Is there still gold in California? Why the gold rush lives on 200 years later
On the morning of Jan. 24, 1848, James Marshall made a discovery that would forever change the trajectory of California.
In a creek near the town of Coloma, a remote community wedged in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the local carpenter spotted pea-sized flecks catching the sun's rays: small gold nuggets.
“It made my heart thump, for I was certain it was gold,” Marshall later would say.
News of the riches would soon spread beyond across the United States, kick-starting a wave of mass migration to California that boosted the nation’s economy, reshaped the landscape and altered its culture.
One hundred and seventy-seven years later, California continues to lead the U.S. in gold production and discovery. The spirit of the original forty-niners who tilled the land lives on in those still digging for riches in the California soil.
When did the gold rush start?
When word of the gold first trickled 130 miles south to the port of San Francisco, most didn’t believe the story until an entrepreneur by the name of Sam Brannan walked the streets of the town with a jar filled with gold dust.
San Francisco became a ghost town by the spring of 1848. Most men had left their shops to work the mines and others throughout California soon followed.
On the day of Marshall’s discovery, the United States and Mexico had been embroiled in a two-yearlong war and California was technically under Mexico’s control. Neither side knew about the discovery when they signed a treaty giving the U.S. control of California nine days later on Feb. 2, 1848.
News of the discovery didn’t reach the United States East Coast population centers until midsummer of that year. And it wasn’t until former President James K. Polk spoke of “accounts of the abundance of gold” in his December State of the Union address that people began to flock to California in droves.
The state’s non-Indigenous population rose from an estimated 14,000 to nearly 100,000 by the end of 1849 and more than 250,000 by 1852. These settlers were dubbed “forty-niners” after the year they arrived.
The gold mines became melting pots, as farmers from Oregon and businesspeople from New York mixed with prospectors from Mexico, Chile, Hawaii and China.
Supply stores, saloons, gambling businesses and laundries opened in make-shift towns all around the Sacramento River.
Yes, there's still gold in 'them thar hills'
Almost two centuries later, California continues to see the largest number of new gold discoveries of any state in the country. An analysis of U.S. Geological Survey data compiled by SD Bullion in 2023 found that a total of 10,373 gold-bearing locations have been uncovered in the state.
Ed Allen, a historian at the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, said that only 10% to 15% of the gold in California has been found.
Terry Prebalick, a gold hunter who has been working the land for decades, said he feels like the original miners only found about 1% of the available gold because of how much is out there.
In 1979 after he got out of the military, Prebalick moved to Sonora, California, from his home in Minnesota to set up a print shop. One afternoon on his lunch break, he watched an old man pull out a 3 ½-ounce gold nugget from the nearby creek.
Prebalick described his sudden urge to mine for gold as “almost intoxicating.”
“That weekend, I went out and I bought a pan and shovel. I thought I was gonna be rich,” Prebalick said.
The type of wealth he dreamed of never quite materialized, but for the decades since, Prebalick has sustained himself off the income he gets from selling chunks and flecks of gold. One day, he found a whopping 127 ounces, which he was able to sell for around $2,600 an ounce. On other days, he’s come up with nothing.
“You eat fried egg sandwiches for about a fourth of the year, and then for another fourth of the year you might eat steak, and then you get hamburgers for the rest,” he said.
Today, his son, Nick Prebalick owns and operates a tour company called California Gold Panning that allows tourists to try their luck at mining for gold. The business helps supplement the families' passed-down passion for gold hunting. In busy summer months, the company sees 10 tour groups a day filled with around 30 people each – mostly “pencil pushers” from the Bay Area and tourists from farther afield, Prebalick said.
Most of the gold is under the earth’s surface, but strong floods, including ones that washed through the state in 2022 and 2023, help push down gold from the tops of mountains, the younger Prebalick, known as “Nugget Nick,” said.
Despite advances in technology, Terry Prebalick said techniques for prospecting for gold haven’t changed much in the last few centuries.
“The only difference is now that we have plastic and aluminum for our sluice boxes, when before they'd make them out of the wood and their Levi's,” he said, referring to the sifting device they use to find gold.
“And the shovel makers and the ones that sell us the equipment are still making the most money,” Prebalick added with a chuckle.
Negative consequences of the gold rush
Like many get-rich-quick quests, the California gold rush caused a wave of destruction.
During the peak years of the gold rush, the population of indigenous people in California dropped from some 150,000 to roughly 31,000, according to the International Indian Treaty Council.
The state of California enacted a law in 1860 known as the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians making it legal to force Indigenous people into indentured servitude. It is said to have led to the enslavement of more than 25,000 Native Americans in California.
Many Black Americans garnered wealth during the gold rush by opening up shops and mining for gold. Even though California was deemed a free state, however, many regions tolerated slavery. Some 200 to 300 enslaved African Americans were forced to the West Coast to work in the mines.
Gold prospectors also ran roughshod over California’s environment. Dams were built to aid mining efforts, changing the course of rivers, and hydraulic mining techniques washed sediment into bodies of water that flowed into agricultural areas, threatening farms and human health. Mercury used to process gold also ended up in water supplies.
In 1882, California passed the nation’s first environmental law, banning the dumping of mining debris into rivers.
Remnants of the gold rush
Other effects of the gold rush can still be seen across America today. Here are a few:
◾ Chinatown: The California legislature adopted legislation to make it more difficult for non-U.S. citizens to mine for gold. The law led many Chinese mining immigrants to head south to San Francisco where they established America’s first “Chinatown.”
◾ Levi Jeans: Levi Strauss journeyed from New York to San Francisco to open a dry goods business during the gold rush. He patented a technique for making long-lasting pants for miners – what we know today as blue jeans.
◾ Transcontinental railroad: As development flourished on the West Coast, new ways of traveling from coast to coast were needed. Congress passed legislation to increase the number of U.S. railroad networks, including the creation of the Transcontinental railroad beginning in 1863.