<P> At the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of "staking claims" was developed . Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning . Although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world . New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service . By 1869, railroads were built from California to the eastern United States . At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to individual miners . Gold worth tens of billions of today's US dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few, though many who participated in the California Gold Rush earned little more than they had started with . </P> <P> The Mexican--American War ended on February 3, 1848, although California was a de facto American possession before that . The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States . The California Gold Rush began at Sutter's Mill, near Coloma . On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River . Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two privately tested the metal . After the tests showed that it was gold, Sutter expressed dismay: he wanted to keep the news quiet because he feared what would happen to his plans for an agricultural empire if there were a mass search for gold . </P> <P> Rumors of the discovery of gold were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher and merchant Samuel Brannan . Brannan hurriedly set up a store to sell gold prospecting supplies, and walked through the streets of San Francisco, holding aloft a vial of gold, shouting "Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!" </P> <P> On August 19, 1848, the New York Herald was the first major newspaper on the East Coast to report the discovery of gold . On December 5, 1848, US President James Polk confirmed the discovery of gold in an address to Congress . As a result, individuals seeking to benefit from the gold rush--later called the "forty - niners"--began moving to the Gold Country of California or "Mother Lode" from other countries and from other parts of the United States . As Sutter had feared, his business plans were ruined after his workers left in search of gold, and squatters took over his land and stole his crops and cattle . </P>

Someone who went to california during the gold rush