| After taking them to Sutter, the two men tested | | | | arrived the easily accessible gold had long been |
| the metal and found it to be gold.Download Hotel | | | | scooped up by the original prospectors of 1848. As |
| California Song Mp3 Far from being euphoric at the | | | | waves of new immigrants flooded the area around |
| find, Sutter was dismayed as he envisaged his | | | | Sacramento it effectively became a squalid tented |
| dreams of an agricultural empire going up in smoke | | | | city. With no hotel in Sacramento to speak of, or any |
| once prospectors rushed to the area. Because of | | | | other places of shelter for that matter, the mass of |
| that fear Sutter tried to keep news of the find | | | | new arrivals literally slept in the streets, until they got |
| under wraps, but all to no avail as rumours soon | | | | a job, or left for the prospecting fields. |
| spread. | | | | Best Hotel Finder Click here |
| By March 1848, news of the find had reached San | | | | It was a lawless place in California at the time of the |
| Francisco where newspaperman and merchant | | | | gold rush. The goldfields were declared public land, |
| Samuel Brannan, after being shrewd enough to set | | | | with no property rights, no taxes and no fees. Land |
| up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, strode | | | | was ‘claimed’ by prospectors, who could |
| through the streets of San Francisco, holding up a | | | | keep the claim as long as they worked on it. Once |
| piece of gold and shouting: “Gold! Gold! Gold from | | | | work stopped or the site was abandoned then the |
| the American River! | | | | land could be reclaimed. This loose definition led to |
| By August 1848 the news had reached New York | | | | disputes about ‘claim-jumpers’, which were |
| and on December 5th was confirmed to Congress by | | | | often settled in a violent manner. |
| President James Polk sparking an invasion of | | | | Most of the estimated 300,000 would-be prospectors |
| Sacramento and the surrounding area by waves of | | | | that came to California after 1849 found little gold, |
| immigrants, who would later be referred to as the | | | | but did help establish Sacramento as a major town, |
| “forty-niners”. | | | | confirmed by it becoming the terminus of the |
| Confirming his fears Sutter was ruined; his workers | | | | Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. In only 20 years the |
| deserted him seeking gold fortunes of their own, and | | | | settlement had burgeoned into a bustling hub for |
| immigrants squatted on his land helping themselves to | | | | California. |
| his cattle and crops. However, by the time the 49ers | | | | |