| The Gold Rush started on January 24, 1848, | | | | easily accessible gold had long been scooped up |
| when James. W. Marshall - working for | | | | by the original prospectors of 1848. As waves of |
| Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, discovered shiny | | | | new immigrants flooded the area around |
| pieces of metal at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma in | | | | Sacramento it effectively became a squalid |
| California. After taking them to Sutter, the two | | | | tented city. With no hotel in Sacramento to speak |
| men tested the metal and found it to be gold. Far | | | | of, or any other places of shelter for that matter, |
| from being euphoric at the find, Sutter was | | | | the mass of new arrivals literally slept in the |
| dismayed as he envisaged his dreams of an | | | | streets, until they got a job, or left for the |
| agricultural empire going up in smoke once | | | | prospecting fields. |
| prospectors rushed to the area. Because of that | | | | It was a lawless place in California at the time of |
| fear Sutter tried to keep news of the find under | | | | the gold rush. The goldfields were declared public |
| wraps, but all to no avail as rumours soon spread. | | | | land, with no property rights, no taxes and no |
| By March 1848, news of the find had reached | | | | fees. Land was 'claimed' by prospectors, who |
| San Francisco where newspaperman and | | | | could keep the claim as long as they worked on it. |
| merchant Samuel Brannan, after being shrewd | | | | Once work stopped or the site was abandoned |
| enough to set up a store to sell gold prospecting | | | | then the land could be reclaimed. This loose |
| supplies, strode through the streets of San | | | | definition led to disputes about 'claim-jumpers', |
| Francisco, holding up a piece of gold and shouting: | | | | which were often settled in a violent manner. |
| "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River! | | | | Most of the estimated 300,000 would-be |
| By August 1848 the news had reached New | | | | prospectors that came to California after 1849 |
| York and on December 5th was confirmed to | | | | found little gold, but did help establish Sacramento |
| Congress by President James Polk sparking an | | | | as a major town, confirmed by it becoming the |
| invasion of Sacramento and the surrounding area | | | | terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. |
| by waves of immigrants, who would later be | | | | In only 20 years the settlement had burgeoned |
| referred to as the "forty-niners". | | | | into a bustling hub for California. And, while his |
| Confirming his fears Sutter was ruined; his | | | | father's dreams of an agricultural empire were |
| workers deserted him seeking gold fortunes of | | | | dashed by the Gold Rush, John Sutter Jr, together |
| their own, and immigrants squatted on his land | | | | with Sam Brannan became the City of |
| helping themselves to his cattle and crops. | | | | Sacramento's founding fathers. |
| However, by the time the 49ers arrived the | | | | |