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In the early 1840’s, California was a place that housed very few people and was not of much interest to people. One man, John Sutter, saw it as a land of opportunity, a place where he could build an agricultural empire. In 1847, Sutter sent some men down to the American River to build a sawmill which would provide lumber for his visionary farm. Things were going as planned, the sawmill was almost finished, when all of a sudden, one of the men James Marshall spotted something shiny. It was on this day, January 24, 1848, that the first gold of the gold rush was discovered.

The problem with this discovery was that Sutter didn’t want gold-seekers to take over the land that he had envisioned for his enormous farm, and Marshall didn’t want them getting in the way of building his sawmill. So, they decided to keep the discovery of gold a secret. But, keeping gold a secret was nearly impossible. Rumors started, and a merchant, Sam Brannan began spreading the word like wildfire through the streets of San Francisco, yelling “gold, gold in the American River!” Brannan became the richest person in California from the California Gold Rush, however, he never mined for gold. His money maker was in selling shovels. You see, when he heard of the discovery of gold, he figured people would rush to dig for it. And to dig for it, what would they need? Shovels of course, and he wanted to be the man to provide them to the people.

By the winter of 1848, the word of gold moved eastward, but many people did not believe it as fact. However, in December of 1848, President James Polk confirmed the rumors by giving a speech announcing the glittering discovery. Millions of people took this speech to heart, and all of a sudden the prospect of gold became an epidemic. By 1849 farmers were leaving their fields, merchants closed their shops and soldiers left their posts all to go west to California, and strike it rich in gold.

Read on to find out how the gold rush made an impact on San Francisco.