Original subtitles

(drums beating)

(dramatic music)

- [Voiceover] I have left those that I love as my

own life behind.

And risked everything and endured many hardships to

get here.

I want to make enough to live easier and do some

good with before I return.

S. Shoefelt.

- [Voiceover] The desire to better one's life

and that of those whom they love and care for

is an inherent trait in human beings.

Men and women from all over the globe

traversed mountains, endless prairies

and navigated immense expanses of ocean.

In the attempts to do just that during the gold rush.

Major world events

like the California gold rush act as catalysts

for dramatic changes in culture.

The world and everyday people's lives.

This discovery

causes the single largest

mass migration in American history.

Bringing roughly 300,000 new people

to California.

These events also contain many universal qualities

that draw people from all walks of life.

Gold was resting in a river bed

waiting to be found.

It was almost an unbelievable concept.

Yet it represented a chance at freedom

for so many across the world.

This was a chance for men and women

to escape the lives they had

for a chance at a better, brighter future.

In America at the time,

taking such bold chances such as a

cross-continental migration

along with the speculation for wealth

was a rare act.

Quite literally,

overnight,

the discovery of gold in the American river

changed all that.

However,

the discovery of gold brought about changes

that did not positively affect all people.

There were those who hailed from foreign lands.

As well as the American Indians and the Californios.

During the course of the rush

many of them would face harsh racism

and prejudices from the white miners.

The California gold rush was a magnet that drew

those eager to change their lives.

It pulled people in from every corner of the world.

The 49ers called themselves Argonauts

after the band of heroes in Greek mythology

who searched for the golden fleece.

In addition to the thousands of Americans

and Native Americans who sought out gold,

people came from Mexico, Chile, Australia, China,

Canada, Hawaii, and from all over Europe.

The Mexican American War ended a mere

nine days after the first glimmer of gold was discovered

in the American River.

Word had not yet reached either country's capital.

If it had,

perhaps the Mexicans would not have surrendered California.

And history would have been shaped very differently.

Some of the first people to reach the newly found gold

were Mexicans.

These men and women now found themselves returning

to familiar ground but it was now in a foreign land.

California was no longer theirs

yet it did not stop them from traveling.

Often with their entire families to the

gold fields of California.

Many were quite experienced in the art of gold mining

and this fact would not be lost on the less capable,

yet more entitled minds of the newly arriving Americans.

It did not take long before prejudice and racism took

hold of the fevered souls who made up the gold rush.

With the influx of so many new people from distant

countries and so far from the eyes of the politicians

back in Washington.

At the time California was ungoverned

and prejudice was let loose in many parts.

The far east was not exempt from the alluring pull

of the gold rush.

California sees an influx of nearly 23,000 people from China

over the duration of its period.

California draws the Chinese people across the Pacific

and towards her shores for several important reasons.

The eastern shore of China was a shorter distance to the

west coast of America than it was to the eastern portion

of the United States

and for those wishing to leave China,

this decision was clear cut.

Another factor was the Taiping Rebellion.

Which left many of the Chinese in the southeastern

parts of China in poverty

and the chance at discovering riches in California

was a way out of the despair that they were facing

in their homeland.

In the early days of the gold rush,

Chinese immigrants were treated very well

by the Americans.

Most people were to see them as an exotic addition

to the rapidly changing landscape of California.

In addition to this novelty,

the east Asians add to the melting pot of San Francisco.

The Chinese immigrants would often take the

most unsavory jobs that an average

might deem beneath him

and they would work it for a fair and decent wage

with no complaint.

Many of the Chinese immigrants chose to open their

own shops and establishments.

They could be found mending clothing,

tending bars,

cooking meals in restaurants that they owned.

Cleaning clothes and housing many a weary miner

along with filling any hole that needed to be filled

in the burgeoning gold rush economy.

In the beginning it was not uncommon to see whites

patronizing the establishments of Chinese immigrants.

The governor of California was even counted as saying

that the Chinese were, "One of the most worthy of our newly

adopted citizens." McDougal.

Those Chinese that did decide to try their hand at mining,

would often select claims that had already been abandoned

by whites

and with a more patient attitude,

they would be able to root out the gold that the more

impassioned and impetuous Americans might leave behind.

