California Gold Rush

Very few for the 300,000 migrants to California in the 1850s made it in the gold. James Marshall who discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma died a pauper. People like: Leland Stanford: A lawyer who was successful in selling mining supplies and general merchandise in Sacramento.
Mark Hopkins and Collis Huntington who had a hardware store in Sacramento.
Edwin Crocker an engineer who became a lawyer who was known for defending Slaves in legal cases. When he moved to Sacramento he became involved in politics. Governor Stanford appointed to the California Supreme court.

The above were the Big Four who founded the Central Pacific Railroad to build the western half of the transcontinental railroad.

Crocker used his engineering skills as Construction Supervisor of the railroad.

They went from people with 6 figure net worth to millionaires (the equivalent of today's billionaires) from the railroad.
They convinced the government that the mountains started in Roseville, so they got compensated at $48,000/mile compared to $16,000 per mile for valley construction. (I had to throw that in. Just good business as our current president would say. Honesty? That's for suckers.)

last updated 8 Apr 2019