History/Letters from the rush/1848-1849
Gold! Gold! GOLD!
In the spring of 1848 two small San Francisco weeklies reported gold at Sutter's mill. Within weeks both had stopped printing because their readers, and their printers, had gone to the diggings. A year later a New York reporter landed to see what was left.
Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain)
01 / 08
Seven weeks after James Marshall saw gold in the tailrace of Sutter's sawmill at Coloma, the Californian, one of the two weekly papers in San Francisco, gave the news one short paragraph.1
NewspaperSan Francisco Gold mine found. In the newly made raceway of the saw-mill recently erected by Captain Sutter on the American fork, gold has been found in considerable quantities. One person brought thirty dollars' worth to New Helvetia, gathered there in a short time. California no doubt is rich in mineral wealth; great chances here for scientific capitalists. Gold has been found in every part of the country.
The Californian, as printed in Bancroft, History of California, vol. VI, p. 54. History of California, vol. VI, 1848-1859 (The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 23) (1888) James Marshall finds gold at Sutter's sawmillSutter's Mill (Coloma)
02 / 08
Nobody much minded in March. By the end of May the town was emptying, and the other weekly, the California Star, described what was left.
NewspaperSan Francisco But now stores are closed and places of business vacated, a large number of houses tenantless, various kinds of mechanical labor suspended or given up entirely, and nowhere the pleasant hum of industry salutes the ear as of late; but as if a curse had arrested our onward course of enterprise, everything wears a desolate and sombre look, everywhere all is dull, monotonous, dead.
The California Star, as printed in Bancroft, History of California, vol. VI, p. 56. History of California, vol. VI, 1848-1859 (The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 23) (1888) 03 / 08
Two days later the Californian printed its farewell on a fly-sheet and stopped. The Star followed on 14 June. Their readers, and the men who set their type, had gone to the diggings.
NewspaperSan Francisco The whole country from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and from the seashore to the base of the Sierra Nevada, resounds to the sordid cry of gold! gold!! GOLD!!! while the field is left half planted, the house half built, and everything neglected but the manufacture of shovels and pickaxes, and the means of transportation to the spot where one man obtained $128 worth of the real stuff in one day's washing, and the average for all concerned is $20 per diem.
The Californian, as printed in Bancroft, History of California, vol. VI, p. 56. History of California, vol. VI, 1848-1859 (The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 23) (1888) 04 / 08
The news reached the East that winter, and in 1849 the world came. Bayard Taylor, a young correspondent for the New York Tribune, landed from the steamer Panama and walked up from the pier.2
LetterSan Francisco Crossing the shoulder of the hill, the view extended around the curve of the bay, and hundreds of tents and houses appeared, scattered all over the heights, and along the shore for more than a mile. A furious wind was blowing down through a gap in the hills, filling the streets with clouds of dust. On every side stood buildings of all kinds, begun or half-finished, and the greater part of them mere canvas sheds, open in front, and covered with all kinds of signs, in all languages.
Bayard Taylor, chapter VI, First impressions of San Francisco. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850) 05 / 08
Everything cost more than anyone had imagined, and everyone traded. Taylor found the newspapers stuffed into his luggage were worth more than he was.
LetterCity Hotel, Portsmouth Square Hearing of this I bethought me of about a dozen papers which I had used to fill up crevices in packing my valise. There was a newspaper merchant at the corner of the City Hotel, and to him I proposed the sale of them, asking him to name a price. “I shall want to make a good profit on the retail price,” said he, “and can't give more than ten dollars for the lot.” I was satisfied with the wholesale price, which was a gain of just four thousand per cent!
Bayard Taylor, chapter VI. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850) 06 / 08
Gold was not only in the hills. It was in the dust of the streets.
LetterIn front of the United States Hotel Walking through the town the next day, I was quite amazed to find a dozen persons busily employed in the street before the United States Hotel, digging up the earth with knives and crumbling it in their hands. They were actual gold-hunters, who obtained in this way about $5 a day.
Bayard Taylor, chapter VI, Street gold. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850) 07 / 08
Taylor rode inland by Stockton to the bars of the Mokelumne River, where a party of ten had dammed the stream and were working its bed.
LetterThe diggings on the Mokelumne River When I first saw the men, carrying heavy stones in the sun, standing nearly waist-deep in water, and grubbing with their hands in the gravel and clay, there seemed to me little virtue in resisting the temptation to gold digging; but when the shining particles were poured out lavishly from a tin basin, I confess there was a sudden itching in my fingers to seize the heaviest crowbar and the biggest shovel.
Bayard Taylor, chapter IX, The diggings on Mokelumne River. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850) 08 / 08
He went home with a verdict that every later rush would prove again.
LetterThe diggings on the Mokelumne River Those who, retaining their health, return home disappointed, say they have been humbugged about the gold, when in fact, they have humbugged themselves about the work. If any one expects to dig treasures out of the earth, in California, without severe labor, he is wofully mistaken.
Bayard Taylor, chapter IX. Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850)
The 1850 census counted 92,597 people in California. Taylor's dispatches came out as a book, Eldorado, in 1850.2
People, places and events on this walk
James Marshall finds gold at Sutter's sawmillCalifornia gold rushJames MarshallJohn SutterSutter's Mill (Coloma)ColomaSan Francisco
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Where the words come from
Every quotation is given as printed, cut only where an ellipsis shows, and was checked word for word against these texts:
- Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California, vol. VI, 1848-1859 (The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, vol. 23), 1888. The History Company, San Francisco. Public domain: published 1888, the author died in 1918.
- Bayard Taylor, Eldorado, or, Adventures in the Path of Empire, 1850. G. P. Putnam, New York (this copy the 1856 printing, Cornell University Library). Public domain: published 1850, the author died in 1878.
Sources for the narration
- The California Gold Rush (California National Historic Trail) US National Park Service
- History and the Census: The 1848 California Gold Rush (Jan 2018) US Census Bureau
Pictures on this page: Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain); Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Library of Congress, no known restrictions (Public domain).
The narration between the letters is ours and says only what the sources linked here say. Old spellings and the writers' own opinions are left as they wrote them.
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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Underground mining equipment by Kaupo Kikkas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Gold prospectors constructing a long box with a filter for panning gold. Process print after H.M. Paget, 1899., Henry Marriott Paget (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).