1848–1849Reputable sourceWell documented
The California Gold Rush
On the timeline · around 1848–1849 ·
What happened
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 set off a stampede. In 1849 alone, some 90,000 'forty-niners' poured into California from across the country and around the world, and San Francisco exploded from a village into a boomtown. About 300,000 people arrived in a few years.
Why it matters
The Gold Rush accelerated the settlement of the West and California's rush to statehood, drew the first large waves of Chinese and Latin American immigrants — and brought catastrophic violence and displacement to California's Native peoples.
Sources
- HISTORY (A&E). The Gold Rush of 1849 · Reputable source