1) Baumgart, Don "It Was Difficult Come and Easy Go in the Gold Fields" 2002 http://www.ncgold.com/History/BecomingCA_Archive1.html
By 1860, $595 million worth of gold was pulled out the Nevada Foothills. A lucky person could uncover $10-$15 of gold dust each day. Discovery of gold in California led to the discovery of gold in Colorado. This site provided information about what really happened afterward.
2) "The California Gold Country: Highway 49 Revisited" http://malakoff.com/tcgcintr.htm
The gold rush actually started January 24, 1848. After Marshall found that first gold nugget, it was tested several times but most people didn't believe that it was real. Marshall and Sutter's secret about striking gold made it to San Francisco around March 15. By early July the word had spread as far at Hawaii.
3) "The California Gold Rush" California's Natural Resources http://ceres.ca.gov/ceres/calweb/geology/goldrush.html
The first printed notice of gold was in the March 15, 1848 issue of "The Californian." Shortly after Marshall discovered gold, more was found in the Feather River, Trinity River, in quartz veins in Mariposa County. 1851, gold was found in Greenhorn Creek which moved the rush to the Kern River region. This site didn?t have much information but it told a lot about where the gold rush took place over time.
4) Encarta Online Encyclopedia "Gold Rush of 1849" http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761589799/Gold_Rush_of_1849.html
At the beginning of the gold rush, 49er's could mine about $300 to $400 worth of gold each day. Miners joined into groups and tried to dry out rivers by building dams so it would be easier to find the gold. Mining settlements went up then back down when gold disappeared. Only a few turned into established communities.
5) The Sacramento Bee "The California Gold Rush: An Era Remembered" http://www.calgoldrush.com/part1/01overview.html
This site was the most helpful. It contains all the information but some of it is more in depth. It contains quotes from letters sent to the wife of Melvin Paden discussing his intentions of traveling to California. This site also talks about how as more people got there to mine for gold, racism grew. There's more information on how the whole gold rush effected California and its inhabitants.
6) Trinklein, Michael. "All About the Gold Rush" 2002 http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/home.html
James Marshall and John Sutter discovered gold at the site of Sutter's sawmill. They tried to keep it a secret but Sam Brannan found out about it and decided it was an opportunity to get rich quick by spreading the word. In 9 weeks time, Brannan made about $36 thousand. In early 1849, people started heading west, trying to take part in the search for more gold at any cost.
7) Wellman Gold In California 1958
When the gold rush started John Sutter was in debt because his workers abandoned him and never finished his sawmill. People came by wagontrains and by sea to take part in this event. There's also much more information in this book about what certain groups of people did and how they effected what happened.
Primary Sources
8) Mason, Richard Barnes - Letter to General R. Jones August 1848 http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/masonrpt.html
Mason writes a letter to General Jones about a visit he had to a gold region on August 17, 1848. He wrote about the costs of living in certain place and how much people actually made each day out mining. This letter made it easier to understand what life was like during the gold rush.
9) Shufelt- Letters & Quotes http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/californiagoldrush.htm
Mr. Shufelt talks about his travels during the gold rush and about his mining experiences.
10) Sutter, John A. "Discovery of Gold in California" Hutchings' California Magazine. November 1857 http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/gold.html
John Sutter tells the story of how he discovered gold but wanted to keep it a secret so a rush of people wouldn't interfere with his work. Unfortunately, Brannan got hold of the story of gold and spread the word through out the streets which caused the unwanted rush to happen. This article also tells how Sutter felt about everything afterward.