. Before 1860, only 8% of the Chinese population stayed in San Francisco, while the vast majority sought their fortunes in the gold fields.

CHINESE IMMIGRANTS, 1869. 'Pacific Chivalry. Encouragement to Chinese Immigration.' Cartoon by Thomas Nast criticizing the unfair treatment of Chinese immigrants by California natives, 1869.

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