One of the largest and most famous cities in the United States is San Francisco, but it hasn't always been popular. In fact, in 1848 there were only five hundred people living there. Only two years later in 1850ㅡthanks to something called the Gold Rushㅡthe city had grown to 25,000 people.
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On a cold morning in January 1848, James Marshall and John Sutter were on the banks of the American River building a sawmill. Marshall saw something glittering in the water, and when he pulled it out, he realized it was gold!
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Marshall and Sutter didn't want people to stop the construction of their sawmill, so they agreed to keep the gold a secret. Unfortunately for them Sam Brannan found out about the gold, and that is how the Gold Rush began.
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Sam Brannan was a brilliant businessman. Unlike Marshall and Sutter, he knew that he could make money from gold without even digging for it. First, Brannan bought every shovel, pan, and digging tool in San Francisco. Then, he ran through the streets yelling, "There's gold in the American River! Gold for everyone! We'll be rich!"
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Of course everyone wants to be rich. But to get rich with gold, people need tools to mine the gold. In 1848 shovels usually cost 25 cents, but now that Brannan owned them all, he charged 15 dollars for each shovel! People were desperate for gold, and in only nine weeks, Brannan made $36,000 selling tools.
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Over the next year, stories about rivers full of gold in California spread east. People in the eastern United States were eager to mine gold, but there was no easy way to get to California. Some people crossed the plains in covered wagons, and other people traveled by boat around South America. Either way the trip took at least six months, and very few people survived.
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Many hopeful miners traveled to California using wagons. However, California is on the edge of the Nevada desert. Many people would run out of water and die in the desert when they were so close to the end of their journey.
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Californian businessmen decided to make money off this, so they rode into the desert with large barrels of water and sold glasses of water for one dollar, five dollars, and even one hundred dollars to thirsty travelers!
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The biggest years of the Gold Rush were 1848 through 1850. During those two years, people traveled to California from China, Mexico, Europe, and all over the United States to find gold. This made California an international cultural center unlike any other place in the world.
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Unfortunately of the 25,000 people who traveled to California to find gold, very few became rich. In fact, most of the people who became rich during the Gold Rush never lifted a shovel. The people who made the most money from the Gold Rush were those who took care of the miners.
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There were very few women in California at this time, so the ones who were there made a lot of money by taking care of the men. For example, one woman made $18,000 just by selling pies she baked in her oven.
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Another woman charged eight dollars just to wash a dozen pieces of laundry, when in other states it cost only 25 cents. Other women made dinner for twenty men every night and sold each plate of food for ten dollars! In any other state, these prices would have been robbery, but in California the miners were desperate and paid the high prices.
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Many men who left their homes to find gold in California also left their families behind. "I'll be home in a year, and we'll be richer than you can dream," a man would promise his family as he left. But with so many people in California, it became very difficult to find gold, and many men were not able to return to their families.
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Women were scarce in California, and the men were lonely. One man was able to find a bride in California, and when he got married, he charged men five dollars to come to the wedding to see his new wife. The men were so desperate to see a woman's face that they happily paid five dollars each!
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The story of the Gold Rush is a story of both riches and poverty. Though many people didn't become rich, in the end they created a very rich state. Today California celebrates its Gold Rush history in many waysㅡone of which is San Francisco’s football team, named the 49ers after the many gold miners who arrived in 1849. Of course there may still be gold in that American River; no one really knows.