Gold was discovered in California in of 1848. By May of 1848 reports were stating there is more gold in them there hills that all the people in California could take out in fifty years.” A man called Samuel Brannan opened his small store at John Sutter’s Fort, right in the heart of the gold rush. Brannan took a little gold and traveled back to San Francisco. He stepped off the train and proceeded to tell the crowds he encountered, “Gold! Gold! Gold! By the middle of June, three quarters of the male population had left town for the gold mines near Sutter’s Fort.
Samuel Brannan never looked for gold, but selling shovels, picks and supplies to miners made him California’s first millionaire.