The Gold Rush
![Picture](/uploads/9/5/2/4/9524546/941534656.jpg)
On January 24, 1848, James Wilson Marshall, a carpenter originally from New Jersey, found flakes of gold in the American River at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Coloma, California. Just days after Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, ending the Mexican-American War and leaving California in the hands of the United States. Though Marshall and Sutter tried to keep news of the discovery under wraps, word got out, and by mid-March at least one newspaper was reporting that large quantities of gold were being turned up at Sutter's Mill. As news spread of the fortunes being made in California, the first migrants to arrive were those from lands accessible by boat, such as Oregon. Throughout 1849, people around the United States borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of. After 1850, the surface gold in California largely disappeared and gold mining continued through the 1850's it reached its peak in 1852.