Did You Know❓

🇺🇸 The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill — and within just a year, nearly 80,000 fortune seekers (the “forty-niners”) had arrived.

💰 An estimated 💲2 billion in gold was pulled from the earth, but most miners never got rich.

Instead, the rush transformed California’s population, skyrocketing from 160,000 to over 300,000 by 1855, and helped fast-track its statehood.

From booming cities like San Francisco to ghost towns abandoned when the gold ran out — the Gold Rush left a lasting mark on U.S. history.