WEBVTT - Who Really Profited from the Gold Rush?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here. You'd think that finding gold

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<v Speaker 1>on your property would mean the end of all your troubles,

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<v Speaker 1>But for one John Sutter, it was just about the

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<v Speaker 1>worst thing that could have happened. In the eighteen hundreds.

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<v Speaker 1>Cutter was an entrepreneur and owned a large tract of

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<v Speaker 1>land in California. He hired a carpenter named James Marshall

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<v Speaker 1>to build a water wheel for a mill on his property.

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<v Speaker 1>Then in Marshall discovered flakes of gold in the river.

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<v Speaker 1>Although the two men tried to keep the findest secret,

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<v Speaker 1>they failed miserably, especially after an enterprising gentleman named Sam

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<v Speaker 1>Brennan paraded around with a vial of gold and announced

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<v Speaker 1>the whereabouts of the new discovery. He himself didn't go prospecting.

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<v Speaker 1>He knew of a smarter way to make his fortune.

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<v Speaker 1>As we'll see in just four years. By eighteen fifty two,

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<v Speaker 1>Sutter would be bankrupt, his property overrun, and his livestock

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<v Speaker 1>stolen by avaricious prospectors. It's hard to exaggerate the enormity

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<v Speaker 1>of the Gold rusha's impact on California. In a few

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<v Speaker 1>short years, it transformed from a sparsely populated, newly acquired

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<v Speaker 1>territory of the United States to a fully formed state

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<v Speaker 1>with a thriving economy. Between eighteen forty eight and eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>forty nine alone, the influx of settlers exploded from just

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred to ninety thousand. To accommodate the flood of

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<v Speaker 1>forty niners, as these would be gold miners, came to

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<v Speaker 1>be called a gold mining town sprung up all over. Shops, saloons, brothels,

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<v Speaker 1>and other businesses set up to serve the forty niners

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<v Speaker 1>and make some money of their own. Chaos and sorter

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<v Speaker 1>were common, as we're gambling in violence. San Francisco became

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<v Speaker 1>the center of this booming new economy. For the indigenous

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<v Speaker 1>peoples who lived there, it was an unmitigated disaster. The

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<v Speaker 1>thousands of new immigrants pushed the native populations off their land,

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<v Speaker 1>depriving them of their hunting grounds. Violent confrontations broke out,

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<v Speaker 1>and the newcomers slaughtered as many as sixteen thousand of

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<v Speaker 1>California's first people's in what amounted to state sanctioned genocide.

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<v Speaker 1>The vast majority of the early gold rush immigrants were men,

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<v Speaker 1>or at least they appeared to be. There are numerous

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<v Speaker 1>recorded instances in which women dressed as men. For the

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<v Speaker 1>article this episode is based on. Has to Fork spoke

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<v Speaker 1>by email with Claire Sears, an associate professor of sociology

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<v Speaker 1>at San Francisco State University. As she said, this phenomenon

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<v Speaker 1>was so common in gold rush California that when a

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<v Speaker 1>newspaper photographer advertised for a lad to help him, he

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<v Speaker 1>was compelled to specify that no young women in disguise

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<v Speaker 1>need apply. Many of these prospectors did well at first.

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<v Speaker 1>There was a lot of gold to be found. There

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<v Speaker 1>are estimates that over the course of the gold rush,

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<v Speaker 1>some one thousand, seven hundred and fifty pounds that's about

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<v Speaker 1>seven kilos of this buttery metal were unearthed. But a

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<v Speaker 1>few people were able to hold on to their new

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<v Speaker 1>found wealth. Life in a boom town was notoriously expensive,

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<v Speaker 1>and there were so many ways to lose what you

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<v Speaker 1>had found, alcohol, brothels and gambling being the chief enticements. Still,

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<v Speaker 1>there were a few characters who got rich and stayed

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<v Speaker 1>that way. One of them was George Hurst, the father

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<v Speaker 1>of publishing magnate William Randolph Hurst, and by the time

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<v Speaker 1>he died, George Hurst was worth nineteen million dollars, which

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<v Speaker 1>is a considerable fortune today, and was worth the equivalent

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<v Speaker 1>of over half a billion in today's money at that time.

