Forty-Niners
J.B. Starkweather, An African American miner working a Long Tom; ca. 1852; courtesy the California State Library. Notice the canvas hose supplying water to the Long Tom, a trough for washing soil from gold. By 1852, when Starkweather made this image in the Auburn Ravine area, African Americans who worked the mines either purchased or were given their freedom.
The Fortune Hunt
Most newcomers did not remain in San Francisco for long. Gold was the real attraction, and it lay 100 miles inland. The early prospectors gathered the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques such as panning. The gold-prospecting season lasted from late July through the beginning of the rains in November. During the first three seasons, in 1848, 1849, and 1850, many of the prospectors were successful. By the 1850 season, though, all of the gold that was easy to reach had been taken. Competition for the remaining gold grew, and many of those who struggled to find it became violent.
The “Chillians, Malays, Mexicans” observed in San Francisco were often prevented from prospecting or were robbed of their gains. Even the forty-niners saw their opportunities fade. One miner remarked as early as 1850, “Mining is like an old man — it has seen its best days.”
Many men continued mining, but after the early 1850s most had become employees of large mining companies. Panning for gold was replaced by hydraulic mining operations that extracted it from dirt and rock. By 1860 most mining in California was carried out by large corporations that left the hillsides ravaged.