These men often worked in groups of 50 or more

to help ward off would be attackers and those

who would attempt to capture the claims from them.

These resourceful men also take added measures

to protect the gold that they find.

While they're still in the field,

the men cover the extracted gold with soot

as to conceal its true nature from any passerby

and then when they returned home,

they would melt it into pots and pans and other household

items to further hide the gold's true identity from sight.

The Chinese immigrants enjoy a mostly warm welcome

in the gold rush society of San Francisco, California.

But their good fortune does not last for too long.

Once the rivers, streams, and hillsides are picked

clean of the placer gold,

which is relatively easy to obtain,

the Americans attitude towards the once heralded

Chinese workers began to shift.

Fresh miners are constantly coming into the fields

and since the easy gold is no longer to be found,

the Americans in their frustration and disappointment,

begin to take it out on the Chinese.

The various jobs and trades such as

launderers, cooks, and cleaners that the

Chinese immigrants hold are now becoming

coveted by miners who have given up the dream

of finding riches.

These necessary yet undesirable holes that needed

to be filled in the gold rush society

are the only sources of income that is consistent.

The Americans accuse the Chinese of stealing these

jobs from them and driving down wages.

Discrimination becomes prevalent as the Americans

see these jobs as a way out of the hole they've made

and they're not about to let these immigrants

take this last chance from them.

The Irish potato famine

which begins in 1845 and lasts until 1852

deprives the country of more than one million lives

and more than a million more who immigrate

to another nation.

The famine causes Ireland's population to drop

almost 25 percent.

Many who escaped the famine immigrated to the east coast

of the United States.

New York was one of the most prominent

gateways to the nation.

Those who chose to continue westward

were most likely to be unmarried men

or men who would marry later in their lives

once in California.

These later in life marriages were a common trend

in Irish American famine survivors.

Both on the east and west coasts.

The life of an Irish American on the west coast

was often very different than the lives of those who chose

to remain back east.

Irish in the east are quick to set up communities

and neighborhoods that remained mostly

traditionally Irish.

Even in their choices of occupation

such as police officers and fire fighters

they tended to flock together and would

dominate that profession.

Conversely, in California the lifestyle was much different.

Many Irish found the standard of living much better

than back in New York.

The western society was more open

and occupations and communities were far less dominated

by one ethnicity.

San Francisco was underdeveloped

though rapidly growing which created many opportunites

for Irish Americans to find the economic stability

and commercial opportunities that had been lacking

in New York.

The Irish take the knowledge and experience

that they had acquired in Boston or New York

and carry it with them to California.

Where there is a demand for skilled laborers.

In addition to these new economic horizons

the Irish also experienced tolerance for their

Catholic religion and their more rural ways of life.

While bigotry is by no means extinct in gold rush era

California, attitudes are far better than those found on the

east coast.

In response to an outcry from German and Irish Americans

regarding the Chinese and Mexican miners in California

in 1850.

The state legislature enacts the Foreign Miners Tax

for all those not born in America or

who have not gained proper citizenship via

the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago.

The law imposes a tax of 20 dollars per month

on any foreign person wishing to mine in California.

This tax which is far too high for the majority of

Mexican and Chinese miners to afford

is motivated by economics as well as racism

from the Americans of European descent.

Within a year of the Foreign Miners Tax 10,000 Mexican

miners leave California.

The law is not meant to produce revenue for the state

but rather to exclude non-Americans from reaping the

benefits of gold mining.

Thousands of Mexicans and Chinese return home,

but many did stay and continued to be driving forces

in the development of California.

The Chinese went on to help build

the Transcontinental Railroad.

The lives the Chinese immigrants made in America

even with all the prejudices and setbacks

were a far better option than returning to China.

Many Chinese persevered and found new ways to succeed

in the midst of the rush.

Wah Lee was one such individual.

Once he gave up his attempts at mining for gold,

spending grueling days under the unforgiving California sun,

running water through a pan or a rocker,

he turned to the laundry business and found that

running water over dirty trousers would be a much more

profitable and stable business.

In 1851 Wah Lee opens the first Chinese laundry business

in San Francisco.

By 1870 there would be over 2,000 of them in the city.

Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829.

He and his family came to America

to start a new life and open a dry goods store

in New York City.

