People from all over the world flocked to California in search of quick riches. More than 80,000 people came to California looking for gold in 1849 alone. Those who arrived in 1849 were called forty-niners. By the end of 1848, they had taken $6 million in gold from the American River. Many of the gold seekers came to California by sea. Others came overland, traveling on the Oregon Trail or the Santa Fe Trail and then pushing westward through California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range. Americans made up about 80 percent of the forty-niners. Others came from Mexico, South America, Europe, and Australia. About 300 men arrived from China, the first large group of Asian immigrants to come to America. Although some eventually returned to China, others remained, establishing California’s Chinese American community.

The quest for land to mine also led to conflict with the native Californios, or Mexican Californians. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ending the war with Mexico made Californios citizens of the United States. The treaty also guaranteed them the rights to their lands. However, these rights would soon be weakened. The Land Law of 1851 set up a group of people to review the Californios’ land rights. The Californios had to prove what land they owned. When a new settler claimed the rights to a Californios’s land, the two parties would go to court. Some Californios were able to prove their claims. Many, however, lost their land.

As people rushed to a new area to look for gold, they built new communities, called boomtowns, almost overnight. The miners gave some of the boomtowns colorful names such as Shinbone Peak and You Bet. Cities also flourished during the Gold Rush. As ships arrived daily with gold seekers and adventurers, San Francisco grew from a tiny village to a city of about 20,000 people.

Most of the hopeful forty-niners had no experience in mining. Rushing furiously from place to place, they attacked hillsides with pickaxes and shovels and spent hours bent over streambeds, “washing” or “panning” the water to seek gold dust and nuggets. The California Gold Rush more than doubled the world’s supply of gold. For all their effort, however, very few of the forty-niners achieved lasting wealth. Most of the miners found little or no gold. Many of those who did lost their riches through gambling or wild spending. Merchants, however, made huge profits. They could charge whatever they liked because the miners had no place else to go to buy food and other essential items. Eggs sold for $10 a dozen. A Jewish immigrant named Levi Strauss sold the miners sturdy pants made of denim. His “Levi’s” made him rich.

Very few women lived in the mining camps, which were populated by men of all races and walks of life. Lonely and suffering from the hardships of mining, many men spent their free hours drinking, gambling, and fighting. Mining towns had no police or prisons, so lawbreakers posed a real threat to business owners and miners. Concerned citizens formed vigilance committees to protect themselves. The vigilantes took the law into their own hands, acting as police, judge, jury, and sometimes executioner.

The Gold Rush ended within a few years but had lasting effects on California’s economy. Agriculture, shipping, and trade expanded to meet the miners’ needs for food and other goods. Many people who had come looking for gold stayed to farm or run a business. California’s population soared, increasing from about 20,000 in 1848 to more than 220,000 only four years later. Such rapid growth brought the need for more effective government.

Zachary Taylor, the Mexican War hero and now president, urged the people of California to apply for statehood. They did so, choosing representatives in September 1849 to write a constitution. Once their constitution was approved, Californians elected a governor and state legislators. California applied to Congress for statehood in March 1850. Because California’s constitution banned slavery, however, the request caused a crisis in Congress. The Southern states objected to making California a state because it would upset the balance of free and slave states. California did not become a state until Congress worked out a compromise six months later.

Other areas of the Mexican Cession were a haven for a group considered by many Americans to be misfits – the Mormons, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joseph Smith founded the church in 1830 in New York State. He had visions that led him to launch a new Christian church. He hoped to use these visions to build an ideal society. Smith believed that property should be held in common. He believed God had called him as a prophet to restore the ancient church and claimed an angel had given him new scriptures to help clarify teachings in the Bible. Smith formed a community in New York, but unsympathetic neighbors disapproved of the Mormons’ religion. They forced the Mormons to move on.

From New York the Mormons went to Ohio, then to Missouri, and then Illinois. In 1844, a mob in Illinois killed Smith, and Brigham Young took over as head of the Mormons. Young decided the Mormons should move again, this time near the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah. Although part of Mexico at that time, no Mexicans had settled in the region because of its harsh terrain.

The Mormon migration to the Great Salt Lake area began in 1846. About 12,000 Mormons made the trek—the largest single migration in American history. Amid the desert, they set up communities in an area they called Deseret. With hard work and determination, the Mormons made Deseret flourish. They planned their towns carefully and built irrigation canals to water their farms. They also founded industries so they could be self-sufficient. Mormon merchants sold supplies to the forty-niners who passed through Utah on their way to California. In 1848, the United States acquired the Salt Lake area as part of the settlement of the war with Mexico. In 1850, Congress established the Utah Territory, and President Millard Fillmore made Brigham Young its governor. Utah was not easily incorporated into the United States. The Mormons often had conflicts with federal officials. In 1857 and 1858, war almost broke out between the Mormons and the United States Army.