On January 24, 1848, workers building a saw mill discovered gold in California's
American River. As a result of the discovery, California's population grew
from approximately 8,000 in 1840 to 100,000 in 1850!
On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall—a carpenter working at John Sutter's sawmill near Placerville and Coloma, CA—discovered gold in California's American River. Marshall's nugget initiated the first of several large-scale western migrations in American history as miners, prospectors, and dreamers sought their share of the 750,000 pounds of gold found in California between 1848 and 1855.
Following the discovery of the first gold nugget in his sawmill's tailrace, John Sutter hoped to keep the find a secret to protect the agricultural empire he was building. For Sutter's workers, the news was too good to keep quiet. Rumors of gold in the area around New Helvetia (Sacramento, CA) reached San Francisco in March 1848. The New York Herald reported the news on August 19, 1848, noting that the metal could be found in abundance and was waiting for miners to arrive to claim it. In his December 1848 address to Congress, President James Polk confirmed that the territory (which Mexico ceded to the United States earlier in the year following acceptance of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) was rich with gold.
Between 1849 and 1855, thousands of aspiring miners, entrepreneurs, and their families made the arduous land and sea journey to California. As a result of its rapidly growing population and the Compromise of 1850, California became a state without first being a territory. The vast majority of people arriving in California never "struck it rich." Many followed rumors to other gold and silver strikes, opened businesses supplying mines and miners, and helped open the western United States to settlement. Today, Americans and immigrants continue to dream of a new life in California making the "Golden State" the most populous in the United States. In the 165 years between 1850 and 2015, the state grew from 92,597 to more than 39 million.
You can learn more about California's growth, the California Gold Rush, and the nation's mining industry using census data and records. For example:
News of the discovery of gold in California reached the eastern United States by August 1848. President James Polk confirmed the discovery
in an address to Congress on December 5, 1848. Americans soon began "rushing" to California by land and sea before the "easy" gold disappeared.
Between 1850 and 1860, California's population grew from 92,597 to 379,994—a 310 percent increase!
Photo courtesy of the State of Oregon.
On January 1, 1960, the U.S. population reached 179 million—nearly doubling in size since 1910.
Between 1910 and 1960, Los Angeles, Houston, and Washington, DC, replaced Boston, Pittsburgh, and Buffalo on the list of the nation's 10 largest urban places.
California gold miners "rushed" to Nevada's Virginia Range following the 1859 announcement of the Comstock Lode's rich silver and gold fields.
The influx of miners and their families led to the creation of the Nevada Territory (from the Utah Territory) in 1861, and statehood on October 31, 1864. Between 1860 and 1870, Nevada's population grew from 6,857 to 42,941.
Miners and entrepreneurs established Virginia City, NV—county seat of Storey County, NV—to support Comstock Lode mining activities in 1859. Peaking at 10,917 in 1880, Virginia City's population was 855 in 2010.
Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
In 2012, there were 6,091 mining establishments (except oil and gas, NAICS 212) in the United States that employed 211,830 people.
In 2014, the U.S. Geological Survey reported that domestic gold mines (NAICS 212221) produced approximately 210 metric tons of the yellow metal valued at $8.6 billion. In that same year, silver mines (NAICS 212222) produced more than 1,180 metric tons of silver.
Photo courtesy of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.