The family sent Levi out west in early 1853 to open

up a west coast branch of their company

and to take advantage of the still booming California

gold rush.

Strauss traveled west and set up shop in San Francisco.

It did not take long for his dry goods store to

become a success.

He opened up several locations and would often

give generously to charities and religious causes.

In 1872 a customer of Strauss who had purchased some

cloth from him asked Levi to help cover the costs of

a patent on a new kind of durable pants.

That man's name was Jacob Davis.

Strauss agreed and their venture would lead to the famous

blue jeans that we still know today.

It is easy to imagine some of those early pairs of

Levis trousers passing through the wash of Mr. Wah Lee.

These two men persevered and found success in those early

days of California.

- [Voiceover] Not all that tempts your wandering eyes

and heedless hearts is lawful prize,

nor all that glitters gold. Thomas Gray.

The fates and fortunes of Samuel Brannan and James Sutter

could not be more in contrast.

Their individual tales show us a unique side to the

multifaceted story that is the California gold rush.

They are unique inasmuch as that one man became

rich off the gold rush

and the other lost most everything.

Yet neither of them fell into the category

of a true miner, Argonaut, or 49er.

Brannan saw an opportunity in the sale of goods

to those who wish to take their chances in the minefields

and he took it.

He did not make his money by digging in the dirt

but by selling the implements that others would dig with.

He also helped to fuel the propaganda machine that would

be a catalyst towards mobilizing thousands of Americans

and people from all walks of life throughout the world.

Samuel Brannan had the California gold rush literally

walk right up to his front door.

Men came in to his shop who were from Sutter's Mill

and they paid for goods with gold flakes that

they had found in the American River.

Brannan foresaw the coming fever and when that fever

did hit, he adapted to it very quickly.

He became the first millionaire in the California gold rush.

Yet spent almost no time hunting for gold.

His money was made less by chance and moreso

by calculation.

The commodity he dealt in was not gold

but hope.

He knew that those who were hunting would come to him

in need of the necessary tools and goods and

when they did, he was ready to sell them all that they

needed and at a very healthy profit.

His empire would expand beyond general stores and the

sale of goods.

It would quickly move in to the construction of hotels

to house the eager Argonauts that flooded his city

and in to wharves to house the ever expanding amount

of goods that arrive daily upon the crowded shores

of San Francisco.

John Sutter was first on the scene.

In fact the scene was a piece of his land.

The accidental finding of gold in the American River

by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in 1848

would forever alter the fates of thousands upon thousands

of people around the globe.

What was only a small, shimmering object in the water

would become a catalyst for change in the nation.

Change in what it meant to be an American

and for California rushing headlong into statehood.

No state had come into the union before first spending

its fair share of time as a territory first.

The never before seen rush of people

and the ensuing boom of San Francisco and other

neighboring cities would prove to be an impetus

that would help thrust California into statehood

as well as pushing it into the spotlight on the world stage.

John Sutter had plans to become rich off the land in a

more traditional sense.

In addition to his mill, he had a sizable agricultural

empire in New Helvitia also known as

New Switzerland.

And his plans for farming and raising cattle

were quickly washed away like the sand and the silt

in the pan of an eager miner.

Word had spread that there was gold at Sutter's Mill

and nothing could stop the squatters that would come.

Sutter would spend most of the rest of his life trying to

regain his land or receive compensation for its loss

from the U.S. Government.

But he would never attain such satisfaction.

Antonio Franco Coronel was born in Mexico City in 1817.

He moved to Los Angeles at the age of 17 with his father

Ignacio who was a former officer in the Mexican army.

Antonio would also go on to serve in the Mexican army

and would fight the United States

in the Mexican American War.

On the heels of Mexico's defeat,

came the news that gold had been found in northern

California.

This news sparked Antonio's imagination

and he would soon become one of the early miners

to arrive at the scene.

He brought with him about 30 people which included

some Native American servants to help with the digging.

Within the first three days of their labor

over 2,000 dollars was pulled from the earth.

Coronel and his men continued to have success during the

1848 season and on into the next year.

In the early days of the rush,

people of all nationalities worked side by side

without much trouble or disagreement.

The gold was in abundance and easy enough for all to find.

Coronel's success in the gold rush was stunted

when his claim was invaded by armed Americans

threatening to kill him and his workers if they did

not surrender it to them.

