American history

Gold Country

Most of the world's gold is locked deep underground -- embedded in hard rock. But California gold was different -- easily accessible to anyone with a few simple tools and a willingness to work hard.

Also unique was the political environment. California became a part of the United States just a few days after Marshall's discovery; and so the Gold Rush came before any meaningful government could be established. It was an unlikely intersection of anarchy and geology. Unlike anywhere else, the gold in California was easy to get and free for the taking.

J.S. Holliday, author of "The World Rushed In":

" It's free politically. It doesn't belong to anybody. There is no sign that says keep out. There's no government. There's no wire. There's no order. There's none of the normal obstacles; political obstacles. The California Gold Rush is there, open, free.There is no military force here to impose any rules. There's no taxes collected, no tax collectors. There's no judicial system. There are no boundaries, there's no rules. It's there, it's free. "

It was free -- and it was plentiful. Soon there was too much money in California and too little of everything else. The lessons of supply and demand were often painful. A forty-niner who earned a dollar a day back home, could make twenty-five dollars in a day of mining -- but that was often just enough to buy dinner.

Historian Dennis Witcher:

"Food was hard to come by in anything but hard tack -- and stuff like jerky and dried beef. Fresh vegetables were very rare. Sutter had vast gardens but they were instantly raided."

It wasn't just Sutter's gardens that were raided -- by the end of 1849, his grand empire had collapsed completely. Sutter did not have the entrepreneurial spirit of the new Californians and he didn't have gold fever. He wanted an agricultural empire and refused to alter his vision.

In the new California, Sutter was simply in the way. The 49ers literally trampled his crops and tore down his fort for the building materials. Dejected, disillusioned, he eventually left the state. The man who had the best opportunity to capitalize on the discovery of gold -- never even tried.

Instead, California was filling up with a very different kind of businessman -- and it was filling up fast. Camps sprouted up and evolved into ramshackle boomtowns to serve the growing population -- places with accurate names like: Hangtown, Gouge Eye, Rough and Ready, and Whiskeytown. Places to avoid -- were it not for the gold. Places that were wild, open, free.

J.S. Holliday, author of "The World Rushed In":

"The phrase that I like to use is there were no "hometown eyes" watching them -- no mothers, fathers uncles, in-laws, preachers, teachers, neighbors. There is the freedom of anonymity. If you are anonymous, you can dare to behave in a way that you would never behave under the gaze, under the supervision of home -- and all the weightiness that home puts upon you."

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

"California at that time was tolerant of anything and everything. I am convinced from reading the diaries that they did not care what anybody else did, where they were from, what their name was, what their history was. You were anonymous. And as a consequence, you could be or do anything you wanted."

The class society of the east was gone and opportunity was everywhere. It was pure freedom, and a pure free market. People who had a skill were in demand regardless of who they were. Women, for example, who couldn't earn much money back home, found their domestic skills had considerable value here.

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

"One woman made $18,000 just from a single Dutch oven. Women relished their first taste of economic independence. If you could wash clothes, you could make $8 a dozen. If you could cook a meal, you could sell it for $5- $10, if you could run a boarding house, you could clear a $200 a week, if you could get enough boarders. And a number of women simply put to use their domestic skills which was a very smart thing to do. Because men didn't want to cook. And there were all those men with dirty shirts and hungry bellies waiting for somebody to come and take care of them."

Part of the reason they could charge so much for their talents was the fact that women were rare in the early Gold Rush days.

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

"A fellow who got married charged $5.00 for people to come to his wedding so they could see his bride. And one woman said that men came from miles around just to see her because women were a rarity very early on in the camp. And she said even in her best days she had never been considered handsome. So people were riding up just to take a look at her."

J.S. Holliday, author of "The World Rushed In":

"Every time anybody saw a woman, they wrote it down. So you might think there are a lot of women. Well there weren't a lot of women. The reason they are all mentioned is because 600 guys saw one woman and 600 guys talked about seeing a woman."

JoAnn Levy, author "They Saw the Elephant"

"I'm always a little taken aback by the idea of dismissing women in the Gold Rush because there weren't very many of them. When you take anything else that is rare, you give it value."

Women weren't the only ones to realize the entrepreneurial opportunities of California. People from all walks of life quickly understood that there was just as much money to be made serving the miners as there was digging for gold. A steamboat operator could earn 40,000 dollars in a single month -- a chicken farmer could sell each precious egg for fifty cents.

King of the wheeling, dealing entrepenuers was Sam Brannan. The man who pulled the trigger on the Gold Rush was expanding his sphere of influence -- and earning unheard of profits. While miners talked of gold, Brannan shrewdly bought up carpet tacks -- every tack in California. By cornering the market, he could extort huge profits, a technique he executed flawlessly -- over and over. But Brannan was only the first in a long line of entrepenuers who made their fortunes without digging for gold.

In 1853 -- according to legend -- this man stitched a pair of pants out of canvas; sturdy pants that later became popular with the miners -- very popular. His name:Levi Strauss. But during the Gold Rush, Strauss was best known for his prosperous dry good business. It wasn't until 1872 that he added a critical innovation to canvas pants, the metal rivet -- a breakthrough that would change the course of American fashion.

This New York butcher decided one day to walk to California. Eventually, he opened a meat market in Placerville -- and later took his profits to Milwaukee, where he set up a meat processing plant. His name was Phillip Armour, and the Armour meat packing company became one of the nation's largest.

Armour's neighbor in Placerville, was an enterprising wheelbarrow maker who dreamed of bigger things. After saving every dime for six years, he left California for his home in Indiana. There, he plowed his profits into the family wagon-making business.
The man's name was John Studebaker -- and the family enterprise would go on to build covered wagons for the Oregon-bound pioneers, and later -- automobiles.

These two businessmen also looked west and saw opportunity. Sensing the unsettled atmosphere in California -- they offered what many miners desperately wanted: stability. The offered secure, honest banking, transportation, even mail delivery. They were Henry Wells and William Fargo. Their company, Wells Fargo, became a giant in the banking industry.

The most famous celebrity of the Gold Rush era came to California as a complete unknown and took a job writing for the San Francisco "Call." It wasn't long until his fanciful story about a frog jumping contest in nearby Calaveras County thrust him into the national spotlight. His name: Samuel Clemens -- Mark Twain.

Clemens boss at the "Call" was also destined to become a best-selling author, Brett Harte. Unlike Clemens, Harte wrote almost exclusively about western characters -- colorful stories about miners, bandits, and gamblers. His tale of an orphaned baby adopted by a group of rough miners would make him famous and rich.

For every famous success, there were a thousand smaller stories of people who used their wits, not their shovels -- to find a fortune. Creative entrepenuers were everywhere -- looking for a new angle -- a new way to make money, more money.

Historian Sylvia Sun-Minnick, author of "Samfow"

" There were three miners that were ready to give up the piece of property that they were living in, an old shack. And they were ready to abandon it, so the Chinese came and offered to buy this old shack for $25. And the miners said, "this is a good sale," so they took the money, went down to the local saloon and started laughing. Well as soon as the Chinese got title to it, they tore up all the flooring, all the floor boards, and they gleaned the gold dust that had fallen out between the cracks when the fellows took off their pants. And so they came through with $300. "

In 1848 and early 49, everyone was making money -- but the party didn't last forever. For most miners, it didn't last very long at all.