American history

Impact

Although the gold in the California hills eventually ran out -- the impact of the Gold Rush era lives on. California was shaped by the adventurers who stayed -- to form the idea that is California today: a place that accepts and nurtures risk takers.

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

" As no where else, you can fail in California. And I think the California Gold Rush taught people that failure was okay. And the reason being that everyone failed in California -- everyone, every day. So failure, was not a distinction, not a burden, not a mark, not a shame. Failure in Des Moines, failure in Youngstown, failure in Savannah, failure in Philadelphia, well, you'd hear "what's the matter with you? Your father's disappointed in you." You don't want to fail at home. But you feel free to fail in California. The result is that people accepted failure -- which is the equivalent of saying they are willing to take risks. And California has been the most risk-taking economy and society in the nation. Maybe in the world. "

Historian Sylvia Sun-Minnick, author of "Samfow"

" Because from this Gold Rush we had other Gold Rushes. It is only here in California we had a Gold Rush called Hollywood. Only here in California we had a Gold Rush called Silicon Valley or here that we went from Charles Lindbergh to aerospace. "

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

" The image of California, the spirit, the psyche of California, was shaped by the 49ers -- who were vigorous, lustful, energetic, dynamic young men. And they became the founding fathers. Compare that to the Pilgrims. San Francisco, a lustful, romantic, rambunctious, robust, dynamic place, became the mother city of California -- quite unlike Philadelphia, for example. "

John Sutter never saw the opportunity of gold. He couldn't alter his vision -- and left the state. But as Sutter and those like him departed, the new Californians came and kept coming. People who could adapt to constant changes; people who saw opportunity at every corner; people who longed for a more exciting life, and weren't afraid to grab it.

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

" It was a romantic time. It was a highly adventurous time. It was like a war. A war for all its tragedies, all its horrors, all it's anguish, all of its utter misery and stupidity -- every war has about it a dynamic romantic quality, because there is some high purpose. There's some great goal;, there is some great victory; there is some great justification. And the Gold Rush had a victory, a great justification, a great ending. When a man could come home with the means to put his arm around his wife and say 'I made it. I did it. I can take care of us now. We can buy that section of land over there. We can move, we can do what you want. I'll buy you that dress, I'll buy you that necklace. I'll get those horses, we will get a new coach, we can have what we want.' My god, what a moment in life. And that was the promise of the Gold Rush. "

It was a dream that precious few ever actually realized -- but it's a dream that lives on even today.