How did the California gold rush impact the US permanently?

Answer 1

The gold rush started a mass migration to the west, essentially causing the settling of an area largely unsettled by Americans. It also started the land struggle between Mexicans and Americans. With Mexican laws no longer in effect, the Mexican land owners had no proof of land ownership, resulting in the theft of land by many Americans.

Answer 2

Well, the gold rush is responsible for making California a state. Without it, the federal government wouldn't have rushed its statehood and it would have remained poorly inhabited. The gold rush brought hundreds of thousands of people, and thus trade, investment and much crime to California. Without all those people and without the gold, the transcontinental railroad would not have been built, even though that was completed years later (1869).

As far as the gold rush on the entire nation, in some ways, at the time, not much more than what I said. The nation was enveloped in the Civil War, and fairly distracted by it. However, all the people and transcontinental railroad joined the east and west. The growth and change the railroad brought and what it did for the nation cannot be measured. It contributed greatly to trade and populating the vast areas between the east and west.

Without the gold rush we would have have the transcontinental railroad (certainly not as quickly as we did; the interest and money would not have been there) and as such, the largess of the nation would not have grown as quickly. Most likely people would slowly moved westward and there would not have been the exodus there was (from around the world to California).

I hope this gives somewhat of an answer to a complex question.