Local Merchants and the Gold Rush

The people that did really well during this time were the merchants; as a matter a fact they made even more money than the miners themselves did off of the gold rush. The reason for this was because they charged astronomically elevated prices and anyone that was interested in mining or simply doing shopping or anything for that matter, had no choice but to pay the shocking amounts that were charged.

Every day groceries such as eggs were sold at three dollars an egg, one onion cost two dollars and a barrel of flour cost the ridiculous amount of eight hundred dollars! The businesses that boomed were hotels during this time as well. The hotels were not only used for the people that mined but they were also places that would people used to meet in and have meetings in. As you can imagine the hotels were constructed in a very cheap and quick way and were certainly not what we have these days.

Mrs. Louise Clappe, who was the wife of a doctor that had gone to the camp at Rich Bar in the summer of 1851, describes what the life was like in San Francisco and the Feather River mining communities of Rich Bar and Indian Bar and gives detailed information of what the hotels were like. They first lived in mining camps and her husband, Dr. Clappe, practiced medicine after which they moved to San Francisco. The Shirley letters are a series of letters that Mrs. Clappe wrote to her sister in 1851 to 1852. Dame Shirley’s (Mrs. Clappe) letters highlights on the experiences of the women and children during this time as well as the miners, their work, crimes and punishment and the relations with native Hispanic inhabitants and Native Americans.