After gold was discovered in california in 1848 many people began moving west.
On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold on the property of Johann A. Sutter near Coloma, California. A builder, Marshall was monitoring construction of a sawmill on the American River. Consequently, roughly 100,000 people arrived in California in 1849. Several sought to make fortunes in gold; however, other capitalized on the miners themselves.
