| 1542 |
California coast first discovered and explored by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. |
| 1769 |
First Spanish Settlements in California. |
| 1821 |
Spanish rule in California ends with Mexican Independence. |
| 1834 |
California missions secularized by Mexican government, Indian neophytes become domestic servants and laborers on Californio ranches, farms. |
| 1839 |
John Sutter arrives in California, begins construction of outpost near mouth of American River. |
| 1841 |
John Bidwell finds gold in California mountain stream, but is unable to relocate it again later. |
| 1841 |
Gold discovered in southern California, west of Los Angeles; sets off a short, local rush. |
| 1845-1852 |
The Great Famine in Ireland |
| Spring, 1846 |
Mormons begin organizing trek to Salt Lake |
| April, 1846 |
Mexican War begins |
| 1848-1849 |
Revolutions sweep European nations |
| January 24, 1848 |
Traditional date given for Marshall’s discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill |
| February 2, 1848 |
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War, surrenders California and Southwest to United States. Mexican citizens who stay are promised full citizenship and property rights by the treaty. |
| February 13, 1848 |
Henry Bigler finds gold downstream from Sutter’s mill site. |
| March, 1848 |
Mormons finish work on Sutter’s Mill, begin mining at “Mormon Island” on the American River below Sutter’s Mill. |
| May 12, 1848 |
Samuel Brannan announces gold discoveries in San Francisco, kicking off local rush in California and eventually around the Pacific rim. |
| August 19, 1848 |
New York Herald first major newspaper on East coast to report the discovery of gold in California |
| Late Fall, 1848 |
Mining in California stops for winter, many miners return home, planning to come back next year. Estimates suggest that about 5,000 people have gone to the foothills, and gathered roughly 12,000 troy ounces of gold during the year. |
| December 5, 1848 |
President James Polk announced gold discovery in State of the Union. Samples of gold sent by Col. Mason are placed on display. |
| Winter 1848/49 |
The Great California Gold Rush begins in eastern United States and Europe |
| Spring 1849 |
First wave of sea-borne rush migrants begin arriving in San Francisco |
| August 1849 |
First wave of overland trail rush migrants begin arriving in California |
| September, 1849 |
Californians meet in Monterey, California to draft a state constitution, to set up a provisional state government, in the absence of congressional action to organize California as a territory. Ratified by local vote in November. Provisional state government set up to act, ten months before authorized by the US Congress. |
| November, 1849 |
Relief parties sent out from Sacramento to rescue migrants still trying to cross the Great Basin and the Sierras |
| End of 1849 |
Estimated that over 90,000 people have arrived in California during this year. Of these roughly two-thirds were from the United States. Estimate that perhaps 20% died within the first six months of arriving. Estimated that over 490,000 troy ounces of gold gathered this year. |
| 1850-1864 |
Taiping Rebellion in southern China, leads to rise in immigrants from Asia to India, SE Asia, Hawaii, and California. |
| Early 1850 |
Foreign Miners Tax Law passed by provisional California state government, requiring non-native miners—especially Mexican and Chinese—to pay the state a monthly fee of $25 in order to mine. |
| April 22, 1850 |
Indian protection act passed by provisional state government, which allows California settlers to enslave California native peoples. |
| August, 1850 |
Sacramento Squatter’s Riot |
| September 9, 1850 |
California becomes the 31st state. Compromise of 1850 allows California to enter the union as a “free state,” due to “popular sovereignty.” |
| End of 1850 |
Estimated that nearly 2,000,000 troy ounces of gold gathered this year. |
| March, 1851 |
California Land Act established the Land Commission, which requires holders of Spanish or Mexican land grants in California to prove they own the lands in a lengthy legal process. Most land will eventually be taken from original owners. |
| May, 1851 |
Australian gold rushes begin, after Edward Hargeaves, noting the similarity in the landscape between California and Australia, discovers gold in Victoria. |
| June, 1851 |
San Francisco businessmen, including Samuel Brannan, form Committee of Vigilance to prosecute crimes that they felt the city government was ignoring. |
| September, 1851 |
