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Chronology
1851 ~ 1860
~ 1851 ~
FEBRUARY 1851 ~ Gold-bearing quartz is discovered at Amador Creek, starting hardrock mining here. Between this and the gold-bearing quartz found in Grass Valley, a boom in hardrock mining begins.
MARCH 14, 1851 ~ The Foreign Miners Tax is repealed temporarily.
APRIL 1851 ~ Gold is discovered in Australia, starting a reverse gold rush across the Pacific. The main mining camps are settled by now and miners must keep looking for new placers. Gold is found in Oregon's Rogue River area, so more miners give up the California dream for what seems to be greener pastures.
~ 1852 ~
MAY 4, 1852 ~ A license fee of $3.00 is assessed against all foreign miners. The fee was later raised to $4.00.
SUMMER 1852 ~ Miners begin working at La Grange and Camptonville.
DURING 1852 ~ Captain Sutter had lost his empire that had taken him years to develop and left California a bankrupt and broken man.
~ 1853 ~
JANUARY 1853 ~ Negative reports about Joaquin Murieta surface in the Southern Mines.
MARCH 1853 ~ Hydraulic mining is initiated in California when E.E. Matteson first forces water under pressure through a huge nozzle called a monitor to wash a gravel bank.
SUMMER 1853 ~ Lola Montez arrives in Grass Valley to be near her Empire Mine stock. Gold is discovered at North San Juan by Christian Kientz. Forest Hill is mined by Michael Savage. Iowa Hill becomes a boom town. Confidence is restored that quartz mining will last a long time.
~ 1854 ~
SPRING 1854 ~ Bret Harte arrives in California for a 17-year stay, a small portion of that time being spent at the mines. The influence of the frontiersmen give him plenty of material for his literary works for many years.
SUMMER 1854 ~ Youngster Lotta Crabtree performs for the miners at Rough & Ready on an anvil at Fippin's smithy. The miners just love her and she is launched on a long and successful stage career.
AUTUMN 1854 ~ Gold is discovered on the Kern River in southern California, attracting some northern miners. Stories of rich gold mines in Peru prove to be only rumors.
~ 1855 ~
AUGUST 11, 1855 ~ Tom Bell unsuccessfully tries to rob the first stage coach for gold. He is eventually captured.
DURING 1855 ~ Coloma was the scene of one of the most publicized double hangings in the Mother Lode, that of Jerry Crane and Mickey Free.
~ 1856 ~
JANUARY 1856 ~ John "Snowshoe" Thompson made his first trip from Placerville to Carson Valley to deliver the mail over the Sierras.
~ 1859 ~
JULY 1, 1859 ~ The rush to the Comstock Lode begins with an article published in the Nevada Journal in Nevada City, stating that gold and silver has been discovered in Nevada. Some historians consider this the officical end of the California Gold Rush.
~ 1860 ~
APRIL 13, 1860 ~ The first westbound Pony Express rider reaches San Francisco ten days after leaving St. Joseph, Missouri.
GOLD RUSH COUNTIES:
MARIPOSA | TUOLUMNE | CALAVERAS | AMADOR | EL DORADO | PLACER | NEVADA | SIERRA
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