California gold rush

Okay, so all the gold rush craziness started when a guy named James Marshall found a little gold in the south fork of the American River, near what is now the Californian town of Coloma. Well his boss, John Sutter, swore him to secrecy about it, and whether Marshall went and told everyone or other people noticed gold in that river, the story and soon there was a publisher (Samuel Brannan) walking around San Francisco with a jar of gold, and the news got out quicker than wildfire. In 1849, the gold-motivated migrants numbered 80,000. Most of those were Americans in 1849, but the following few years saw gold-seekers come from all over the world. By 1856, more than 300,000 people had followed their gold dreams to what they hoped were the gold fields of California.

It was so popular, they even made ads!

As you can see, everyone wanted some of that action!

Here's just some of the trails..