December 20, 2019 ▸ History, Places

Episode 439: Gold Rush: California Dreaming

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at one of the most important pieces of California’s history, the Gold Rush of 1849. While many people know about the football team called the 49ers, many don’t know that this name came from a term given to the hundreds of thousands of people who moved to California in search of gold. When the gold was first discovered, people were able to just pick it out of river beds with no mining equipment, and people were making several year’s pay in just a matter of months. When word got out, everything changed.

When the Gold Rush started, California was not even a state. In fact, the US was at war with Mexico, and California was a lawless place with a very small (non-native) population. In 1848, a carpenter named James Wilson Marshall was building a mill for John Sutter, a man who was trying to build an agriculture colony where modern day Sacramento is. Marshall found gold in Sutter’s stream, and when word got out, everyone flocked to find more. Most people were at first skeptical about the abundance of gold laying around in California river beds, but an entrepreneur changed it all. He bought up all the mining equipment from several cities and set up shop in Fort Sutter. Then, he stormed San Francisco with a vial full of gold. Everyone followed him, and word spread.

Eventually, people as far as Hawaii, Europe, and the East Coast all headed to California. It was a state with no laws, few cities, and nothing much to offer. The travel there was incredibly dangerous, and people sold their houses and everything they owned just to become a 49er and have a crack at the gold. This led to boom towns filled with murder, gambling, prostitutes, and gunfights. It was the epitome of the lawless old west.

As more almost 300,000 people moved to the state, the gold inevitably dried up to where the only people making a fortune were those selling gear to miners. Once the surface gold was gone, the mining was turned to large scale operations that would strip mine mountains to get the gold laying beneath the surface. This process, and the racism of the white miners led to the destruction of natural habitats, indigenous people, and any hope of agriculture near the streams now filled with tons of soot. It was a crazy time. Women took on roles traditionally held by men, a true melting pot of people from all over the world descended on one state, and the idea of the California Dram was ultimately born.

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/gold-rush-of-1849

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/goldrush-california/

Letter from 49er: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_rush

https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-goldrush/

https://www.historynet.com/california-gold-rush

Scared Sh*tless: 1003 Facts that will Scare the Sh*t out of You. Author: Cary McNeal. Perigree Press, 2012.