California Gold Rush: Boom and Bust

The California Gold Rush was the wildest get-rich-quick scheme in American history. In 1848,

a discovery at Sutter’s Mill triggered absolute chaos as thousands of people quit their jobs to hike the

Oregon Trail. Tiny camps turned into massive boomtowns like San Francisco overnight.

But the reality was brutal. While everyone was digging up the earth and destroying the

environment, most miners went home broke. The only people who actually got

rich were the ones selling the shovels and coffee. When the gold ran out,

those cities turned into ghost towns, leaving the West changed forever.