This was an ever increasing act.

Americans intimidating and threatening those that

they deemed foreigners who were mining claims

that they believed by all rights belonged to them.

Coronel wisely chose to give up his claim.

Thus ending his tenure as a gold prospector.

The source of the antipathy towards Mexicans

was that the majority of them were Sonorans.

Men of expertise in gold mining

and consequently they quickly attained the best results.

Although his success in the California gold rush was

short lived, this was only the beginning of the success

that Coronel would enjoy during his lifetime.

He goes on to become the mayor of Los Angeles,

a city councilman and the state's treasurer.

His story is atypical of the Argonaut working on the mines.

Inasmuch as he found success quickly and he was able

to cease before the greed and the

harsh lifestyles overtook him.

Many more found no luck in life

and no luck in the California ground.

Hiram Pierce was one such man.

Hiram and Sarah Pierce were living in Troy, New York

when word of the riches being found in California

reached them.

It did not take long for this blacksmith and father of seven

to fall ill with gold fever,

In March of 1849 Hiram set off for California

by way of Panama.

His poor health did not stop him from seeking out

an easier and quicker way to better his family's situation.

He endured the long and treacherous walk across the isthmus

of Panama passing dead mules along the way and by

sheer luck avoided the diseases such as yellow fever

and malaria that dwelled in the jungles all around him.

Hiram made his way finally to San Francisco.

Prices for goods were exorbitantly high

but Hiram was at a loss and had no choice but to accept

the cost of doing business in the mines.

It had not taken long for the landscape

to dramatically change.

Gone are those early days of the gold rush

where miners of many creeds and colors

effortlessly worked side by side

and pulled riches from the ground.

It had already transformed into a cold, calculating

business that preyed upon the hopes and fragile

dreams of those men who succumbed to a very different

kind of yellow fever.

Sarah Pierce was forced to become the head of the household

in Hiram's absence.

She had seven mouths to feed and had to become

quite resourceful in order to do it.

She rented out their blacksmith shop,

called in debts that were owed to Hiram

and borrowed money from relatives.

Sarah Pierce's experience was not unique among women

who stayed east in the gold rush.

In the void that was left behind when the men of the house

left to try their chances at riches,

wives and mothers stepped in to take on all of the

household duties, in addition to the heavy burdens

that they already carried.

Many women did this not knowing when their husbands

would return home to them.

Or if the journey and the heartache would reap any

financial rewards.

Hiram's time in the mines earned him nothing more

than a homesick heart and a gaunt face brought on

by malnutrition.

Upon his return to New York over a year later,

his physical appearance had changed so much

that friends had trouble recognizing him.

Hiram Pierce returned to blacksmithing,

but he never stopped talking about returning to the mines.

He died before he could ever renew his dream of returning

to the west.

His stories and his dreams enchanted some of his children

and after his passing in 1866 they too ventured westward

to make their lives in California.

Though the majority of the wives, sisters, and daughters

of the men during the age of the gold rush

stayed behind on the home front,

not every woman's story was like Sarah Pierce's.

Women were in fact there in the mines from the very start.

Many of the first to break soil and being the hunt

for gold were those who already lived in California.

And entire families would go out into the gold fields

to mine together.

The native peoples of California would be sifting gold

through woven baskets and women played a major

role in that effort.

As the deluge of people from all over the world rushed into

San Francisco Bay and beyond,

the ratio of men to women in San Francisco and the

surrounding mines quickly becomes at least ten to one.

This ever growing disparity creates

a male dominated society.

Men would go weeks

even months without even the sight of the

opposite sex.

This one sided way of living and the long

exhausting hours of toiling out in the rivers and the

mountains soon causes many of the men to

crave the company of the fairer sex.

Miners would pay top dollars for almost any good or service

that was made by a woman's hand.

A woman waiting tables or mending clothing

could be making a better wage than the average miner.

After all, the majority of the 49ers relied on speculation

and pure luck to make money.

While these simple jobs that women held were in high

demand and there was an ever growing number of men

to call upon these services.

As the transportation routes became more consistent,

more women came west.

Husbands who decided to make California their new home

sent for their wives.

New relationships were conceived via letter

and proposals made from across the continent.

