The '49ers
The Gold Rush attracted not only Americans, but
people from Latin America, Europe, Australia, and China. By the fall of 1849 the talk of gold had
spread worldwide. In the start of the year 1849 more and more came to seek for
gold during the next mining season. The largest group of forty-niners in 1849
were the Americans, arriving in large groups of thousands. Miners came from Michigan, Ohio, and western
Pennsylvania. People from Georgia took
the Santa Fe Trail and routes across Mexico.
Those with money came by steamer to Panama, then by dugout and mule to
the Pacific side of the isthmus for another steamer to San Francisco. Future miners traveling from the East Coast
would have to take a five to eight month trip to cover the 18,000 nautical
miles. Englanders came on anything that would float
to see the discovery themselves.
Sometimes their journey would take up to five months to round Cape Horn
to get to San Francisco (Rawls,1999). No
matter where the miners came from each trip they had to battle deadly hazards
such as shipwrecks to typhoid fever and cholera. Once miners got to San
Francisco most abandoned their ships which later got turned into warehouses,
stores, taverns, hotels, and even jails.
Because it was 1849 the gold hunters were called the “forty-niners”
(Rawls,1999). Companies were being formed in Great Britain,
Germany, and France to come seek gold.
Miners were recruited from China.
Because of everyone leaving their towns and home places to go mine, the
California Gold Rush started affecting markets worldwide. It is estimated that approximately 90,000
people arrived in California in 1849; about half by land, half by sea. The majority being American (Shape,1998).