The California Gold Rush

Introduction

          The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill by James W. Marshall.  The mill was owned by John Sutter, a Swiss immigrant that arrived in California in 1839.  Sutter received a land grant of fifty-thousand acres near former Colluma Valley, a constantly renamed area of land.  Sutter built his mill on present-day Sacramento and developed types of farming and other business there.  Sutter's Mill soon became a rest station for all kinds of travelers and immigrants to California.
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          When James Marshall moved and first arrived in California, he was hired by Sutter to build a sawmill at a site in Colluma Valley.  Marshall first made his discovery of gold when he was inspecting the mill.  While inspecting, a glinting, shiny flake of metal caught his eye.  Marshall took the metal to a few fellow workers and then Sutter, to test if it was gold.  Later, they confirmed it was, indeed, gold.

          Sutter was afraid that the discovery of gold on his land would drive his workers away from the mill.  He was also concerned that if word spread, people might start coming onto his land in search of the precious gold.  Sutter later asked Marshall and the other sawmill workers to keep the  news a secret, so that word of gold on his mill wouldn't spread.
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          Despite his efforts, the rumors of gold on Sutter's Mill spread.  By late 1848, Americans across the country and immigrants from all over the world began rushing in.  On December 5, 1848, President James Polk spoke with Congress to confirm these accounts of gold on John Sutter's land.  The discovery of gold soon became major national news, attracting difference races and ethnic groups from all over the world to California.  California would soon become extremely diverse, a place where you could easily spot immigrants from all over America and the world.  These immigrants had Chinese, European, Hispanic, South American, and even Native American backgrounds.  These people all came to mine for gold, all with the same dreams and hopes of striking rich and making a fortune.

          Immigrants who came to California during 1849 were commonly known as Forty-niners.  These Forty-niners drove Sutter and Marshall off of their lands and began ravenously ripping up the entire mill in search of more gold.
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          Marshall and Sutter never made any profit and lived the rest of their lives in poverty, all because of a discovery made in a small river by the Colluma Valley.
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