Treaty of Fort Laramie secures travel rights on plains between eastern States and California, but sets up coming conflicts with plains Indians. |
| End of 1851 |
Estimated 3.6 million troy ounces of gold gathered this year. |
| 1853 |
Filibustering William Walker establishes short-lived republics with the backing of his private army, in Sonora and Baja California, in attempts to extend US expansion. Three years later, he attempts a similar move in Nicaragua and Central America. |
| 1854 |
Kansas-Nebraska Act attempts to set up territories on plains in order to begin organizing transcontinental railroad to California; its provisions for popular sovereignty set off civil war in “Bleeding” Kansas. |
| 1854 |
US Government opens San Francisco Mint, to turn California gold into standardized gold dollars. |
| 1854 |
Stocks in mining companies, many purchased by British investors, collapse. “Honest Harry” Meigs accused of manipulating stock and land warrants, flees city. Though gold is still being mined, individual prospecting is all but over, and even raising capital for mining equipment becomes much more difficult. 1848-1854: over 16.7 million troy ounces of gold has been gathered, valued at the time at over $345 million. |
| January, 1855 |
Panama Railroad completed |
| End of 1855 |
Estimated that over 300,000 people have moved to California since the beginning of the gold rush. |
| 1856 |
British Columbia gold rush |
| May, 1856 |
Second Committee of Vigilance in San Francisco formed, this time to conduct trials as well as to fight what it viewed as political corruption. |
| July, 1858 |
Pikes Peak/Denver gold rush begins |
| 1859 |
Comstock Silver rush begins in Virginia City, Nevada. Between 1848-1859, over 28.7 million troy ounces of gold gathered in California. |
| 1860 |
Lincoln elected President; Civil War breaks out the following spring. |
| 1862 |
Pacific Railroad Act authorizes construction of transcontinental railroad to California. |
| 1865 |
Samuel Clemens, under the pen name Mark Twain, publishes “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” bringing him international attention. |
| 1868 |
Burlingame Treaty between US-China allows Chinese subjects in the US rights of transit and religious belief. |
| 1868 |
Bret Harte starts The Overland Monthly; his The Luck of Roaring Camp” in the second issue raises him to national prominence and characterizes the gold rush as a comic romp. |
| 1869 |
Transcontinental Railroad is completed, linking California to the eastern states. |
| 1870 |
California Indian population, estimated at 150,000 before the rush, now estimated at less than 30,000. |
| 1872 |
US General Mining Act codifies California mining practices for whole nation. |
| 1872 |
Roughing It, Mark Twain’s stories of his western travels, are published. |
| 1873 |
The Gilded Age is published by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, portraying a comic yet dark image of western expansion and speculation. |
| 1874 |
Black Hills Gold Rush |
| 1884 |
In Edwards Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Mining and Gravel Company, US district court Judge Lorenzo Sawyer bans hydraulic mining, ending one of the more devastating practices of the early gold rush. |
| 1882 |
Chinese Exclusion Act, US federal law signed by President Arthur, based on earlier California practices, despite Burlingame Treaty of 1868 |
| 1890 |
Society of California Pioneers of New England tours California by rail. |
| 1893 |
Frederick Jackson Turner presents his thesis on “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” in Chicago, painting a progressive view of western development, including the gold rushes. |
| 1896-99 |
Klondike gold rush |
| 1899-1909 |
Nome, Alaska gold rush |
| 1920s |
Southern California scene of rushes similar to 1849 in the real estate, oil, and entertainment industries. |
| 1925 |
Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush paints a comic picture of the Alaska gold rush, much in the tradition of Bret Harte. |
| 1939 |
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath published, and produced as a movie the following year, suggests a new rush to California, but with a darker tone of realism. |
| 1951 |
Paint Your Wagon opens on Broadway portrays California gold rush in comic musical production. |
| 1990s |
Several new historical studies, including works by Malcolm Rohrbough, Susan Johnson, and Richard Orsi, published around the time of the 150th anniversary of the gold rush, paint the rush in more complex and grittier terms. At the same time, Silicon Valley in California is touted as the “new California gold rush.” |