How successful was the California Gold Rush?

Answer 1

Very. Sutter was given a Mexican land grant in the 1838 and built a fort in the area that is now Sacramento. He laid out the city and when the western movement began his fort grew. His fort was the only place people who came in on the California trial had to go to. Sutter was Swiss and liked to dress in uniforms and to gain the grant from Mexico he had to convert to be Catholic and a Mexican citizen. John Fremont went to Sutter to obtain his help in establishing the Bear flag republic and when the Mexican governor was take by Fremont's men he was taken to Sutter's Fort and locked up. John Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848. He found gold flakes in the traces of the saw mill. Soon it was leaked that gold was found. Sutter tried to stop it from getting out but a San Francisco newspaper had a headline about the discovery and soon 10,000 a day were arriving in the area. Over 300,000 people came to the state in the two years after the news. CA became a state in 1850 and Sutter lost everything.