05/01/98

The Gold Rush

A pea-sized gold nugget was unearthed at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California 150 years ago on January 24, 1848. Although the news did spread, Sam Brannan, a San Francisco newspaperman, is credited with starting the actual rush on May 12 when he walked the streets of San Francisco holding up a quinine bottle filled with gold nuggets and shouting, "Gold, gold, gold, from the American River." Within three days, a third of the city's 600 men were on their way to Sutter's Mill. By mid-June, Brannan's newspaper had to suspend publication because his entire staff had run off to gold country.

California Gold Rush

"They came for gold, but the big find was the Golden State." 100,000 people came to California to seek their fortune, starting "one of the most celebrated mass migrations in U.S. history." The San Jose Mercury staff marks the sesquicentennial with a multimedia feature that includes examination of some the thornier gold rush issues such as the bigotry faced by the Chinese immigrants, the devastation of native Americans by disease, and the environmental impact of the rush. My favorite clicks are the Illustrated History and the step-by-step How to Pan for Gold video.

Discovery Online: Wayback Machine - Gold Rush

Fasten your virtual seatbelts, the Wayback Machine is traveling through history. The time gauge says it's 1848. You've landed in a pristine valley of flowers. What great historical event could be happening here? Coming up the hillside, riding an ol' mule named Katy arrives "a stout, little man with blond mutton-chops burns and a mustache, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and the dandyish riding clothes of a European noble." He introduces himself as Captain John Augustus Sutter, late of the Royal Swiss Guards of King Charles X of France.

The Gold Rush

"Although the gold in the California hills eventually ran out — the impact of the Gold Rush era lives on. California was shaped by the adventurers who stayed -- to form the idea that is California today: a place that accepts and nurtures risk takers." The best nuggets on this PBS site (created as a companion to their television documentary) can be found in the About the Gold Rush section. And don't miss the "amazing, weird, gross" Fun Facts. Would you pay $100 for a glass of water?

Gold Rush! California's Untold Stories

Welcome to Oakland Museum's Gold Rush exhibit. This virtual tour is divided into a narrative (Gold Fever), a display of Gold Rush paintings (Gold Rush Art), and a photo exhibit (Silver & Gold). The best clicks of the site are the multimedia components (Shockwave and Apple's QTR) listed across the top of each page. Unfortunately, the quiz and several other pages are just "Coming Soon."

Museum of City of San Francisco: Discovery of Gold

"It was in the first part of January, 1848, when the gold was discovered at Coloma, where I was then building a saw-mill. The contractor and builder of this mill was James W. Marshall, from New Jersey." So begins General Sutter's own account of the discovery of gold. This collection of eyewitness tales includes reports from European and New York newspapers, as well as a detailed chronology of California's history during the Gold Rush years.

The following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!

Gold Rush Sesquicentennial

Great American Gold Rush

Houston Chronicle: California Gold Rush 150 Years

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