These women would often be married almost immediately

upon landing in the San Francisco Bay.

Single women also made the journey westward

and many did not have sufficient funds to afford

the cost of the trip.

So they signed on with brothels, saloons and the like.

Their passage would be paid for in full

by their new employer.

In exchange for this payment,

these girls agreed to a contract to work for the

establishment for a set period of time.

A home cooked meal or a darned sock was not the only

product or service that saw a spike in price and demand

in the wide open land of chance and opportunity

that was California.

Men sought the company of women

and they often sought more than just casual conversation.

- [Voiceover] Nearly all these women at home were

street walkers of the cheapest sort but out here

for only a few minutes they ask a hundred times as much

as they were used to getting in Paris. Albert Bernard.

- [Voiceover] The sex trade was not exempt from the

inflation in prices that was prevalent in almost all

goods and services during the period of the gold rush.

The prices that men paid for tools, meals, rooms to rent,

were high even by today's standards.

With the same being true of the world's oldest profession.

Once again we see more consistent money being made

not in the mines but coming out of the pocket books

of those who dig.

Some of these women choose the route of prostitution

out of necessity in order to pursue their dreams of

a new life out west

and some were part of the profession before they

ventured from their homes.

In either case, this was not the path of all women

who found themselves in California during this

period of time

and it is certainly not the path of Luzena Wilson.

- [Voiceover] Farewell dear wife

keep up good cheer.

There's glittering scenes before me.

You soon with me the wealth shall share

that lays in California.

- [Voiceover] The gold hunter's farewell to his wife.

Mason Wilson was no different than the

rest of the masses who were wooed by the promise

of fortune in California.

Hi mind was made up to uproot himself

from his home in Missouri

and make the trek.

He would not have to go alone.

His wife Luzena insisted that

wherever he went so could she and their two children.

Soon after Mason's decision

they would make the journey together

into the great open plains.

Once the family arrived in Sacramento

it was not a fact loss on Luzena

that are very few women to be found in the

surrounding areas.

In a six month stay in Sacramento

only a few other women were seen

by this new westerner.

One day while she was cooking dinner

for her family,

a man came up to her and offered

her money for her biscuits

more money than would be reasonable

in any other place in the country at that time.

He offered her upwards of 10 dollars

to which she scoffed.

When the man upped the offer,

she realized that he was in earnest and thus began

Luzena's journey into the business of

feeding and housing the masses who sought out the gold.

After a few days in Sacramento

the family sold their oxen and purchased a stake

in a small hotel.

The kitchen gained popularity

because the men craved a meal that was

cooked by a woman

and more importantly

it gave them a small respite from the

coarseness and hard labor of their

everyday lives.

A home cooked meal was worth more

than its weight in gold to these weary men.

In the winter of 1850

the levees broke in Sacramento

and it was enough to damage the Wilson's property

along with their barley crop.

Word had spread that miners were

striking it rich in Nevada City

and that information was enough to set the Wilson's

onto another path to a new city.

They once again became successful in Nevada City

but fires burned down their establishment

and once again they were without a home.

The Wilson's would face more hard times and fires

that would take their property

but Luzena never gave up

and she used every penny the family had

to remake it again and again.

Her perseverance keeps the family afloat

and ensures that they would not succumb

to the same fates that so many of the Argonauts

who ventured out west in the hopes

of quick riches would.

In 1872 Mason Wilson would abruptly

leave his family.

Abandoning them for Texas.

Luzena persevered and lived another 30 years

without him.

Her story is a shining example

of the strength of character in the women

who ventured out to California

during the time of the gold rush.

- [Voiceover] Really everybody ought to go to the mines.

Just to see how little it takes to make people

comfortable in the world. Louise Clapp.

- [Voiceover] A meal made by someone

such as Luzena Wilson

is a short respite for these men.

Who have been hardened by the coarse

San Francisco culture

and an opportunity to dine at a proper table

is like a small island of civility

for many of the rough and tumble men

who passed through these many mining towns

and sleep in crudely made tents

or cabins,

in hastily constructed camps every night.

It was a little bit of home.

A meal such as this most likely also contained

the much needed vitamins for the miner.

Since malnutrition is quite common among the men.

There half also suffered from sleeping on the damp ground.

Or being in close quarter bunks

with many other men who were in the same lot as they were.

