Gold Rush Settlers

The 49’ers flocked in from everywhere, they came from Mexico, Europe, Oregon, Utah, and many other places all with the dream of finding gold. The gold was not only found along the American River but also along the Yuba and Feather Rivers. Discoveries were also made in the Tuolumne, the Mokelumne, the Stanislaus and the Consumnes Rivers. The prospectors that passed by the Oregon Territory also found gold along the Trinity River.

These people were not only interested in getting gold though; they were also interested in the American Dream of Freedom. At this time these people did not have any laws, they based themselves on the premise of honor. There was not a great amount of crime during the first few years. People were not into taking other people’s gold and they did not go into other people’s claims.

Men would dig and work as long as they felt like, and would spend what they wanted to as well. They were aware that they would be able to make more the next day if they needed to. This was obviously one of the greatest times for the history of man.

During that time a great number of camps were set up too and these camps obviously then turned into towns. The site that Marshall found the gold went from having only a few men to having over three thousand five hundred people by July 1849. Later on it went up to a population of ten thousand people and opened up thirteen hotels and more than fifty saloons.

Placerville was at first called Dry Diggings since it did not have a lot of water in it and after someone was hung there the name changed to Hang Town. When the gold rush ended the people decided to change its name to Placerville. In the same way all the camps had their own little story to them and this was reflected in their names such as Illinoistown, Fair Play, Chinese Camp, Loafer Hill, Cut Throat, Rich Bar, Coffee Gulch etc.

The merchants in these camps made more money than the miners themselves did off of the gold rush. They charged ridiculously high prices and anyone that wanted to mine or eat or anything had no choice but to pay the outrageous amounts. Simple stuff such as eggs was sold at three dollars per egg, an onion cost two dollars and a barrel of flour cost eight hundred dollars. The ones that did really well were the hotels during this time too. The hotels were used for the people to meet in and would room the miners. Obviously the hotels in those days were not like the ones we have now, they were made very cheaply and quickly.