The California Gold RushBefore 1840, California was a mysterious frontier land that no one knew much about. With many small towns in the middle of nowhere, few people showed interest in such a place until the winter of 1848. The discovery of tons of gold led to one of the largest migrations the United States had ever seen. The gold rush began as a small discovery on the banks of the American River and quickly escalated to have a huge impact on the American economy. It changed the country forever. The year was 1848. James Marshall and his work crew were camped along the bank of the American River in Coloma, California, near Sacramento. The area was located in the Sacramento Valley, at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains (Story Staff). Marshall was in charge of a crew building a sawmill for a Sacramento farmer named John Sutter. On January 24, Marshall came across some small pieces of gold near the fork of the American and Sacramento rivers. He didn't expect it. Marshall's worker neighbor, James Brown, notices Marshall exclaiming and rushes to see. He arrives to find Marshall holding the hat containing ten to twelve gold nuggets. The two men are elated. They are not aware of it at the moment, but they have just triggered the largest Western migration America has ever seen ("Gold Discovered in California"). Marshall immediately reports the findings to his boss, John Sutter, and the two men agree to keep the news secret. If word leaks out, they could have hundreds or thousands of non-Natives in their state in a matter of weeks. Marshall and Sutter remain silent. Prior to this particular incident, other false claims of gold finds had been reported from California. This is real and with... half of paper... it's today. But this also caused a lot of ethnic tension in the new cities where the law was poorly enforced (“California Gold Rush”). San Francisco is a good example of the widespread impact the Gold Rush had. It has prospered greatly due to the growth of the economy and people. The city became the center of the entire race. Many towns formed during the Gold Rush still exist in present-day California. By the end of the Gold Rush in 1858, an estimated total of 500,000 had moved to California ("The California Gold Rush"). The many thousands of people who moved to California in search of wealth formed an entirely new society. The gold rush provided these people with a quick way to get rich as long as they worked hard. The movement has affected these thousands of people as well as the United States and the world. It will always be remembered as one of the most important events of the 19th century.