The constant gnawing impulse to get back out in the fields.

Especially for those who have found no luck as of yet,

is only one of the daily worries that these men face.

Many of the Argonauts are thousands of miles from

their homes and families.

Loneliness runs rampant among the miners

as they pine for what they left behind.

Each day of mining begins in darkness

and does not end until the sun goes down.

The mining business is a repetitive grind that often

yields only a few dollars worth of gold.

Sometimes a day's labor does not even cover the cost

of doing business for the day.

These long hours and the exhausting work

along with the terrible food,

harsh climates and the dwindling amounts of placer gold

puts the stress levels even higher on each of these men.

Some of which results in racial outbursts towards the

aforementioned foreigners.

S. Shoefelt was one such miner who braved life in the camps.

No one knows what became of Mr. Shoefelt.

Whether he succeeded in striking it rich

or if he returned home to Wyndham, New York in failure.

Even his first name remains a mystery.

The only piece of his life story that remains

is in a letter that he wrote to his cousin in March of 1850.

In this letter he details what he saw around him.

His keen observations on the living conditions and the

lives of the men who endured these less than ideal

conditions leaves little to the imagination.

- [Voiceover] Many, very many

that come here meet with bad success and

thousands will leave their bones here.

Others will lose their health,

contract diseases that they will carry to their

graves with them.

Some will have to beg their way home

and probably one half that come here

will never make enough to carry them back.

But this does not alter the fact about the gold

being plenty here,

but shows what a poor, frail being man is.

How liable to disappointments,

disease and death.

- [Voiceover] The California gold rush

burst onto the world stage

with the help of Sam Brannan's prodding.

The gold rush boasted a fantastical stories

of average men just bending down

and reaching into a river

and picking out their new life's fortune's overnight.

It seemed too good to be true

but early on it was not.

Now that the word of the findings

had become widespread

most of the gold that could be easily

plucked from a riverbed with little to

no skill or effort had all been mined.

Making even just a day's wage was becoming more

difficult for the Argonauts.

Mining was slowly becoming more of a skilled trade

for those who had the money to implement the more

advanced mining techniques such as

hydraulics or dredging the entire river.

Men were becoming mere employees

of these corporations.

Earning a daily wage which was no different

than the lives they left back home.

These men and women ventured westward

in hopes of finding freedom and independence

from the limiting jobs and life's circumstances

that they faced back home

but now they were once again just another cog

in another machine.

But the bold did remain

those who chose to go it alone

or work with a small group.

These miners faced an uphill battle.

The average 49er works a six day work week

with only Sunday as a day of respite.

Those that did not stay at camp

would often venture into a town to seek out means

by which they could ease their minds.

As a source of comfort in their off time,

the miners often turned to dancing and singing

and listening to music to fight off the lonesomeness

and the stresses that they constantly felt.

While California held the promise of making a new life,

it was still a mostly untamed land

and many of the creature comforts that could be found

back east were a rarity out west.

Another form of escape is alcohol.

It was not uncommon for men to turn to the bottle.

Or to the company of prostitutes.

Or to games of chance to keep their minds

off of their situations

and to buoy their hopes against the fact

that they may never find that mysterious payload

that they had traveled so far and exhausted

so much of their energy to root out.

A biting irony of the gold rush is that these men

slave away all day in the hills and the rivers

to pull a few dollars of precious metal out of the earth.

Only then to carelessly spend it in one day on liquor

and women and games of chance.

For so many who came out west,

their mission was to find riches

and then to return home to their families,

their towns, and their former lives.

Without even knowing it,

with every shovel of dirt that they dug,

panned, sluiced or dredged,

they were building themselves a new life in California.

They are wagering their future for one night

of numb exhilaration and the chance to forget their

lonesomeness if only for a while.

California was quickly filling up with these men

who were so full of hope and ambition.

Many of these men arrived with little left to their names

after the long journey westward.

They have no home other than the ground they sleep on

and they had no family other than their fellow man

who slept next to them.

But despite all this,

their spirit for the manifest destiny shines as a kind of

beacon to the world.

While the fates of the Argonauts are often left to chance,

it's becoming clearer and clearer that California's fate

will be one of the highest order.

(dramatic music)

Repair and Synchronization by Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0