The Gold Rush

In the 1840s San Francisco was just a very small town with only a few hundred inhabitants. However, within just a few years this number increased to 20,000. Why? Well, because of the Gold Rush, of course!

This story has three principal characters - John Sutter, James Marshall and Sam Brennan.

John Sutter was an agriculturalist who had a large amount of land and employed a lot of people to work on it. He wanted to create a perfect society where everyone had a job and was happy. James Marshall worked for John Sutter but on January 24th 1848 he found gold on the land. Sutter didn't want anybody to know about it but it was a very difficult thing to keep quiet. Rumours started and were spread by local businessman and newspaper publisher, Sam Brennan. By the end of 1848 it seemed that the whole world knew about it and this is how the Gold Rush started. People came from all over America, but not only - from Asia, Africa and Europe too!

San Francisco became the centre of the world in 1849 and a lot of people, especially Sam Brennan, made fortunes supplying the gold prospectors with the equipment they needed. Prices went up by an unbelievable amount. For example, a plot of land which cost $16 dollars in 1847, in 1849 cost $45,000! It became very difficult to find people who wanted to work there - everybody was working in the mines; teachers, doctors, housekeepers - they all had gold fever!

John Sutter's agricultural community was destroyed by thousands of people looking for gold and he eventually died a very poor man in 1880. Sam Brennan, however, became the richest man in California with an annual income of half a million dollars.

The Gold Rush finished after a few years but many of the people from all over the world stayed, which helps to explain why San Francisco is such an ethnically diverse city with a wonderful mix of cultures.

Incidentally, the football team from San Francisco is called the 49ers after the nickname of the people who came there to look for gold - in 1849.