Gold Miners Moved Often in Search of Wealth

"Becoming California, a series that brings the California Gold Rush
alive with the people who lived it."

by Don Baumgart

Local populations during Gold Rush times in northern California were extremely fluid. In 1859 reports of a gold strike on British Columbia's Fraser River caused many miners to break camp and head north. The supposed rich fields of gold turned out to be nearly valueless. California newspapers shouted about the new gold find, their information coming mostly from letters written by gold seekers along the Fraser. According to Lewis Swindle's book about the Fraser boom, "Was it a Humbug?" , more than a quarter of California's miners would head for this new promised land, unaware of the perils and dangers they would face. "...crossing the plains was nothing in comparison to trying to reach the gold fields of the Fraser River," Swindle wrote. Then, in 1859 and ‘60 came the Washoe exodus, according to The Nevada County Mining Review. "Hundreds of men left their homes, families and businesses to secure a location on the famous Comstock Lode," where Nevada's huge silver strike was cranking up, promising wealth for all. "The result was that the census of 1860 showed a decrease of 5,000 souls." The next ten years show an influx with the 1870 census giving Nevada County a population gain.

It started in Nevada County when James Spect panned gold at Rose's Bar in June of 1848, a month or so after James Marshall made his world-changing gold discovery at Coloma. "Marshall himself visited Nevada County in the summer of 1848, while engaged in escorting a party of immigrants across the mountains," the Mining Review reports. Camped on the banks of Deer Creek near what is now Nevada City, Marshall scooped up a few pans from the stream and found gold in each one.

In October, 1848, David Stamp and a partner migrated from the El Dorado dry diggings. They camped along Wolf Creek where Grass Valley now stands. "They remained but a short time," the Review recalls, "leaving as soon as winter set in." It was a matter of "get there early and move on," for the 49ers.

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Copyright Don Baumgart, 2009