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<v Speaker 1>But interestingly, Hurst didn't prospect for gold when he arrived

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<v Speaker 1>in California. Instead, he mined courts. Building on his earnings,

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<v Speaker 1>he went on to invest in silver mines across the country,

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<v Speaker 1>amassing of vast fortune and ending up a U. S. Senator. Meanwhile,

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<v Speaker 1>one Jean Baptiste Charbonneau probably didn't strike it rich, but

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<v Speaker 1>he must have made enough to afford the exorbitant cost

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<v Speaker 1>of living in gold crazed California because he stuck it

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<v Speaker 1>out for years and ended up running a hotel there.

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<v Speaker 1>Charbonneau was an intriguing figure in part because he was

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<v Speaker 1>the son of the famous Chicago weea and a Frenchman

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<v Speaker 1>by the name of Toussaint Charbonneau. As an infant, he

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<v Speaker 1>was with his parents on the Lewis and Clark expedition,

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<v Speaker 1>and after his mother's death, he was adopted by Clark.

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<v Speaker 1>One of Charbonneau's fellow prospectors ended up running the hotel

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<v Speaker 1>with him. The man's name was Jim Beckworth. And his

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<v Speaker 1>story is at least as intriguing. Also, he's the only

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<v Speaker 1>black person to have published an autobiography in those days

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<v Speaker 1>in the American West. He did tend to exaggerate a bit.

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<v Speaker 1>He was known for spinning a good yarn, But his

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<v Speaker 1>story goes like this. Born into slavery, Backworth was free

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<v Speaker 1>by his master, who was also his father, and headed west,

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<v Speaker 1>where he became a successful fur trapper, living with the

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<v Speaker 1>chron nation for years. He married the daughter of a

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<v Speaker 1>chief and fought with them, rising to the level of

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<v Speaker 1>war chief. He may have discovered what's now known as

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<v Speaker 1>the Beckworth passed through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and he

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<v Speaker 1>helped establish a Native American trail that's now known as

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<v Speaker 1>the Beckworth Trail, which thousands followed on their way to California.

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<v Speaker 1>But the people who really made money on the California

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<v Speaker 1>gold Rush were merchants. Take Levi Strouse. When he heard

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<v Speaker 1>news of the California gold Rush, he headed to San Francisco,

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<v Speaker 1>where he established his wholesale dry goods business in eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>fifty three. Then in eighteen seventy two, Strauss partnered with

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<v Speaker 1>one of his customers, a tailor from Reno Nevada by

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<v Speaker 1>the name of Jacob Davis, who was designing heavy cotton

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<v Speaker 1>work pants with rivets hammered in the corner pockets to

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<v Speaker 1>make them more durable. Levi Straussing Company couldn't sell enough

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<v Speaker 1>of their waiste high overalls to the miners, lumberjacks and farmers,

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<v Speaker 1>and well you know the rest of the story. And

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<v Speaker 1>remember Sam Brennan from the beginning of this episode, the

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<v Speaker 1>one who basically kicked off the gold rush by parading

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<v Speaker 1>around with that vial of precious metal. Rather than staking

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<v Speaker 1>acclaim on the gold, Brandon bought up all the equipment

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<v Speaker 1>that prospectors would need, and then when the rush began,

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<v Speaker 1>resold the merchandise at a steep mark up. His store

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<v Speaker 1>made enormous profits, selling as much as five thousand dollars

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<v Speaker 1>in goods per day to miners. That's some one and

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<v Speaker 1>fifty five thousand a day in today's money. He became

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<v Speaker 1>California's first millionaire. Today's episode is based on the article

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<v Speaker 1>who Really Struck It Rich during the California Gold Rush

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<v Speaker 1>on how stuff Works dot com written by a Scene Koran.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with How Stuff Works. Dot com and its produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Clang. Four more podcasts, My Heart Radio, visit the

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