As stated on the Historical Settlement, Gold is what brought over 300,000 emigrants from Eastern United States to California. The Gold Rush population boom had pretty much sped up the admission of California to the Union. By the end of the year, the non-native population of California was estimated at 100,000, (as compared with 20,000 at the end of 1848 and around 800 in March 1848). To accommodate the needs of the ’49ers, gold mining towns had sprung up all over the region, complete with shops, saloons, brothels and other businesses seeking to make their own Gold Rush fortune. The overcrowded chaos of the mining camps and towns grew ever more lawless, including rampant banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence. San Francisco, for its part, developed a bustling economy and became the central metropolis of the new frontier.
After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared, even
as miners continued to arrive. Mining had always been difficult and
dangerous labor, and striking it rich required good luck as much as
skill and hard work. Moreover, the average daily take for an independent
miner working with his pick and shovel had by then sharply decreased
from what it had been in 1848. As gold became more and more difficult to
reach, the growing industrialization of mining drove more and more
miners from independence into wage labor. The new technique of hydraulic
mining, developed in 1853, brought enormous profits but destroyed much
of the region’s landscape.
Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state’s population was 380,000.
Though gold mining continued throughout the 1850s, it had reached its peak by 1852, when some $81 million was pulled from the ground. After that year, the total take declined gradually, leveling off to around $45 million per year by 1857. Settlement in California continued, however, and by the end of the decade the state’s population was 380,000.
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| Gold Rush Miners in 1849 |
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| Map of Major Gold Mines in Northern California. |
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| Chinese and White Miners post for a picture in a Gold mine. 1952. |
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