Before the discovery of the eminent gold flakes of Sutter’s Mill that sparked the grand California Gold Rush in 1848, flakes of gold were actually discovered by Mexicans about 20 years prior to the Rush in multiple spots in Southern California (California Gold Rush). Though not as iconic as the discovery of the gold in Sutter’s Mill, the discovery lit a small spark of gold industrialization that would change California forever. About 80,000 people rushed to California in search of gold, however few became wealthy directly from it, rather, the discovery of gold in California was transformative to the American culture because success followed the eagerness to try and attempt, and take a risk, not just finding gold. This idea can be supported by Richard Walker’s Notion of California Prospector Capitalism in which he claims “With due regard to the gifts of nature, the secret of California’s success is to be found in its social relations of production, especially open property rights and a syncretic class system, rapid capital accumulation…” This supports the idea that this rapid growth of gold mining and its effects on property rights are only few of the reasons regional capitalism worked out in favor of the state of California. The rush for gold set off a wave of migrants coming into California, igniting the development of one of California’s most productive agricultural land, the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta (SSJD). The SSJD was originally a grassy marshland home to many Native Americans, but now transformed to a 738,000 acre natural zone with the rivers providing irrigation and the marshes providing perfect agricultural lands (California Gold Rush). As migrants chased gold fever, many would take vessels on the Sacramento River, causing lots of traffic on the river and increasing demand for homes and land while people searched for gold mining (California’s Delta History).
The Gold Rush and development of the SSJD worked hand-in-hand; by 1849, settlers flocked to the foothills of Sierra, and many started to settle along the SSJD for its rich soil and land. The present-day Delta was started to officially develop in 1850 when Congress passed the Swamp and Overflow Land Act which transferred ownership of the swamp and marshland from the federal system to the state of California. This was an important step in transforming California’s regional capitalism landscape. The social landscape was greatly affected by the Gold Rush as well; many families left behind their old lives in search of gold and promise of greener grass in California. This greatly increased job opportunities for many women as they sought out to work on farmlands or manage small businesses while the men often left to be mining for gold. Many families searched for farmland as secondary jobs, which caused many to expand their horizons and turning to the Delta for its rich farmland. Most of the marshland and swamps of the Delta were privately owned by 1871. By the end of 1850, “gold towns” started to pop up along the Delta and Sierra foothills, mining towns that accomodating the needs of the miners and families that flocked for gold. Along with this came the emergence of technological advances such as hydraulic mining around 1853, right around the peak of the Gold Rush. This advance came from need for more ways to mine gold as dry-digging and panning were no longer as profitable, and gold was less likely to be found on riverbanks. Many families looked for alternate methods of bringing in money when gold-digging became riskier, many families invested their time in agriculture. Along the Sacramento river and the Dela, many American families started to settle along with a large income of Chinese, almost 45,000 immigrants, hoping to find gold and head back to their country after. Along with the Chinese came Australians, Japanese, Mexicans, and German immigrants came to California for the promise of gold, increasing racism and other racial and socio-economic tensions in the state. Chinese immigrant laborers were mainly the ones to start affecting agricultural innovations by the Delta constructing levees across Twichell Island and Sherman Island. Hand-power labor was eventually replaced by steam powered-dredges by the late 1870’s. Even the hydraulic mining used in the Gold Rush relied on natural water sources to power the machines (put the parenthesis for this sentence here), where the Sierra foothills and Sacramento river played their part.
In Notion of California Prospector Capitalism, Richard Walker argues that “California’s economy rested squarely on minerals, agriculture, timber, and fisheries, yet this was consonant with high income, capital accumulation, development of manufacturing, and a high rate of technical innovation.” This is supported by the influx of immigration, promise of wealth, and ripple effects of the Gold Rush and California Delta had on transforming the socio-economic climate of California. Even after the peak of the gold rush after the 1850’s, miners continued to flow in even though gold-mining became more difficult, growing industrialization from mining and agriculture continued to support wage-labor. The development of land around Gold Rush and California Delta go hand in hand and are dependent on each other.