The Gold Rush and Westward Expansion

In order to understand the significance of the Gold Rush, it is important to look back at the

events that led to the discovery of gold in California. One of the most important events was the

Mexican-American War (1846-48). The Mexican-American War was a war of national aggression

to gain territory. It followed the 1845 annexation of Texas, which Mexico regarded as its

territory. In 1836 the Texian Army won the Battle of San Jacinto against Mexican forces, led by

After a series of conflicts spanning

two years, the United States won

the war. When the dust settled,

amount of new territory. The

region collectively known as the

Mexican Cession included all of

Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico,

Nevada, and Utah. The signing of

At the time, the war was regarded as a major American victory over a hostile foe, but in the

wake of the sectional strife of the Civil War the Mexican-American War was all but forgotten by

history. But the war was pivotal in shaping our nation’s future. It cemented the idea of the

United States as an expansionist, transcontinental empire. It fulfilled the nation’s vision of

Manifest Destiny – creating one nation from Atlantic to Pacific. It shaped the land on which

many Americans live today. And it led directly to the California Gold Rush.

Unbeknownst to both the United States and Mexico at the time,

the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo would serve to further

America’s growing wealth and prestige. For just six days before

the treaty was signed, gold was discovered in the foothills of the

Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. None of the delegates at

Gold was discovered on January 24, 1848 by John W. Marshall, a carpenter and sawmill

Sutter. During his early morning routine check of the water-powered sawmill, Marshall spotted

a glint of gold beneath the surface of the South Fork American River. Marshall plucked the pea-

sized particle from the water and recalled, “I reached my hand down and picked it up; it made

my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold.” Marshall took his discovery to Sutter, who used

an encyclopedia to confirm the find. Sutter recalled the even years later in a magazine:

It was a rainy afternoon when Mr. Marshall arrived at my office in the Fort, very wet. . . .

He told me then that he had some important and interesting news which he wished to

Sutter swore his workers to secrecy, but within months the secret was out, and the Gold Rush

was on. Newspaper reports on the discovery were initially met with disbelief, but once

evidence of gold was brought into San Francisco the frenzy began. The San Francisco-based

journal, The Californian, published the following on May 29, 1848:

Gold nugget. This small piece of yellow

their fortunes in the rivers and streams, gripped with “gold fever Sutter complained that “even

my cook has left me.” The Gold Rush turned life upside down.” When the news of gold reached

the East coast, many men who had trained as bankers, lawyers, and doctors in the East now

migrated westward, spending their days knee-deep in freezing water, moving rocks and stones

until their hands were numb searching for gold.

One man likened the “gold fever” to a highly contagious disease. Writing to his friends on the

East coast he said, “The whole population are going crazy . . . Old as well as young are daily

falling victim to the gold fever.” Wives and families were abandoned, left behind to figure out

ways to support themselves. Shops were boarded up. Schools were closed. Soldiers abandoned

their posts. Benjamin Kloozer, a soldier stationed in California, was torn between duty to his

event. Emerson wrote, “It was a rush and a scramble or needy adventurers, and, in the western

country, a general jail-delivery of all the rowdies of the rivers.” Thoreau went further in his

denunciation of the gold seekers, writing:

occurred in 1849, and those prospectors who sought their

reference to the year they arrived. Fortune seekers came by

land and sea, from every corner of the world. There were

three ways to journey to California in the days of the Gold

Rush. By far the easiest and most popular route was the

“Panama shortcut.” This journey was 7,000 miles and took

approximately two to three months. Gold seekers would sail

down the eastern coast of the United States to Panama.

There they faced a thirty-five mile overland journey through

the jungle, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama to reach the

waters of the Pacific Ocean. They then boarded another ship

which took them north along the western coast of Mexico to

San Francisco. As California’s major port city, San Francisco

became the gateway to gold.

The second route was also by sea. Although it was the longest in terms of distance, nearly

15,000 miles, it was also the safest route, despite the risk of high waves, frigid temperatures,

the only viable option. Travelers feared attacks from American Indians and wildlife, but the

biggest threat actually came from diseases and sicknesses such as cholera, diphtheria,

“mountain fever” (similar to typhoid), and pneumonia. The hardships that were encountered

were numerous; belongings were lost crossing rivers, wagons broke down after encountering

barely cleared trails, pack animals dropped dead from exhaustion, and weather ranging from

San Francisco, 1890, Unidentified artist,

In 1849, San Francisco’s population skyrocketed from 812 to 20,000 people. The cost of land

Charles Christian Nahl’s mother Henriette supported the family by washing miners’ laundry. It

has been suggested that the laundry hanging outside the cabin in the background of Miners in

There were other gold rushes in North America, most notably the 1896 Klondike Gold Rush in

Canada’s Yukon Territory, but none was as historically and culturally significant as the California

Gold Rush. The rush produced on average seventy-six tons of gold per year. By the end of the

1850s, it was estimated that $550 million worth of gold had been mined – approximately $187

billion in today’s dollars. The gold rush propelled the expansion and settlement of the western

United States on a massive scale. In the years prior to the Gold Rush, a paltry 2,700 settlers had

1845 annexation of Texas: the incorporation of the Republic of Texas into the United States of

America. In 1836 the Texian Army won the Battle of San Jacinto against Mexican forces, led by

famed general Santa Anna, and the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico.

But Mexico had refused to acknowledge this action and warned the U.S. that if it tried to make

Texas part of the U.S., Mexico would declare war. In 1845 Texas voluntarily asked to join the