| When James Marshall discovered gold at
Sutter's Mill, California, on January 24, 1848, he caused a tremendous
rush of people-called Forty-Niners-from all over the world to the Far West.
California's population climbed from 14,000 in 1848 to almost 100,000 in
1849, and by 1860 it reached 380,000.
The Forty-Niners who arrived in the "golden
land" in search of quick riches came from Europe, Australia, and even China.
About 25 percent were foreigners, the rest Americans, and all of them came
by sea across the Pacific, or around Cape Horn, or overland across North
America. They represented all classes-laborers, professionals, and farmers.
"Gold is where you find it," they said, and many did find it, amassing
great fortunes. Others could only say, after it was all over, "Gold is
where I ain't!" Their meager funds exhausted, they went East or made a
living by servicing the needs of other miners, building towns, and creating
a new society on the frontier.
Most of the Forty-Niners were young, unkempt
men who lived in a harsh environment where the death rate was high. Skilled
workers were scarce, and most were ignorant of mining techniques. Fortunately,
simple "placer mining" -in which a miner swirled river dirt in a pan until
the heavier gold settled to the bottom paid off in California. In 1849
a miner could average between $15 and $20 a day, and a few made as much
as $100. But as the surface gold played out, even these modest figures
declined drastically. The Forty-Niners' average day consisted of dawn-to-dusk
toil in the hot sun, with muddy water filling his soggy boots as he searched
for the yellow metal.
Most Forty-Niners lived in makeshift, flimsy
wooden shacks with canvas roofs. There was little time left over for community
life, and they generally settled their own legal problems, even to the
point of establishing their own codes and courts. Punishment for wrongdoing
was always severe. Throughout 1849 and 1850, shortages of fruit, vegetables,
and dairy products led to dysentery, scurvy, and other diseases in the
mining camps. Saloons, gambling halls, brothels, and mining supply stores
eagerly accepted the miners' gold dust as money. Most of the men were unmarried,
and the few women around were engaged in the service industries, not mining.
One female miner, who called herself "Dame Shirley," wrote that the Forty-Niners
were "the most discontented of mortals . . always longing for the `big
strike."'
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